Barna report on Gen Z and Mental Well-Being — Major Struggles and Potent Hope
Across America, the well-being of young people has declined dramatically. Anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide have risen at alarming rates. In 2023, CDC data showed that four in 10 students felt persistently sad or hopeless. About one in five seriously thought about suicide, and nearly one in 10 made an attempt. Compared to prior generations, young people today say they’re less happy and healthy and struggle more to find purpose, self-control and strong relationships.
The challenges can be even more intense for foster and adoptive families.
Children have often faced instability or significant adversity, or have missed the valuable support of consistent presence, guidance and habits that cultivate healthy growth. When these vulnerabilities meet the wider decline in youth well-being, the weight on both children and parents can be especially heavy.
Health involves the whole person
In parenting and all care for children, it can be difficult to grasp the powerful forces shaping those entrusted to us. Streams of influence converge, and struggles rarely stem from just one cause.
That’s why it’s so important to remember that health involves the whole person. Each part of who we are — mind, body, spirit and relationships — affects the others. Strengthening one area often strengthens the whole. Similarly, ill health involves the whole person and may begin in one part, like in the mind or in a broken relationship, but then spills into every other dimension of life.
Thus, in the dimension of mental health, our thoughts and emotions are intertwined with body, relationships, character and spiritual life. Approaches that focus only on the mind, while neglecting physical well-being, community and life with God, will always fall short.
Caring for mental and behavioral health, then, means tending to the basics: steady rhythms of sleep and nutrition; plenty of tech-free time that makes space for nature, physical activity and in-person relationships; relational health through strong marriages and wise, kind authority in parenting; and spiritual health by anchoring our families in the life of the church and daily practices of the Christian faith at home. Even very small changes in any of these areas can bring good across the whole person.
The Christian life is good for us
One of the strongest findings in research is this: regular participation in the life of a local church is profoundly protective.
Young people who are actively involved show lower rates of depression, substance use, early sexual activity and even suicide. Careful long-term studies — controlling for prior mental health conditions — demonstrate that this steady commitment helps foster resilience, stronger relationships and deeper purpose.
Science increasingly confirms what Scripture has long claimed: God’s ways are good for all people, even for those who have endured deep adversity. “They are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body” (Proverbs 4:22).
Of course, the Christian faith is not primarily about promoting better mental health. It’s about a living relationship with God. But evidence suggests that when we seek Him first, the ripple effects are profound and benefit the whole self — our minds, bodies, spirits and relationships. And when the Christian faith is woven into the rhythms of home life — through prayer, forgiveness, gratitude and serving together, for example — the impact extends into every part of day-to-day life.
Practical insights from the ‘Gen Z and Mental Well-being’ Barna report
Barna’s recent report, Gen Z and Mental Well-Being: Six Practical Ideas for Christian Leaders and Parents, affirms this holistic approach to supporting the health of young people. It offers a clear-eyed look at the decline in youth well-being alongside hopeful, research-backed guidance.
The report emphasizes six themes:
- Create tech-free spaces, helping kids and teens recover focus, rest and connection.
- Support the guardians, equipping parents and caregivers who carry heavy loads.
- Increase connectedness, cultivating relationships that anchor and protect.
- Change the story, countering messages of despair with truth and hope.
- Return to faith roots, strengthening practices of belief and belonging.
- Cultivate kingdom purpose, helping young people live beyond themselves in service and meaning.
These themes are immensely important for parents and ministry leaders as they seek to draw children toward a life of health, discipleship and purpose. Each one addresses distinct challenges of our era while pointing to practical steps families and leaders can take to support growth over time.
They also hold special relevance for foster and adoptive families. The same practices that encourage resilience and flourishing in the broader population are also among the most healing for children who have endured serious adversity. Whatever their unique struggles, they are fully human, made in God’s image — and so the core ingredients that are essential for all humans are just as vital to their healing and health, perhaps even more so.
Looking forward
In an era of poorer mental health, there is still significant reason for hope. God provides means for healing and health to come, most often through the small choices and patterns of daily life.
Living toward God — seeking to know and love Him, being actively involved in a healthy local church, and anchoring our families in the practices of the Christian life — is profoundly good for well-being. Habits like prayer, forgiveness, gratitude and service not only strengthen faith, but also nurture the very qualities that help children and families thrive.
Flourishing rarely comes through one big breakthrough. It is built bit by bit as we, in faith, order our lives around the ways of God. Strong evidence suggests what Christians have always believed: as we seek Him first, both we and the children we love and serve gain much life and health — both as fruit in this present age, in addition to the life that awaits us.
Join us Sept. 4 to learn more from Barna and the CAFO Family Institute
Join us for the upcoming CAFO and Barna webinar at 1pm EDT on Sept. 4, 2025 to explore the Barna report and its implications for parents, ministry leaders and all who care for vulnerable children and families.
And if you’ll be at CAFO2025 in Houston, you’ll also find opportunities to dive deeper through a pre-summit intensive and a workshop on sturdy family practices and cultivating healing homes.
