Report: California kids suffer sharp rise in anxiety, depression

California kids experienced the second-largest increase in depression and anxiety among U.S. states from 2016 to 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in lockdown orders and school closures, a national child welfare advocacy group reported Monday.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2022 Kids Count Data Book analyzing how children and families are faring nationally found that California ranked 33rd overall among the states in child well-being, the same as in last year’s 2021 report.

This year’s report for the first time included 50-state data on mental health among kids ages 3 to 17. It found a 26% increase nationally in anxiety and depression through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, creating what the U.S. surgeon general has called a “mental health pandemic.”

But in California, anxiety and depression among kids rose nearly three times as much — 70% — from 7% in 2016 to 11.9% in 2020, the report said. Only South Dakota saw a bigger jump, from 7% to 14.2%, or 102.9% during those years.

“Not only are we seeing a significant increase in the need for mental health services, but California’s kids are also facing too many barriers accessing these critical services,” said Ted Lempert, president of Children Now, California’s member of the Kids Count network.

He said 65% of California youth with major depression do not receive any mental health treatment due to lack of access to services.

“The State must treat this issue like the emergency it is, and increase children’s access to mental health services now,” said Lempert, who was a California State Assembly member representing San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties from 1996 to 2000 and 1988 to 1992.

The foundation’s Data Book presents national and state data each year for economic well-being, education, health, and family and community factors and ranks the states according to how children are faring overall. This year’s report reflects a mix of pre-pandemic and more recent figures and are the latest available, the foundation said.

By comparison with other big states, New York ranked 29th, down from 27th in 2021, Texas 45th, up a notch from 46th last year, and Florida held at 35th.

On the question of anxiety and depression among children, New York and Texas both saw 23% increases — from 8.9% in 2016 to 10.9% in 2020 for the Empire State and from 7.7% to 9.5% in the Lone Star State. It went up 22% in Florida, from 8.7% to 10.6% during that time.

California was the first state to issue a statewide stay-home order as the pandemic took hold in March 2020 and kept schools closed with online “distance learning” as a substitute and requirements to wear face masks on campus longer than most other states.

The online data site Burbio.com ranked California last among states for in-person learning in the 2020-21 school year. Among the states with the most in-person learning were Florida (3rd), South Dakota (4th) and Texas (8th), while New York ranked 33rd.

Lishaun Francis, director of behavioral health at Children Now, said anxiety and depression can be higher among kids in northern states just because they have less sunshine and children are cooped up longer indoors when it snows.

Asked why South Dakota and California, which had the same rates of anxiety and depression among kids in 2016, both saw the country’s largest increases in 2020 despite taking very different approaches to in-person learning during the pandemic, Francis said kids suffered in different ways.

In states like California that locked down aggressively, kids suffered from isolation, while in those that avoided lockdowns, they saw more disease and deaths from the virus.

“No one quite seemed to figure this out,” Francis said. “Everyone was scared, and by and large I don’t think there were any good answers for how this was going to impact youngsters, there really were no good situations. If you were in a state that left things open and had high death rates, you were impacting kids that way. And if you were shutting down, you were socially isolating them.”