Okanagan youth are less likely to report positive mental health according to a recent adolescent health survey.
The 2023 report by the McCreary Centre Society found a decrease in youth who rated their mental health as good or excellent last year (56 per cent) compared to 2018 (70 per cent).
It also revealed an increase in self-harm in the past 12 months at 27 percent compared to 19 per cent in 2018.
“Results in the Okanagan are mirroring what we are seeing across the rest of the province with young people reporting poorer mental health, and feeling less able to cope with the stress in their life,” explained Dr. Anne Smith, executive director and report co-author.
The survey found youth feeling less connected to school and less likely to feel understood by family members.
“It is also striking that over a quarter of Okanagan youth reporting they often or always feel lonely,” Smith added.
She noted that youth reported better health and well-being when they had access to supportive adults.
Youth in the Okanagan have traditionally been more likely to engage in sexual activity and use substances than their peers across the province. That remained the case in 2023, however, percentages were down from previous years.
Other key findings for the Okanagan:
- The percentage of local students who identified their sexual orientation as straight decreased from 84 per cent in 2018 to 76 per cent in 2023;
- Males were generally more likely than females and non-binary youth to rate their mental health as good or excellent, and were the least likely to have tried alcohol;
- Male youth were also the least likely to have experienced physical abuse, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment;
- There was an increase in the percentage of Indigenous youth who could speak at least a few words of an Indigenous language (31 per cent in 2023 compared to 22 per cent in 2018).
The 2023 BC Adolescent Health Survey was completed by approximately 38,500 youth aged 12 to 19 in 59 of the province’s 60 school districts.