Depression, Anxiety In NJ Kids Becoming More Common: Report

Editor's note: Patch listed several mental-health resources and crisis hotlines at the end of the article.

NEW JERSEY — New Jersey has fared better than most states amid a growing youth mental-health crisis, but reported depression and anxiety among Garden State children continues to rise, according to new analysis.

In 2016, 7.6 percent of children ages 3-17 suffered from diagnosed depression or anxiety. But that number grew to 10.7 percent in 2020 — a 40.8 percent jump, according to federal data cited in the Annie E. Casey Foundation's annual report on children's mental health.

American kids were more likely to encounter anxiety or depression during the first year of the pandemic than previously, according to the report. Nationwide, the number of children with reported depression or anxiety jumped from 9.4 percent of kids ages 3-17 (5.8 million) in 2016 to 11.8 percent (7.3 million) in 2020.

Two-hundred-thousand U.S. children have lost a parent or a caregiver to COVID-19, and many kids have contended with conditions that made life harder than before 2020, the Casey Foundation says.

"Men­tal health is just as impor­tant as phys­i­cal health in a child’s abil­i­ty to thrive," said Casey Foundation President Lisa Hamil­ton. "As our nation con­tin­ues to nav­i­gate the fall­out from the COVID-19 cri­sis, pol­i­cy­mak­ers must do more to ensure all kids have access to the care and sup­port they need to cope and live full lives."

A child's chances of thriving come down to several individual, family and community factors, along with the state where they're born and raised, according to the report. Certain aspects of life in New Jersey give youth a better chance at positive well-being, according to the report. For instance, the Garden State ranked highest in the foundation's report in terms of education. See more New Jersey data here.

New Jersey ranked sixth overall in terms child well-being. Here's how New Jersey fared, according to the report:

• 22nd in economic well-being: New Jersey has improved since 2008 in terms of child-poverty rate, children whose parents lack secure employment, kids living in households with a high housing-cost burden and teens not in school and not working.
• first in education: New Jersey has a higher rate of children ages 3 and 4 who aren't in school, plus the same rate of eighth-grade proficiency in math in 2019 as it did in 2009. But the state has improved in terms of fourth-grade reading proficiency and high schoolers graduating on time.
• ninth in health: the state has improved in the past decade in terms of several health factors, with diminishing rates of low birth-weight babies, children without health insurance, child and teen deaths per 100,000, and kids ages 10-17 who are overweight or obese.
• 16th in family and community: The rate of New Jersey children in single-parent households grew from 2008-12 (29 percent) to 2016-20 (30 percent). The rate of children living in high-poverty areas (7 percent) remained the same. But the state has fewer children in families where the household head lacks a high school diploma, and the rate of teen births halved in a decade (20 out of 1,000 in 2010, 9 of 1,000 in 2020).

Racial and ethnic disparities contribute to troubling mental-health conditions nationwide, according to the Casey Foundation. Children in poverty and LGBTQ children have also suffered from depression and anxiety at outsized rates.

Nine percent of high schoolers overall attempted suicide in the year before the most recent federal survey, according to the Casey Foundation. But the attempted-suicide rates totaled 12 percent of Black high school students, 13 percent of multiracial high schoolers and 26 percent of Native American and Native Alaskan kids in high school.

Six percent of heterosexual high school students of all races attempted suicide during the timeframe, compared to 23 percent of gay, lesbian and bisexual high schoolers, the report says.

The Casey Foundation urged lawmakers to take the following actions:

• "Pri­or­i­tize meet­ing kids’ basic needs. Youth who grow up in pover­ty are two to three times more like­ly to devel­op men­tal health con­di­tions than their peers. Chil­dren need a sol­id foun­da­tion of nutri­tious food, sta­ble hous­ing and safe neigh­bor­hoods — and their fam­i­lies need finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty — to fos­ter pos­i­tive men­tal health and wellness.
• Ensure every child has access to the men­tal health care they need, when and where they need it. Schools should increase the pres­ence of social work­ers, psy­chol­o­gists and oth­er men­tal health pro­fes­sion­als on staff and strive to meet the 250-to-1 ratio of stu­dents to coun­selors rec­om­mend­ed by the Amer­i­can School Coun­selor Asso­ci­a­tion, and work with local health care providers and local and state gov­ern­ments to make addi­tion­al fed­er­al resources avail­able and coor­di­nate treatment.
• Bol­ster men­tal health care that con­sid­ers young people’s expe­ri­ences and iden­ti­ties. It should be trau­ma-informed — designed to pro­mote a child’s heal­ing and emo­tion­al secu­ri­ty — and cul­tur­al­ly rel­e­vant to the child’s life. It should be informed by the lat­est evi­dence and research and should be geared toward ear­ly inter­ven­tion, which can be espe­cial­ly impor­tant in the absence of a for­mal diag­no­sis of men­tal illness."

Read the Casey Foundation's full report here.

Mental health and crisis-prevention resources:

• Beginning July 16, 988 became the nationwide number for crisis and suicide prevention. Find more information on 988.
• The new number doesn't replace the current National Suicide Prevention number. Call 1-800-273-8255 to speak with a certified listener.
• The Veterans Crisis Line and Military Crisis Line connect veterans and active military in crisis, and their family and friends, with U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs responders through via phone, text and online chat. Call 1-800-273-8255 and press 1.
• The Crisis Text Line is a text service for emotional-crisis support. To speak with a trained listener, text HELLO to 741741.