Young Australians demand action on mental health, cost of living and education reform: report

Curtin University

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A new report by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre has revealed that young Australians are feeling the squeeze from financial pressures, worsening mental health and declining trust in political institutions, with concerns about the cost of living now topping their list of priorities.

 

Released today, the Youth in Focus: Navigating Wellbeing in a Changing World report draws on insights from young Australians aged 14 to 25, highlighting their biggest challenges and what they want to see change. While cost of living, education and mental health were identified as key concerns, the report also finds young people are leading the way in tackling social issues, such as calling out discrimination, racism and gender bias.

 

Professor Astghik Mavisakalyan, report co-author and Principal Research Fellow at the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre said the findings underscore the urgent need for policies that better support young Australians.

 

“Young people today face financial stress, rising HECS debts, mental health struggles and uncertainty about their future,” Professor Mavisakalyan said.

 

“Mental health issues among young women have worsened significantly over the past decade, with three in ten experiencing high or very high psychological distress – double the rate of their male counterparts. At the same time, social connectedness is deteriorating, despite the prevalence of social media, which is leaving many young people feeling isolated and unsupported.”

 

The report shows cost of living pressures have skyrocketed to become the most pressing issue for young Australians, with one third citing it as a personal concern and more than half (56 per cent) listing it as one of the biggest challenges facing the country.

 

Professor Mavisakalyan said the impact of social media on mental health remains a growing concern.

 

“Our research shows that more than a quarter of young people who frequently use social media experience serious anxiety and stress,” Professor Mavisakalyan said.

 

“The Federal Government’s proposed national social media ban is an unprecedented experiment that could help counter negative impacts on young people. However, there is also a real risk of unintended consequences and any restrictions must be carefully evaluated to ensure they don’t cause harm, particularly for vulnerable groups.”

 

The report also shines a light on growing frustration with Australia’s higher education system, particularly with policies such as the current HECS-HELP structure and the Job-ready Graduates Package which findings suggest are unfairly burdening young Australians.

 

Report co-author Professor Mike Dockery from the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre said the HECS system has drifted away from its original intent to provide fair and equitable access to higher education.

 

“Many graduates today face mounting debt, lower take-home pay and increased financial stress compared to previous generations,” Professor Dockery said.

 

“The Job-Ready Graduates Package, which determines course fees based on predicted workforce demand, is flawed and is creating a generational divide. Our analysis finds no real link between course costs and future employment outcomes, meaning students are being penalised for choosing courses that may actually be vital to Australia’s future workforce needs.”

 

Despite a slight decline in climate change ranking as a top priority, the report finds young Australians remain committed to environmental action. Three-quarters still want environmental protection prioritised over economic growth and 86 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds see climate change as a key voting issue.

 

However, the report also highlights young Australians’ growing disengagement from politics, with just one in eight expressing trust in the political process.

 

Professor Dockery said young people want real action, not just promises.

 

“The upcoming Federal election will be a critical moment to re-engage younger voters. If political leaders fail to address their concerns - on cost of living, education, mental health and climate action - they risk further alienating an entire generation,” Professor Dockery said.

 

The Youth in Focus report provides a comprehensive analysis of the priorities and perspectives of young Australians, offering key insights to shape future policy development.

 

 

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Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Publication Date

12-Mar-2025

For teens' mental health, strong friendships matter more than social media use, NIH study finds

Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes

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About ECHO
The ECHO Cohort Consortium is a research program supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with the mission to enhance the health of children for generations to come. ECHO Cohort investigators study the effects of a broad range of early environmental influences on child health and development. For more information, visit echochildren.org.

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Credit: The ECHO Program

Teens who report strong, high-quality friendships tend to have better mental health—an influence that appears nearly three times stronger than the link between social media use and mental health challenges, according to a new study funded by the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program at the National Institutes of Health. 

Today’s teens spend a lot of time online. This has raised concerns about how digital interactions affect teens’ well-being. As social media use has grown, some wonder if it’s playing a role in the rise of teen mental health challenges. Such concerns prompted the U.S. Surgeon General to issue a warning in 2023 about the potential impact of social media on youth mental health.

