{"id":503,"date":"2026-05-20T17:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drouki.com\/?p=503"},"modified":"2026-05-20T17:55:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:55:00","slug":"key-findings-about-americans-and-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drouki.com\/?p=503","title":{"rendered":"Key findings about Americans and mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"

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(Ivan Pantic\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mental health is a popular topic in conversations about health and wellness in the United States. In fact, Americans say they spend almost as much effort looking after their mental health as they say the same about their physical health.<\/p>\n

As National Mental Health Awareness Month approaches, take a look at how Americans describe their mental health and who they feel comfortable talking to about it, based on research from the Pew Research Center.<\/p>\n

\nAbout this study<\/summary>\n

In preparation for Mental Health Awareness Month, this Pew Research Center analysis examines Americans’ experiences and views on mental health, based on a survey of U.S. adults, teens ages 13 to 17, and parents of teens.<\/p>\n

Why did I do this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pew Research Center conducts research to help the public, media, and decision makers understand important topics. This analysis builds on our previous research on Americans’ health, including mental health.<\/p>\n

Learn more about Pew Research Center.<\/p>\n

How did they do this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

All results of this analysis are based on the Center’s previous publications. Details of these publications, including study site dates and other methodological information, are available via links in the text.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n

Although most U.S. adults rate their mental health positively, about 1 in 5 do not.<\/strong> Overall, 48% said their mental health was excellent or very good, 30% said it was good, and 22% said it was fair or poor, according to the center’s October 2025 survey.<\/p>\n

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Some demographic groups are more likely than others to say their mental health is fair or poor.<\/strong> This is especially true for young Americans. Adults under 30 are four times more likely than adults over 65 to rate their mental health as fair or poor (36% vs. 9%).<\/p>\n

Mental health ratings also vary by income. About a third (32%) of low-income adults rate their mental health as fair or poor, a higher percentage than middle- and upper-income adults (19% and 13%, respectively).<\/p>\n

Women are about as likely as men to say their mental health is fair or poor (23% vs. 20%).<\/p>\n

Most adults say they strive to take care of their mental health. <\/strong>Overall, 36% said they put in a lot of effort, 49% said they put in a little effort, and 15% said they put in no effort, according to the October 2025 survey.<\/p>\n

Younger adults are more likely than older adults to rate their mental health negatively; a lot <\/em>The rate of effort devoted to mental health is no different from that of most other age groups. And this percentage is only slightly smaller than the percentage of people aged 65 and older who responded similarly.<\/p>\n

More than half of adults say they are very or very comfortable talking about their mental health with a close friend (57%), immediate family member (52%), or mental health therapist (50%). <\/strong>According to a center survey in February 2024. Adults are more comfortable talking about these topics with religious or spiritual leaders (31%) and neighbors (11%).<\/p>\n

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The majority (79%) of married or cohabiting adults say they are very or very comfortable talking about their mental health and emotional well-being with their significant other.<\/p>\n

Only 19% of employed people are very or very comfortable talking about these topics with colleagues.<\/p>\n

Approximately one-third of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 (35%)<\/strong><\/strong> I am very to very concerned about the mental health of teenagers these days. <\/strong>According to a center survey in fall 2024. A slightly larger proportion (42%) say they are somewhat concerned, while 23% are either not very concerned or not at all concerned.<\/p>\n

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Teenage girls are more likely than boys to say they’ve recently been extremely or very concerned about the mental health of their peers (42% vs. 28%). Additionally, 50% of black teens say so, compared to 39% of Hispanic teens and fewer white teens (31%). (There were not enough Asian respondents in this sample to separate it into separate analyses. As always, Asian responses are included in general population figures throughout.)<\/p>\n

Parents of teens are more likely to be concerned about their teens’ mental health than the teens themselves; <\/strong>According to the Fall 2024 survey. More than half (55%) of parents of teens ages 13 to 17 report being very or very concerned about this. About a third are somewhat worried (34%), while 11% are not very worried or not worried at all.<\/p>\n

Some of the same demographic differences seen among teenagers are also seen among parents of teenagers. For example, mothers of teens are more likely than fathers to say they are very or very concerned about their teens’ recent mental health (61% vs. 47%). Additionally, 70% of black parents of teenagers say so, compared to fewer white (55%) and Hispanic parents (52%).<\/p>\n

Teens are more comfortable talking about their mental health with their parents and friends than with a therapist. <\/strong>About half of teens ages 13 to 17 say they are very or very comfortable talking about their mental health with a parent (52%) or a friend (48%). According to the Fall 2024 survey, small businesses said this about conversations with mental health therapists (31%), family members other than parents (26%), and teachers (12%).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Key #findings #Americans #mental #health<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Ivan Pantic\/Getty Images) Mental health is a popular topic in conversations about health and wellness in the United States. In fact, Americans say they spend almost as much effort looking after their mental health as they say the same about their physical health. As National Mental Health Awareness Month approaches, take a look at how … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[721,720,173,719,488],"class_list":["post-503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-americans","tag-findings","tag-health","tag-key","tag-mental"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drouki.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drouki.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drouki.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drouki.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drouki.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drouki.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drouki.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drouki.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drouki.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drouki.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}