Multiple Little Changes Lead to Major Mental Health Outcomes in Adolescence

1–2 minutes

alcohol, child development, depression, diet and nutrition, exercise, Fitness, good parenting, health, healthy development, Mental Health, Parenting, positive parenting, screen time, sleep, smoking, wellness

While many headlines center the conversation of adolescent mental health around screen time, mental health of teenagers are complex, multifaceted, and many factors needed to be tackled.

In a study published in International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, researchers 71 schools across Australia, consisting of over 4,400 high school students over the period of three years. The found that improvements in sleep, fruit and vegetable intake, and exercise were linked to small but significant improvements in mental health. Conversely, unhealthy behaviors like excessive screen time, junk food, alcohol use, and tobacco were associated with worse mental health.

Key findings included:

Each additional hour of sleep per night was linked to a 9% reduction in psychological distress.
Each added day of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week resulted in a 3% reduction.
Each additional daily serving of fruits or vegetables was linked to a 4% reduction.
Each extra hour of screen time was associated with a 2% increase in distress.
Each increase in junk food or sugary drinks also led to a 2% rise in distress.
Switching from not drinking alcohol to starting alcohol increased distress by 17%.
Switching from not smoking to smoking was linked to a 36% increase in distress.

Just as in adult health, the same is in adolescent mental health, and that is that it’s not going to be blaming and fixing on thing like screen time or giving someone a diagnosis to follow it up with a drug. Mental health hygiene is made up of multiple factors that adds up to what we see and habitually just diagnose as something. In gist, eating fruits and vegetables, vigorous exercise, proper sleep, and avoiding toxins are the things we need to change in order to succeed in any mental health issue as well as raising health children to prepare them for the future.

S Smout et al. Adolescent Lifestyle Behaviour Modification and Mental Health: Longitudinal Changes in Diet, Physical Activity, Sleep, Screen Time, Smoking, and Alcohol Use and Associations with Psychological Distress. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-024-01350-9