In 2022, the lights were flashing red.
More than one in two adolescents (53%), aged 11 to 15, suffered from symptoms of anxiety or depression.
How are they today?
Not really better: in 2023, 49% of respondents said they were affected by anxiety disorders, according to an Ipsos study for Our Common Future, in partnership with Professor Karine Lamiraud (Essec), published this Monday, January 29.
The improvement is slight, but the figures remain very high.
“Too much”, deplores Hélène Roques, founder and director of the company Our future to all, “well beyond 2021, the year when Covid had already exploded everything” (43%).
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It is difficult to attribute the discomfort felt by these middle school students to "the sole particularity of adolescent age", estimates the specialist in youth issues, who reports an underlying trend for several decades, increased by the consequences of the pandemic.
“Society repeats that it's not that serious, that teenagers are generally bad.
But we are talking about 13% of them who have suicidal thoughts,” warns the author of “Save our children”.
The phenomenon affects girls as much as boys and diminishes slightly upon arrival at high school.
Children from low- and middle-income households are more affected.
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