The Sunday Independent's View: The Leaving Cert is the least of young people's worries

Irish Independent

08-06-2025

It may be worth asking whether having the eyes of the whole country fixed on them as they go through that rite of passage only adds to the pressure under which students are labouring right now.
Worth asking even more is whether we would be better off as a society if half as much attention was paid to young people's struggles with mental health all year round as opposed to the Leaving Cert for those few weeks each June.
A survey of young people published last week by the Irish Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) team at University College Galway made for predictably grim reading. It reported that almost 50pc of Irish children and teenagers between the ages of 10 and 17 report 'feeling low' at least once a week — a figure that has more than doubled since 1998.
The outlook for girls is particularly concerning, with 57.6pc disclosing being regularly unhappy, compared to 35.2pc of boys. Data from HBSC teams around Europe tells the same story.
Worryingly, nearly one in four of the young people surveyed suffer from headaches. Just under one in two experience sleep disturbances.
That latter figure may have much to do with excessive screen time. The devices to which we all seem to be addicted, adults and children alike, devour our waking hours. By feeding us an unending diet of anger and negativity, they contribute to a vicious cycle of worsening mental health.
The irony is that the main concern in previous decades used to centre on teenage drinking and drug abuse
The younger a person gets a smartphone, the more likely they are to suffer from depression later on. The more they use them, the worse their mental health. From the climate crisis to the horrors of the war in Gaza, their minds are bombarded 24/7 with reasons to feel anxious. Not knowing if they will ever be able to afford to rent or buy their own home or earn enough to keep pace with the rising cost of living adds to that unease.
The irony is that the main concern in previous decades used to centre on teenage drinking and drug abuse. As the HBSC report confirms, young people are now less likely than every previous generation to report being 'really drunk' at some point, down sharply from 33pc in 1998 to 17.8pc now. Chemical highs have merely been replaced by mental and emotional lows in a world that increasingly feels as if it is falling apart.
Teenagers can be forgiven for thinking that the Leaving Cert is the least of their problems. Older generations used to envy the young. No more.
Until their angst is properly recognised as a public crisis, the most vulnerable among them will continue to be left to struggle alone
What can be done to ease this malaise is the real issue. Addressing the launch of the HBSC report via a pre-recorded video message last week, Fianna Fáil's Junior Public Health Minister Jennifer Murnane O'Connor acknowledged the pressures undermining children's well-being, and declared: 'We need to support equality and ensure that no young person is left behind.'
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Few would disagree with that fine, if slightly glib, sentiment. Making it happen is harder.
As with housing, the mental challenges being experienced by young people need to be the focus of a resolute cross-departmental approach, encompassing every arm of government.
Until their angst is properly recognised as a public crisis, the most vulnerable among them will continue to be left to struggle alone, long after the annual messages of solidarity as they sit the Leaving Cert have been forgotten.