The mental health crisis that intensified among Ontario students during the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have eased, but a new provincial survey shows that young people remain far more distressed than they were a decade ago. Findings from the 2025 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (OSDUHS), released by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), indicate significant improvements in psychological distress, self-harm, self-rated mental health and feelings of connection to school compared with 2023. At the same time, nearly half of students continue to report moderate-to-serious psychological distress, while rapidly expanding online gambling, heavy digital media use and the emergence of nicotine pouches are creating new public-health challenges.
The survey is based on anonymous self-reports from 11,108 students in grades 7 through 12, recruited from 246 schools across 42 Ontario school boards. Data were collected between December 2024 and June 2025, providing one of the most extensive recent assessments of adolescent mental health, substance use and risk behaviour in the province. Conducted every two years since 1977, the OSDUHS is Canada’s longest-running ongoing school survey of adolescents. Its long historical record allows researchers to distinguish short-term recovery from longer-term changes in youth well-being, substance use and exposure to potentially harmful environments.
The most encouraging findings concern the decline in several acute mental-health indicators since 2023. Forty-six per cent of students reported symptoms consistent with moderate-to-serious psychological distress, while 23 per cent reported serious psychological distress. Both measures have fallen significantly from their pandemic-era levels and have returned approximately to pre-pandemic estimates. Yet the longer view is considerably more troubling: a decade ago, moderate-to-serious distress affected 24 per cent of students and serious distress affected 11 per cent. In other words, the immediate shock associated with the pandemic has diminished, but the underlying burden of emotional suffering among adolescents has grown substantially over time.
Self-rated mental health shows the same pattern. Thirty per cent of students described their mental health as fair or poor, an improvement from 38 per cent in 2023 but twice the 15 per cent recorded a decade earlier. Self-rated mental health is not a clinical diagnosis, but it is a valuable population-level indicator because it reflects how individuals evaluate their own emotional and psychological functioning. Persistent increases in this measure can signal unmet needs that may not yet appear in formal diagnoses or treatment statistics. The survey also found that 29 per cent of students needed professional mental-health support during the previous year but did not seek it, although this proportion has declined significantly since 2023.
The reasons students gave for avoiding care reveal why improved indicators do not necessarily mean that support systems are working adequately. Many believed they should be able to manage their difficulties alone, worried that their parents would discover they were seeking help, or doubted that professional treatment would be effective. These barriers are especially significant during adolescence, when concerns about privacy, stigma and independence can strongly influence health decisions. Delayed care can allow distress to become more severe, interfere with school attendance and relationships, and increase the risk that young people will rely on maladaptive coping strategies. The findings suggest that access must be accompanied by confidential, credible and youth-friendly services that students trust enough to use.
Substance-use trends provide a more positive counterpoint. Alcohol, tobacco and several other substances remain at or near historic lows, continuing a decades-long decline among Ontario students. Compared with 2023, significantly fewer students reported vaping, using cannabis, taking prescription opioids for non-medical reasons, or misusing cough and cold medications. Nearly half of students—48 per cent—reported abstaining completely from alcohol, tobacco or nicotine, and cannabis. The decline may reflect changing social norms, prevention efforts, tighter regulation and reduced exposure to some traditional forms of substance use. However, falling rates for established products do not mean that the overall risk environment is disappearing; instead, it may be shifting toward newer products and behaviours.
Nicotine pouches are one of the clearest examples of that shift. Six per cent of students reported using them during the previous year, nearly twice the proportion who reported smoking tobacco cigarettes, at 3.5 per cent. These small, tobacco-free packets are placed between the lip and gum, where nicotine is absorbed through the oral lining and enters the bloodstream. Because they do not produce smoke, they can be used discreetly and may be perceived as less harmful than cigarettes. Their pharmacological risk, however, remains significant: nicotine activates receptors in the brain’s reward system, reinforces repeated use and can produce dependence. Adolescence is a particularly sensitive period because neural systems involved in impulse control, reward learning and decision-making are still developing. The survey also indicates that quitting vaping may be difficult for many students. Among those who vape, 65 per cent attempted to stop at least once in the past year and 39 per cent tried three or more times, suggesting repeated unsuccessful cessation efforts and possible nicotine dependence.
The digital environment is another defining influence on adolescent health. Nearly all students reported using social media every day, and 25 per cent spent at least five hours per day on these platforms. Seventy-eight per cent spent three or more hours in front of an electronic screen during free time. Although these figures have been relatively stable in the short term, they have climbed sharply over the longer term: in 2013, only 11 per cent reported five or more daily hours on social media, while in 2009, 55 per cent reported at least three hours of recreational screen use. Similar increases have occurred in videogaming. Digital platforms can provide social connection, information and entertainment, but high exposure may also intensify social comparison, cyberbullying, body-image pressure and contact with harmful material. The survey reports an association between greater social-media use and poorer self-reported mental health, although such findings cannot by themselves establish that screen use directly causes psychological distress. Distressed students may also turn to digital platforms more frequently, creating a potentially reinforcing cycle.
The sharpest emerging signal is online gambling. Twelve per cent of students reported gambling online during the previous year, up from 8 per cent in 2023. Online sports betting has expanded particularly rapidly, increasing from 1 per cent in 2019 to 10 per cent in 2025. Nearly one-quarter of students, 23 per cent, said they encountered online-gambling advertisements every day. Digital betting platforms remove many traditional barriers to participation: gambling can be accessed through a smartphone, integrated into sports broadcasts and promoted through personalized advertising. Intermittent rewards, near-misses and rapid feedback can stimulate powerful learning mechanisms in the brain’s reward circuitry, while the constant availability of betting may encourage repeated play. Adolescents may be especially vulnerable because systems governing risk evaluation and long-term planning continue to mature. The findings raise questions about how minors are bypassing age restrictions and how advertising, celebrity endorsements and sports-related promotions may normalize gambling before adulthood.
Taken together, the 2025 OSDUHS results portray a generation moving away from some traditional substances while confronting a more complex mixture of psychological, technological and commercial pressures. The easing of pandemic-related distress is an important sign of recovery, but it should not be mistaken for a return to healthy baseline conditions. Rates of serious distress, poor self-rated mental health and unmet demand for professional care remain elevated compared with the past. At the same time, nicotine pouches, persistent vaping, intensive social-media and videogame use, and rapidly expanding online betting are reshaping the conditions in which young people grow up. CAMH researchers say the results support stronger youth mental-health services, continued substance-use surveillance and tighter restrictions on gambling advertising, including limits on celebrity and athlete endorsements and promotions during sports broadcasts. The survey’s central message is both hopeful and urgent: the acute crisis may be receding, but the long-term health of Ontario’s students will depend on whether institutions respond to the newer risks now moving into everyday adolescent life.
Subject of Research: Mental health, substance use, digital-media use and online gambling among Ontario students.
Article Title: 2025 Ontario Student Survey Shows Pandemic Mental-Health Crisis Easing as Online Gambling and Nicotine Pouch Use Rise
News Publication Date: 24-Aug-2026
Web References: https://www.camh.ca/-/media/research-files/osduhs-mental-health-and-wellbeing-report_2023.pdf; https://www.camh.ca/en/science-and-research/institutes-and-centres/institute-for-mental-health-policy-research; https://www.camh.ca/-/media/driving-change-files/public-policy/camh-gambling-policy-framework-pdf.pdf
References: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 2025 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey; Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, OSDUHS mental health and drug-use reports.
Keywords: adolescent mental health, Ontario students, psychological distress, youth substance use, nicotine pouches, vaping, cannabis, social media, videogaming, online gambling, gambling advertising, youth health, CAMH
