Psychological distress among Ontario youth has declined since the pandemic but remains high, according to the latest Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey released by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The comprehensive study found that 46 per cent of students in grades 7 to 12 reported moderate to serious levels of psychological distress in 2025.
Decline in Distress Fails to Clear Pre-Pandemic Benchmarks
The 2025 survey figures show a drop from 51 per cent when CAMH last conducted the survey in 2023, according to lead investigator Hayley Hamilton. However, Hamilton, who serves as co-director of CAMH’s Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, noted that the current rate seems to have returned to 2019 levels. Surveys conducted between 2013 and 2019 documented a rise in youth mental health issues, with distress rates in 2019 running almost double those recorded in 2013. About 30 per cent of students in the 2025 survey rated their mental health as fair or poor.
Data from the survey indicates that about one in five students experienced symptoms of depression in the two weeks prior to completing the questionnaire, while one in three reported anxiety symptoms. Additionally, about one in eight students reported feeling lonely “often or always”, a stable metric since CAMH began tracking loneliness in 2021.
Online Habits and the Rise of Digital Gambling
Dr. Nicole Kozloff, a child and youth psychiatrist and scientist at CAMH, pointed to shifts in socialization as a contributing factor to ongoing youth isolation. According to Kozloff, youth reliance on online interactions rather than physical spaces might not provide the emotional fulfillment of face-to-face communication. The survey revealed that one-quarter of students spend five hours or more per day on social media, where more than a quarter reported experiencing cyberbullying over the past year.
At the same time, the survey tracked a dramatic rise in online gambling among adolescents. In 2025, one in 10 students reported placing sports bets, an increase from a ratio of one in 100 in 2017. Almost a quarter of students reported encountering daily advertising for online gambling sites. Hamilton attributed this rise partly to regulatory changes in Ontario that permitted private, non-government betting platforms, noting that youth continue to bypass age restrictions.
School Climate and Safety Concerns
Beyond digital spaces, physical school environments present challenges for students. About 17 per cent of respondents expressed worry about being threatened or harmed at school, a proportion the survey noted is significantly higher today than a few years ago. Furthermore, a similar percentage of students reported being targets of mostly verbal abuse and bullying. Hamilton indicated that while the exact drivers behind increased school safety fears remain hard to say, ongoing disruptions stemming from the pandemic era may play a role in school climates across the province.
Survey Methodology
The Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey has been conducted every two years since 1977 in school boards across the province. The 2025 edition gathered responses from 11,108 students across 1,147 classes in 246 schools spanning 42 school boards. Participants completed anonymous online questionnaires between December 2024 and June 2025.