“Social media use does not occur in a vacuum—it’s one piece of a much larger picture,” said Courtney K. Blackwell, PhD, of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “Our study found that peer relationships seem to matter a lot more than social media when it comes to teen mental health outcomes.”

In the study, researchers found that a teen with strong, supportive friendships is likely to experience positive mental health, regardless of how much time they spend on social media. By contrast, teens who report poor-quality friendships and nearly the same level of social media use are more likely to report poor mental health. In comparison, the amount of time spent using social media had a much smaller influence on teen mental health outcomes.

Teens ages 13 to 18 reported how much time they spend on social media and whether they use it actively (like posting and commenting) or passively (like scrolling and browsing). Researchers used the PROMIS® assessment tools and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to measure their mental well-being, including life satisfaction, sense of purpose, symptoms of depression, and the quality of their friendships.

A 2021 national survey of 8th and 10th graders, cited in the U.S. Surgeon General’s report on social media and youth mental health, found that teens spent an average of 3.5 hours daily on social media. More recently, a 2023 Gallup survey of 13- to 19-year-olds reported that the average had increased to 4.8 hours per day.

The study included 963 teens aged 13 to 18 from across the United States. Teens completed surveys on social media habits, peer relationship quality, and mental health outcomes. The results provide insight into how social media use and mental health influence each other during the teenage years, extending beyond negative outcomes like anxiety and depression to also include positive mental health indicators.

“Instead of just focusing on limiting adolescents’ social media use, perhaps emphasizing ways to bolster the quality of their social relationships would help address the current youth mental health crisis in the U.S.,” said Dr. Blackwell.

Looking ahead, the research team plans to use data collected over time to understand better how social media use and mental health influence each other during this sensitive development period. Future studies could focus on improving peer relationship quality as a pathway to better teen mental health outcomes.

This collaborative research was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

About ECHO
The ECHO Cohort Consortium is a research program supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with the mission to enhance the health of children for generations to come. ECHO Cohort investigators study the effects of a broad range of early environmental influences on child health and development. For more information, visit echochildren.org.

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Journal

Journal of Adolescent Health

DOI

10.1016/j.jadohealth.2024.12.003 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Adolescent Social Media Use and Mental Health in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes Study

 

The CNRS distinguishes itself once again among the Top 100 Global Innovators in 2025

CNRS

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The CNRS has been selected for the prestigious Top 100 Global Innovators ranking published today by Clarivate. The CNRS is one of six French actors that have distinguished themselves among the top 100 most innovative public and private organisations in the world for the 2025 edition.

Since 2011, Clarivate’s Top 100 Global Innovators ranking has recognized the private and public organisations demonstrating consistent, above-the-bar excellence in innovation and technology transfer. To establish the ranking, Clarivate relies each year on the number of patented inventions, as well as their quality, scope, and international impact.

In 2025, the CNRS once more confirms its role as a key global actor in innovation by being one of the rare public research organisations—as well as one of just six French actors—to be honoured with this award, alongside the CEA as well as its business partners Safran, Michelin, Thales, and Airbus.

“The CNRS is very pleased to be selected again this year for Clarivate’s Top 100 Global Innovators list, underscoring the ability of the laboratories under its supervisory authority to transform basic research into innovation. This international recognition rewards the commitment of research staff to innovation in the service of our fellow citizens!” declares Mehdi Gmar, CNRS Chief Innovation Officer.

With a portfolio of more than 7,000 patent families—one third of which were jointly submitted with industrial actors—24 framework agreements with enterprises of all sizes, over 280 active CNRS/enterprise associated research laboratories, more than 1,000 new research contracts with enterprises each year, and the creation of over 100 start-ups per year, the CNRS is a key actor in innovation in both France and abroad.

For more information about the 2025 ranking, click here.

 HOMOPHOBIA 

Transgender and gender diverse people less likely to receive follow-up after a mental health hospitalization

LGBTQ+ RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences

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Toronto, ON, March 12, 2025—Transgender and gender diverse individuals who were hospitalized for psychiatric care were less likely to have a follow-up visit compared to the general population, suggesting they face transphobia in the hospital system.   

