Thursday 29 January: New research has found that while rates of poor mental health and suicide attempts among Irish adolescents have largely recovered from the peaks seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, repeated self-harm is increasing, particularly among females. The study led by researchers in RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences and King's College London, highlights that trans and gender-diverse young people and early school leavers are particularly vulnerable to mental distress.
Researchers analysed more than 20,000 anonymous responses to the Planet Youth Survey from students aged 15-19 in 113 secondary schools across six counties, estimating national trends in poor mental health, repetitive self-harm (five or more times in one's lifetime) and suicide attempts between 2018 and 2023. The study is the largest investigation of mental health problems among the general adolescent population in Ireland since 2019.
The findings show that one in five respondents reported poor mental health at the time of the survey, one in eight reported repeated self-harm during their lifetime and one in twelve reported having attempted suicide in their lifetime. The proportion of adolescents reporting self-harm increased from 9.7% during the COVID-19 period to 11.1% two years post-pandemic. Rates were significantly higher among females, trans and gender-diverse adolescents, and early school leavers (pupils in Youthreach centres). Trans and gender diverse young people reported the highest rates of any of subjectively poor mental health (52%), repetitive self-harm (44%) and suicide attempt (23%), while pupils in Youthreach centres were twice as likely to report a history of self-harm or suicide attempts compared with their peers still in mainstream secondary school.
"Our study shows that in a typical classroom of 25 senior-cycle students, five will report poor mental health, three will have self-harmed multiple times, and two will have attempted suicide at some point in their life. While we knew already that demand for adolescent mental health supports in Ireland exceeds available services, these findings illustrate just how wide that gap may be. They underline the need for stronger mental health supports at every level – especially in secondary schools, primary care and community-based services such as Jigsaw," explains Dr Niamh Dooley, DOROTHY Research Fellow at RCSI Department of Psychiatry and at King's College London.
The findings published in Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology have significant implications for supporting at-risk adolescents, particularly early school leavers and trans/gender diverse youth. They also provide updated prevalence estimates for psychological distress in adolescents, which may be used to determine the minimum service capacity of community mental health teams.
"The results of this study reflect growing societal concern about teenage mental health. The continued prevalence of suicide attempts highlights the importance of early, universal prevention, as well as targeted interventions for groups of young people who face heightened and more complex risks," said Professor Mary Cannon, Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Youth Mental Health at RCSI.
This study was carried out as part of the Planet Youth Ireland programme, which is based on the Icelandic Prevention Model and surveys mental health and substance-use problems in adolescents every two years across 12 counties in Ireland (www.planetyouth.ie). The analysis was funded by the DOROTHY fellowship programme, which receives funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement, Research Ireland, the Health Research Board, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
