mental health Archives

New research from Finland further demonstrates that the supposed “settled science” that gender medicine helps youth and young adults live healthier lives is not so settled after all. In fact, the research shows medicalizing gender confusion makes it worse.

It started with the suicide lie. Medical professionals told parents that if they did not wholly support, and pay for(!), their child’s gender transition, they might tragically take their own life. “Would you rather have a living son or a dead daughter?” parents were manipulatively warned by their child’s medical or psychiatric professionals.

We now know that turned out to be false. The highly reliable Cass Review, conducted in the U.K. and published in 2024, reports, “In summary, the evidence does not adequately support the claim that gender affirming treatment reduces suicide risk” [see 15.43]. The Review also notes, “Tragically deaths by suicide in trans people of all ages continue to be above the national average, but there is no evidence that gender-affirmative treatments reduce this” [see 16.22].

Dr. Kenneth Zucker, a longtime leading expert in the field of youth gender, told Gender Clinic News, “It is now time to bury the ‘trans kid or dead kid’ trope.” He said this based on a 2024 Finnish study – “a very important study,” Zucker noted – which shows that suicide death rates are not alarmingly high for gender confused kids. In fact, they are no higher than rates for peers with any psychiatric treatment history and “medical gender reassignment does not have an impact on suicide risk.”

The four authors of this Finnish study have just published a very large nationally representative study spanning 3-decades which shows severe psychiatric problems are dramatically higher in adolescents and young adults who have sought out medical services for gender identity issues compared with other psychiatric patients of the same age.

This study followed young people 22 years of age and below from 1996 through 2019 who contacted that nation’s Specialized Gender Identity Services and compared them with a similar control group of psychiatric patients. Its findings strongly challenge the claims of trans activists.

The researchers explain that adolescents seeking gender change procedures “showed significantly higher psychiatric morbidity than controls” prior to seeking such services. Specifically, 46% of teens and young adults with gender confusion reported some form of serious psychiatric problem compared with just 15% of the general population that age seeking any psychiatric services.

Yet these rates of serious psychological problems increased significantly after two years undergoing gender medical services, 62% compared to the 46% at the start of the medical interventions.

Another astounding, but not surprising, data fact is that those youth referred after 2010 “had greater psychiatric needs than earlier cohorts, both before (47.9% vs. 15.3%) and ≥ 2 years after (61.3% vs. 14.2%) referral.” This means the trans craze that exploded over the last 10-plus years has had a measurably negative effect.

These scholars add,

Among adolescents who underwent medical gender reassignment, psychiatric morbidity increased markedly during follow-up – rising from 9.8% to 60.7% in feminizing gender reassignment and from 21.6% to 54.5% in masculinizing gender reassignment. After adjusting for prior psychiatric treatment, all gender-referred adolescents had similarly elevated risks of psychiatric morbidity, with hazard ratios approximately three times higher than female controls and five times higher than male controls.

In short, “The need for specialist-level psychiatric treatment increased considerably in follow-up among those who underwent medical GR [gender reassignment].”

These Finnish researchers conclude, “This does not support the suggested improvement in mental health after medical gender reassignment initiated during developmental years.”

It is continued revelations from careful research like this that are leading medical professionals to increasingly back away from their previous support for the trans agenda. The truth will continue to come out as good, honest research comes to press.

Additional Resources:

A Singularly Christian View of the Transgender Problem

Why Christians Can’t Avoid the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue

Yes, Transgenderism is a False Belief System

New Research Shows ‘Transgender’ Identity Dramatically Driven by Immaturity

‘The New York Times’ and 20 State AGs Expose Medical Groups’ Trans Agenda

The APA’s 5 Failed Critiques of HHS Report Discrediting Sex-Rejecting Procedures for Kids

Florida Sues Medical Groups for Promoting ‘Transgender’ Mutilation of Children

What Does it Mean to Be Trans, Anyway?

How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family

Do Not Fall for the ‘Affirm Them or They Will Die’ Lie

American College of Pediatricians: No Benefits From ‘Gender-Affirming’ Interventions

Weakened family bonds, decreased spirituality, early smartphone use and poor diet perpetuate the global mental health crisis among young adults, a new study concludes.

Sapiens Labs’ Global Mind Health in 2025 measures the average person’s “mind health,” or “ability to navigate life’s challenges and function productively.”

