Overview

• The PLOS One paper by David G. Blanchflower, Alex Bryson and Xiaowei Xu analyzes Global Minds data from 44 countries alongside extensive U.S. (1993–2024; >10 million responses) and U.K. (2009–2023; ~40,000 households) series.
• Across datasets, reported mental distress now peaks in youth and then declines with age, with deterioration concentrated under 25 and likely beginning in early adolescence, with young women often reporting worse outcomes than men.
• The authors identify a structural shift starting around 2011, with the pandemic amplifying youth distress in the U.K. but showing no comparable effect in U.S. data.
• The study relies on self-reported measures of anxiety, depression, distress and suicidal thoughts, documenting perceived trends rather than clinical diagnoses or causal proof.
• Proposed contributors include the long tail of the 2008 financial crisis, housing and labor precarity, underfunded services, and widespread smartphone and social-media use, as experts call for targeted research and cross-sector interventions.