The Association of Sociodemographic Characteristics and Mental Health Symptoms Among a National Sample of Canadian Adolescents and Young Adults

Background/Purpose: Mental health is a crucial aspect of overall health, and poor mental health has a significant impact on both morbidity and mortality. Co-occurring mental health symptoms, defined as when individual experiences two or more mental health conditions, can complicate diagnosis, treatment, and overall management of mental health issues among adolescents and young adults. Individuals with comorbid mental health conditions may have a higher risk of negative outcomes, including hospitalization, suicide, and substance abuse, because the presence of multiple disorders can make it more challenging to manage symptoms and can increase the risk of complications. Similarly, with comorbid psychiatric conditions, there is often difficulty with diagnosis, complexity in treatment planning, and limited availability of tailored preventative and treatment programs. There is limited research in Canada about comorbid psychiatric conditions across sociodemographic identifiers. The overall objective of this study is to investigate the sociodemographic characteristics that are associated with poor mental health and co-occurring mental health symptoms among a sample of Canadian adolescents and young adults and to explore differences between demographic groups.

Methods: Data were collected using a cross-sectional design from 2,731 adolescents and young adults from the Canadian Study of Adolescent Health Behaviors. Participants were recruited using a non-probability sampling method and was aimed at Canadians aged between 16 and 30. The average age of participants was 22.9 (SD=3.9), 54% identified as cisgender girls or women, 58% identified as heterosexual, 63% identified as White, and 44% had an education of high school or less. Mental health measures included the General Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-2) for anxiety, and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2) for depression, any self-reported lifetime diagnosis of mental illness, non-suicidal self-injury, suicidal ideation, and number of suicide attempts. A composite mental health variable was created based on the number of mental health concerns/symptoms to examine co-occurring mental health symptoms. Sociodemographic variables in the analysis included age, gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, relationship status, and the highest level of education completed. To examine associations between sociodemographic characteristics and mental health symptoms logistic and Poisson regressions analyses were utilized.

Results: In our sample, 68% of participants had at least one symptom of poor mental health, 51% screened positive for anxiety, 37% screened positive for depression, 26% experienced suicidal ideation, and 3% had a suicide attempt. Regression results suggest that mental health is worse among the younger groups of adolescents and young adults and that certain groups including girls/women, LGBTQ+, racialized, and Indigenous groups have higher rates of mental health symptoms and co-occurring mental health symptoms.

Conclusions and Implications: The results show that many adolescents and young adults experience mental health challenges, including co-occurring mental health symptoms, and certain groups experience worse mental health, including girls and women, Indigenous and racialized youth, LGBTQ+ youth, and those with lower education. Social workers should be aware of the higher rates of poor mental health in adolescents and young adults in Canada. The findings highlight the need for targeted interventions, including mental health services focused on adolescents and young adults.