The Youth Mind: Rising Aggression and Anger Report by Sapien Labs
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| The Youth Mind: Rising Aggression and Anger Report 2025 |
The Youth Mind: Rising Aggression and Anger Report by Sapiens Lab
"Summary:
In this report we deep dive into the mind of Internet-enabled 13-17-year-olds in the United States (US) and India, asking what is behind the alarming trends of increasing suicides and violence reported among adolescents by the CDC and National Mental Health statistics in India. This data represents an extension of the Global Mind Project that captures data through separate projects running in the US and India. The data includes ratings of 47 aspects of mind health along with numerous lifestyle and life experience factors and was captured in 2024 from 10,475 adolescents.
We highlight three key trends:
- First, the generational decline in mind health & wellbeing seen in adults extends into adolescence. Adolescents aged 13–17 fare worse than young adults aged 18-24 who in turn fare worse than those aged 25-34, and so on. This pattern is even visible year by year where 13-year-olds fare worse than 14-years-olds who in turn fare worse than 15-year-olds and so on. The trend is particularly pronounced in girls where 65% are distressed or struggling in a manner that substantially impairs their ability to function effectively in the world and would be of clinical concern.
- Second, the dominant problems in 13–17-year-olds extend beyond sadness and anxiety to include unwanted, strange thoughts and a sense of being detached from reality, while the problems that are increasing fastest with each younger age group are feelings of aggression towards others, anger & irritability and hallucinations.
- Finally, these rapidly increasing problems of aggression and anger & irritability, particularly in females, can in a large part be attributed to the increasingly younger age at which children are now getting a smartphone. Differences with age are eliminated when controlling for the age of first smartphone.
Why it matters:
- The findings provide an explanation for growing violence and fear of safety among students that has been reported by the CDC.
- The report supports a policy of "wait until 8th" (or later) for smartphones.
- These symptoms aren’t captured in typical mental health screenings such as PHQ-9 and GAD-7.
- Altogether, with more children getting their first smartphone at a younger age, these findings predict an increasingly violent future for society."
Source: Sapien Labs (The Global Mind Project)
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