Nearly half of high school students who reported depressive symptoms or suicidal thoughts received no formal mental health care at all during that same year, according to a new analysis of more than 22,000 adolescents published in the journal School Mental Health. The study, led by Shari Kessel Schneider of the Education Development Center in Waltham, Massachusetts, in collaboration with researchers from Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, mined the 2023 MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey for clues about a puzzle that has troubled child mental health researchers for decades: why do so many teenagers in visible distress never reach a professional? The answer, the authors conclude, lies not only in the supply of services but in what students believe about them. Forty-five percent of youth reporting depressive symptoms and/or suicidal ide
Cite Scienmag News
Glenn Wilkins. (August 31, 2026). Unequal Access: Barriers Hinder Teens’ Use of School-Based Mental Health Services. Scienmag. https://scienmag.com/unequal-access-barriers-hinder-teens-use-of-school-based-mental-health-services/
Glenn Wilkins. "Unequal Access: Barriers Hinder Teens’ Use of School-Based Mental Health Services." Scienmag, 31 August 2026, https://scienmag.com/unequal-access-barriers-hinder-teens-use-of-school-based-mental-health-services/. Accessed 3 September 2026.
Glenn Wilkins. "Unequal Access: Barriers Hinder Teens’ Use of School-Based Mental Health Services." Scienmag. August 31, 2026. https://scienmag.com/unequal-access-barriers-hinder-teens-use-of-school-based-mental-health-services/