In a new study from ICES and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), findings demonstrate that transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people face an interesting paradox:  they have lower access to appropriate mental health care and support following a psychiatric hospitalization, yet have better follow-up after an emergency department (ED) visit. According to Statistics Canada, TGD people account for 0.33% of the Canadian population, with many living in large urban centres. 

"Follow-up after an emergency department visit or hospitalization for mental health concerns is vital for people’s long-term well-being,” says lead author Dr. June Lam, associate scientist at CAMH and ICES Fellow. “It’s a risky time for folks, and we wanted to better understand if this population is being well supported after a mental health crisis.” 

The researchers analyzed health data at ICES for all adults discharged from the emergency department (ED) or hospital for psychiatric care between 2012 and 2018 in Ontario, Canada. The study included 728 TGD and over 581,708 individuals in the general population.  

TGD individuals were identified through electronic health records from four primary care and hospital-based clinics specialized in working with this population. The data were then linked (anonymously) to hospital-based databases. 

Key Findings 

• Compared to the general population, TGD individuals were younger, and more likely to live in underserved urban areas and low-income neighbourhoods. They also had much greater prior psychiatric care service use. 

• 55% of TGD individuals had outpatient mental health-related physician follow-up in the 30 days after discharge from the ED, compared to 38% for the general population. 

• One-third of TGD individuals had a follow-up with a psychiatrist within one month of an ED visit, about double the rate of the general population. 

• In contrast, TGD people were less likely to receive follow-up after a hospitalization. 

• Even after accounting for other factors, TGD individuals were still 21% more likely to have a follow-up after discharge from the ED than the general population, but they were 20% less likely to have follow-up after a hospitalization. 

“Lower follow-up after hospitalization is concerning because it suggests that there is something about the hospital experience that may be leading to avoidance of care after discharge,” says Lam, who is also a psychiatrist in the CAMH Gender Identity Clinic. “Patients may be experience misgendering and transphobia in the hospital setting, which could influence whether they’ll seek follow-up care.” 

Improving the Hospital Experience  

The authors suggest that one way to improve hospital care for TGD patients is to ask for their chosen name, gender identity and pronouns on the initial intake form, and make sure that all care providers are using the correct name and pronouns throughout the care experience.  

Another approach is to tailor follow-up resources for TGD patients that address social determinants of health. Resources have been developed in the CAMH ED to provide TGD-specific crisis lines, housing resources, and community organizations.  

“Lack of social supports is often a perpetuating factor for mental health challenges for TGD people, so connecting them with community organizations that offer healthcare provider and peer connections is so crucial for TGD people's wellness and recovery long-term,” says co-author Dr. Juveria Zaheer, a scientist with the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research and General Adult Psychiatry and Health Systems Division at CAMH. 

One limitation of the study is that it didn't capture nonphysician mental health care and there was no measure of need for follow-up. However, a higher rate of post-ED follow-up suggests that there is a greater need among TGD individuals, and standards of care recommend that follow-up should occur regardless. 

“These findings underscore the urgent need to improve hospital experiences and make sure that all patients feel safe and supported in seeking care. By addressing barriers such as a lack of social support, misgendering and transphobia in hospital settings, we can help close this gap and create a more equitable mental health system,” says senior author Dr. Paul Kurdyak, a senior scientist with ICES and CAMH. 

ICES is an independent, not-for-profit research and analytics institute that uses population-based health information to produce knowledge on a broad range of healthcare issues. ICES leads cutting-edge studies and analyses evaluating healthcare policy, delivery, and population outcomes. Our knowledge is highly regarded in Canada and abroad and is widely used by government, hospitals, planners, and practitioners to make decisions about healthcare delivery and to develop policy. For the latest ICES news, follow us on BlueSky and LinkedIn: @ICESOntario 

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is Canada's largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital and a world leading research centre in this field. CAMH combines clinical care, research, education, policy development and health promotion to help transform the lives of people affected by mental illness and addiction. CAMH is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto and is a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre. For more information, please visit camh.ca. or follow @CAMHnews on BlueSky and LinkedIn. 

