Ask any parent, teacher or GP and they will tell you young people seem to be doing worse, mentally, than they used to.

National surveys back them up.

The share of Australians aged 16–24 reporting a mental health problem in the past year jumped from about 25% in 2007 to almost 40% by 2020–22.

In the United Kingdom, the proportion of people aged 17–19 with a “probable mental disorder” rose from one in ten in 2017 to almost one in six in three years.

Similar trends emerge in Canada, the United States and many other countries with surveys that track mental health.

But are young people really doing worse? Or are they simply more willing to admit they’re struggling?

Our new study, which has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication in the Journal of Population Economics, provides some answers.

Talking about mental health has become far less taboo over the past two decades. Schools teach emotional wellbeing. Kids and adolescents hear about campaigns such as “R U OK Day”. Celebrities openly discuss depression. Social media is full of conversations that previous generations rarely had.

So when surveys show young people report much poorer mental health than previous generations did at the........

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