The study quantifies “mind health” using the Mind Health Quotient (MHQ) assessment — a test measuring a person’s mental health and wellbeing on a scale from “distressed” (-100) to “thriving” (200). The final report draws conclusions from more than one million MHQ assessments from people across 84 internet-enabled countries.

The average adult’s MHQ score in 2025 was 66, in the “managing” range. People with this score generally operate at full productivity about 70% of the time.

Adults 55 years old and older had a much higher average MHQ of 101. More than half (60%) of the people in this age group have scores above 100, in the “succeeding” or “thriving” ranges. Conversely, only about 10% of people in this group experience clinically significant mental health problems.

Adults 18 to 34 years old fared far less well. People in this age group had an average MHQ of 36 — 30 points below the global average. Only 23% of adults in this age group have mind health scores indicating “success” or “thriving” and a whopping 41% experience clinically significant mental health issues.

The disparity between younger and older adults bears out across all internet-enabled countries, without a single exception — though the chasm tends to be more pronounced in wealthier, technologically-advanced areas.

The report dubs this phenomenon the “paradox of progress,” writing:

Contemporary young adults, living with unprecedented technological access, should experience better mind health, reflected in stronger capacities and a greater sense of wellbeing, with those in wealthier countries faring even better.

Yet the opposite is true: The wealthier the country, the worse the mind health of its young adults.

Here’s the good news. The Global Mind Health study identifies four major factors which contribute to young adult’s mental health problems — and parents heavily influence all four.

The first of these factors is weakened family bonds.

The study reiterates what Focus on the Family has taught for years: Children who grow up with close family relationships tend to have better mind health and fewer depressive symptoms in adulthood.

The MHQ data from 2025 bears this out. Young adults in the Dominican Republic, Argentina and Finland — the countries where the highest percentage of respondents (70% or more) reported close family bonds — had MHQ scores 15 points higher, on average, than young adults in Taiwan, Benin and Mozambique — the countries where the lowest percentage of respondents (48% or less) reported close family ties.

The second factor is declining spirituality.

The impact of faith on a person’s life is notoriously difficult to measure, particularly using self-reported assessments. But higher levels of spirituality, which the study defines as a person’s “sense or feeling of connection to a higher power or [the] divine,” generally correlate to better life skills, fewer mental health problems and lower rates of suicidality and addiction.

In 2025, young adults in countries with high levels of reported spirituality among young people had MHQ scores 30 points higher, on average, than young adults in countries where young people reported low levels of spirituality.

The third factor is the age when a person receives a smartphone.

The Global Mind Health study quantified the effects of smartphones on Gen Z adults ages 18 to 24 years old. The earlier a respondent received a smartphone, the study found, the worse they fared later in life.

“These struggles extend beyond sadness and anxiety to less discussed symptoms, such as a sense of being detached from reality, suicidal thoughts and aggression toward others,” the report warns, noting negative effects increased when children received smartphones before 13 years old.

The fourth factor is consumption of ultra-processed foods, which can exacerbate mental health conditions like depression.

The Global Mind Health study found more than half of adults ages 18 to 34 reported consuming ultra-processed foods regularly, compared to just 26% of adults ages 55 and older who reported doing the same.

Importantly, a country’s spending on mental health research and treatment did not correlate with better outcomes for young adults. America, for instance, spent $2.2 billion on mental health research in 2024 and more than $1 trillion on treating mental disorders in adults between 2014 and 2024.

Yet, the average young adult in America had an MHQ of about 40 in 2025 — tied with France for the 58th worst average MHQ score of the 84 countries studied.

The Global Mind Health study confirms young adults are struggling. But it also shows the singular impact parents have on their child’s future mental health and resilience.

The choices you make now — to pour into relationships with your children, to teach them to love Jesus, to shield them from technology and to fuel their bodies well —scientifically set them up for success

Focus on the Family offers free articles and resources to help parents raise healthy, godly children. Explore the links below to learn more.

Additional Articles and Resources

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Introducing Our Parents’ Guide to Technology 2026

Parenting Tips for Guiding Your Kids in the Digital Age

‘The Tech Exit’ Helps Families Ditch Addictive Tech — For Good

Parent-Run Groups Help Stop Childhood Smartphone Use

Social Psychologist Finds Smartphones and Social Media Harm Kids in These Four Ways

Four Ways to Protect Your Kids from Bad Tech, From Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt

Close Family Relationships Offer Long-Term Social Benefits, Study Finds

Data Shows Democrats Are Increasingly Secular

New Research Shows How Important Family Strength is for Academic Performance