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Ontario student mental health improves from pandemic-era lows, survey finds

A 2025 survey found signs of recovery among Ontario students, while many still reported significant distress and unmet support needs.

Child & Adolescent Mental HealthSubstance Use·Source: MedicalXpress Psychiatry··2 min read
Students' Mental Health Shows Signs of Recovery
Students' Mental Health Shows Signs of Recovery

The short version

  • What they foundStudent-reported distress and self-rated mental health improved since 2023.
  • What it meansRecovery from pandemic-era lows does not erase ongoing support gaps.
  • What we don't know yetIt remains unknown why long-term distress levels are higher.

The study at a glance

Sample size
11,108 students
Who
Ontario Grades 7–12 students
Study type
Self-report survey
Followed for
December 2024–June 2025

The 2025 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey collected self-reported information from 11,108 students in Grades 7 through 12. Data were gathered between December 2024 and June 2025 at 246 schools across 42 school boards in Ontario.

The survey offers a snapshot of how students described their own mental health, connections to school and substance use. Because it is a survey, it can show changes in reported experiences over time. It cannot prove that any one event, including the COVID-19 pandemic, caused those changes.

Compared with the previous survey in 2023, students reported improvements on several measures. The source says psychological distress, self-harm, self-rated mental health and feelings of school connectedness all improved. It also says overall drug use continued to decline, though the supplied material is incomplete for the detailed substance-use findings.

In 2025, 46% of students reported symptoms of moderate-to-serious psychological distress. This was down from 2023 and had returned to the level reported before the pandemic began in 2020. But it remained far above the 24% reported a decade earlier.

Serious psychological distress was reported by 23% of students. That estimate also declined from 2023 and returned to a pre-pandemic level. A decade earlier, 11% of students reported serious distress.

Students' ratings of their own mental health also improved from 2023. Thirty percent rated their mental health as fair or poor, compared with 38% in 2023. Yet that was still double the 15% reported a decade ago.

Access to support remains a concern. Twenty-nine percent of students said they had needed professional mental health support during the past year but had not sought it. The survey found this was lower than in 2023, but it still suggests that many young people may not be reaching services when they feel they need them.

Students gave several reasons for not seeking help. These included believing they could manage on their own, worrying that their parents would find out, and doubting that professional help would work.

The survey team described the easing of acute pandemic-era challenges as encouraging, while stressing that longer-term mental health concerns remain elevated. More detail about how students were selected, how results were analyzed and how distress was defined was not included in the supplied material. Those details would help readers judge the precision and limits of the estimates.

Why it matters

The survey suggests some student well-being measures have recovered from the sharp challenges reported around the pandemic. At the same time, distress remains substantially more common than it was a decade ago, and many students report unmet needs for support.

What to keep in mind

These are students’ self-reports, so the findings describe reported experiences rather than proving what caused them. The supplied material does not include the survey response rate, sampling details, definitions of distress or statistical methods.

If you're a parent

A useful conversation opener is: “If you were having a hard time, what would make it easier to talk with someone?”

A conversation starter, not medical advice.

Read the originalThis is a Joi Frontier Health News summary. Read the full story at the original source: MedicalXpress Psychiatry.
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Joi Frontier Health News shares hopeful, credible health information. It is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment — talk with a qualified healthcare professional about your situation. If you are in crisis or thinking about self-harm, contact your local emergency or crisis line.

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