Teen Stress Is Expensive, Experts Say — So How Can We Reduce It?

Stressed-out teenagers appear to be dragging down the U.S. economy, a new study says.

Teenagers suffering from anxiety or depression are less likely to enter the workforce as young adults, and more likely to earn lower pay when they do, researchers reported in a study published today in the journal PLOS Medicine.

The economic impact is so great that $52 billion in U.S. budget savings could occur over 10 years if efforts are made to help even 10% of teens at risk for stress, researchers estimate.

“Our new research finds that, at the scale of the United States economy, improvements in adolescent mental health may bring many billions of dollars of federal budget benefits over ten years, potentially offsetting the costs of policy change that could cover critical services for young people,” lead researcher Nathaniel Counts, chief policy officer for The Kennedy Forum in Brigantine, NJ, said in a news release.

For the new study, researchers analyzed data on more than 3,300 participants in an ongoing Bureau of Labor Statistics study that is following children as they progress into adulthood.

The research team analyzed data gathered in 2000, when participants were 15 to 17, to check their mental health as teenagers. They looked specifically at questions that assessed anxiety and depression among the teens.

Researchers then looked at data gathered a decade later, in 2010, to see how the teens’ earlier mental health affected their job prospects as young adults.

Results show that 6% fewer people were holding down a job as a young adult if they suffered from clinically significant anxiety or depression as a teenager.

Young adults who were stressed as teens also earned nearly $5,700 less in annual wages, researchers found.

The researchers then estimated the potential impact on the U.S. budget if a hypothetical policy extended mental health preventive care to 10% of teens at risk of stress.

The added productivity from those teens who avoided stress amounted to $52 billion in additional federal revenue over 10 years.

The results support efforts like a 2023 law passed by Congress investing $60 million annually in U.S. mental health care, researchers said. That policy aims to expand access to mental health care at a rate of about 500 people for every $1 million spent.

“To reach 5 million people (roughly 25% of the adolescent population), the legislature would need to expand this program and invest at least $10 billion,” the research team wrote.

“Given the estimated savings of $52 billion over 10 years if the interventions can reach 10% of adolescents who would otherwise go on to develop depression, investments in adolescent mental health at scale will plausibly provide significant offsetting returns,” they concluded.

More information

Johns Hopkins Medicine has more on anxiety and stress among teenagers.

SOURCE: PLOS Medicine, news release, Jan. 16, 2025