Results of the 2023 BC Adolescent Health Survey paint a concerning picture for the mental health of central Vancouver Island youth.
Only 56 per cent of youth aged 12 to 19 rated their mental health as good or excellent, compared to 80 per cent in 2013 and 69 per cent in 2018. Youth were also less likely to rate their quality of life positively — 74 per cent felt they had a good life versus 79 per cent in 2018.
“The local picture reflects what we are seeing across the province with young people less likely than those in previous survey years to report positively on their health and well-being, and particularly on their mental health," said Dr. Annie Smith, co-author of the report and executive director of McCreary Centre Society. "For example, over the past decade we saw the percentage of local youth reporting disordered eating (such as purging) more than doubled, and we now have over a quarter of young people reporting that they have self-harmed by deliberately cutting or injuring themselves in the past 12 months.”
There was a decrease in the percentage of youth who slept for at least eight hours the night before taking the survey — 41 per cent vs. 50 per cent in 2018 and 55 per cent in 2013. Thirty per cent of respondents missed school in the past month because they slept in.
There were some changes in youths' living situations over the past five years with a decrease in those who moved in the past 12 months — 18 per cent vs. 26 per cent in 2018, and an increase in those who lived in a household with their grandparents (11 per cent vs. 8 per cent).
Central Island youth were less likely than those five years ago to feel connected to their family and school. Fifty per cent felt like a part of their school vs. 57 per cent in 2018, and feeling safe at school declined to 57 per cent from 68 per cent. The percentage of youth who plan to attend post-secondary dropped from 82 per cent to 70 per cent in that same time period.
It was not all bad news in the report. Indigenous youth in the central Island were over three times as likely to be able to speak at least a few words of an Indigenous language, compared to Indigenous youth a decade earlier (37 per cent vs. 10 per cent in 2013).
There was a local increase in youth who reported having supportive adults in their life whom they could speak to if they were having a serious problem. Approximately three quarters (76 per cent) had such an adult inside their family (vs. 71 per cent in 2018).
The 2023 BC Adolescent Health Survey was completed by around 38,500 young people ranging in age from 12 years old to 19 years old in 59 of B.C.’s 60 school districts.
The survey was developed in consultation with young people, parents, and other experts in youth health. It was pilot-tested with diverse young people in communities across B.C. before being administered in the Central Vancouver Island region by Public Health Nurses and allied health professionals to students in mainstream public schools in the spring of 2023.
— NEWS Staff