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Journal

Transgender Health

DOI

10.1089/trgh.2024.0102 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Physician Follow-up Among Transgender and Gender Diverse Individuals after Psychiatric Emergency Department Visits and Hospitalizations: A Retrospective Population-Based Cohort Study

Article Publication Date

12-Mar-2025

 

No need to wing it: UGA research evaluates bat activity in winter

The research found that forest management efforts are supporting healthy bat populations

University of Georgia

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UGA researchers study tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus) species to understand winter diet changes in working southeastern U.S. forest.(Submitted photo)

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Credit: Santiago Perea

Winter in the South can bring about a sharp change in conditions that impact forests and their many inhabitants. However, new research from the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources finds that, despite these seasonal shifts, forest management efforts are supporting healthy bat populations.

As white nose syndrome, a deadly fungal disease, ravages bat populations, wildlife ecology and management professor Steven Castleberry wanted to ensure all other aspects of bat livelihood were being maintained.

“There’s nothing really we can do about that disease. All we can do is continue to provide proper habitats,” Castleberry said. “As those populations recover, we ensure that those quality forests and habitats are still there.”

Previous research looked at how bats survived in managed forests during the summer, but the role winter has on forest conditions and prey availability remained unexplored.

Foundational forestry

Castleberry and Santiago Perea, a UGA Ph.D. student at the time of this study, examined bat activity over 400 nights by using the creatures’ echolocation.

As bats moved through Southeastern forests, the team found they relied on large areas of semi-open, canopied forest stands, otherwise known as varied stand structure according to Castleberry. The balance had to be just right — an open canopy allowed bats to fly and feed efficiently but dense, closed-canopy areas with thick vegetation made flying difficult.

“These types of forests are pretty good for bats because they’re like a mosaic. Bats don’t need just one type of forest, they need a lot of different types of forests, and that’s what they provide out there with these stands in various stages of succession and ages,” said Castleberry.

Castleberry points out that most privately owned forests already provide a suitable balance for bats during the winter. Moving forward, forest managers should maintain this equilibrium rather than make drastic changes.

“It’s good for business, but it’s also good for the environment, and it is going pretty well for the bats, too,” he said.

Pinning down prey

Colder weather also had a direct impact on meal availability for bats. When temperatures dipped, nocturnal flying insects — an integral part of bat diets — were less active and easier to catch. That’s great news for bats.

“All of our bats in the Southeast are insectivores, so they’re dependent upon insects,” he said. “Nobody had really studied insects in the winter as much as they had in the summer, so we were especially interested in insect abundance.”

With the assistance of Kamal Gandhi, co-author and interim associate dean for research, Castleberry’s team was also able to identify a variety of insects in these forests.

So while cooler temperatures did affect insect activity, Castleberry found another perk of a diverse forest — the more mixed the stand structure, the greater the variety of bugs flying around.

No need to over-strategize

The researchers emphasize that a varied forest structure is crucial for bat survival. Properly balancing every stage of forest management helps maintain the right mix of vegetation for our flying friends.

And it’s all connected. Bats make up 20% of all mammal species, so their roles in things like insect population management and seed dispersal can’t be overstated. One estimate puts the value of bats at more than $22 billion for the effect they have in agricultural systems by controlling insect pests.

“Nature, and working forest ecosystems, in this case, are often more complex than we assume, and our findings highlight the intricate interactions they provide,” said Perea, a co-author on the study. “This underscores the need for diverse forest management strategies to support a healthy bat community.”

This study was funded by the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, and was also contributed to by co-authors Amanda Vicente-Santos, Angela L. Larsen-Gray, Daniel U. Greene and Brittany F. Barnes.

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Journal

Forest Ecology and Management

DOI

10.1016/j.foreco.2024.122484 

Article Title

Disentangling winter relationships: Bat responses to forest stand structure, environmental conditions, and prey composition

 SCI-FI-TEK

New computer code could lead to simpler, less costly stellarators for fusion power

A quick process lets physicists balance physics and engineering

DOE/Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

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An artist’s interpretation of how a new computer code called QUADCOIL refines the design of stellarator fusion machines

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Credit: Illustration credit: Kyle Palmer / PPPL Communications Department

Like engineers who design high-performance Formula One race cars, scientists want to create high-performance plasmas in twisty fusion systems known as stellarators. Achieving this performance means that the plasma must retain much of its heat and stay within its confining magnetic fields.

