Young people today are growing up in a time of constant connectivity, where digital tools and social platforms shape how they communicate, learn, and thrive.
For young people living in the Southern United States, these digital spaces interact with unique cultural and structural factors that influence their mental health and well-being. Online environments can serve as lifelines, offering connection, support, and information, while also reflecting and sometimes intensifying broader challenges.
Young people are growing up in an era where digital tools and social platforms significantly influence how they communicate, learn, and thrive. For young people in the South, these digital spaces interact with unique cultural and structural factors that influence their mental health and well-being. Online environments can serve as lifelines, offering connection, support, and information, while also reflecting and sometimes intensifying broader challenges. The research underscores the importance of acknowledging regional differences among young people in the United States and centering the voices of young people who are often overlooked in national conversations. By grounding solutions in evidence rather than bias and regional stereotypes, we can build more effective support systems for the mental health and well-being of young people.
Compared to peers in other U.S. regions, young people from the South are significantly more likely to report that social media is important for finding information or resources about mental health or well-being (57% vs. 47%) and connecting with others who have similar mental health concerns (63% vs. 56%).
Compared to peers from other U.S. regions, young people in the South are significantly less likely to encounter comments on social media that affirm intersectional identities (55% vs. 63%), affirm LGBTQ+ identities (58% vs. 65%), and celebrate body diversity and body positivity (64% vs. 70%).
Southern young people report rates of moderate to severe mental health symptoms that closely mirror those of young people from other U.S. regions. Twenty-seven percent of Southern youth report moderate to severe depression symptoms, compared to 28% of those from other regions.
Despite reporting similar rates of depression and anxiety symptoms as their peers from other parts of the U.S., young people in the South are significantly less likely to go online to look up information related to mental health and well-being.
Roughly one in four young people in the Southern U.S. report having used online therapy (25%), a rate nearly identical to their peers from other U.S. regions (26%).
Young people in the Southern U.S. express more skepticism about the long-term effects of generative AI compared to their peers in other regions. They are more likely to believe that AI will have a mostly negative impact on their lives over the next decade (23% vs. 17%) and less likely to expect a mostly positive impact (13% vs. 18%).