To ease the creation of these plasmas, physicists have created a new computer code that could speed up the design of the complicated magnets that shape the plasma, making stellarators simpler and more affordable to build.

Known as QUADCOIL, the code helps scientists rule out plasma shapes that are stable but require magnets with overly complicated shapes. With this information, scientists can instead devote their efforts to designing stellarators that can be built affordably.

“QUADCOIL predicts the complexity of the magnets quickly, helping you avoid the plasma shapes that are great physics-wise but not helpful for actually building a fusion facility,” said Frank Fu, a graduate student in the Princeton Program in Plasma Physics, based at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), and lead author of a paper outlining the code. This research pairs PPPL’s expertise in sophisticated plasma computer codes with its extensive history of developing stellarators, a concept that the Lab originated 70 years ago.

Balancing physics and engineering

Once scientists have chosen a plasma shape with a particular set of properties that can foster fusion reactions, QUADCOIL efficiently performs rough calculations to determine the magnet shapes that could create a plasma with those properties. If the shapes are too complicated, the code allows scientists to redesign the plasma shape. This process leads to a balance of physics and engineering that would take far longer using other codes. In fact, while traditional magnet-design programs can evaluate magnet shapes in 20 minutes to several hours, QUADCOIL can complete the task in 10 seconds.

An innovative technique

Traditional programs typically have two stages: one computer program determines a plasma shape with the required properties and another determines magnet shapes that can produce those properties, with little communication between the two. A newer type of program makes both calculations simultaneously, but because the task is harder, the program takes longer to run and can lead to magnet designs that are too complex to build or create a plasma that does not perform as intended.

“Think of two teams building a car engine: one that designs the engine and another that builds it,” Fu said. “QUADCOIL, in a sense, moves one person from the build team to the design team to keep an eye on how the design might affect the final product. The estimate will be rougher than what you would get if you actually built the car and added up the expenses, but the process is faster and leads to specifications that are sensible.”

Flexibility that allows for greater precision

QUADCOIL also allows scientists to add a range of engineering specifications to the inputs, generating magnet shapes that are more relevant to the scientists’ needs. Those specifications can include information about magnet materials and shapes, or topologies. Moreover, QUADCOIL can generate data about properties that other codes cannot, including the magnets’ curvature and how much magnetic force they experience. “In short, QUADCOIL has three innovations: it calculates more quickly, predicts more properties than other codes can and is flexible,” Fu said.

This research shows how sophisticated computer programs are critical to developing stellarator fusion facilities. “One of the major challenges in designing stellarators is that the magnets can have complex shapes that are hard to build,” said Elizabeth Paul, an assistant professor of applied physics and applied mathematics at Columbia University and one of the paper’s co-authors. “This problem tells us that we need to be thinking about magnet complexity at the very beginning. If we can use computer codes to find plasma shapes that both have the physics properties we want and can be formed using magnets with simple shapes, we can make fusion energy more cheaply.”

Fu and other research team members are now developing a version of QUADCOIL that not only determines how easy a particular set of magnets is to build but also tells the researcher how to improve the plasma shape. While the current prototype code can run on a laptop computer, the final version will most likely require a computer with more powerful graphical processing units. Fu also plans to integrate a future version of QUADCOIL into larger software suites for stellarator design. “Developing a stellarator requires a lot of computation,” Fu said. “I’m trying to make the design process as smooth as possible.”

In addition to Paul, QUADCOIL collaborators include Alan Kaptanoglu at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Amitava Bhattacharjee, the former head of theory at PPPL. The research was supported by the DOE’s Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing program and the Simons Foundation.

PPPL is mastering the art of using plasma — the fourth state of matter — to solve some of the world’s toughest science and technology challenges. Nestled on Princeton University’s Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro, New Jersey, our research ignites innovation in a range of applications, including fusion energy, nanoscale fabrication, quantum materials and devices, and sustainability science. The University manages the Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the nation’s single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences. Feel the heat at https://energy.gov/science and http://www.pppl.gov. 

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Journal

Nuclear Fusion

DOI

10.1088/1741-4326/ada810 

Article Title

Global stellarator coil optimization with quadratic constraints and objectives