Nearly half of Ontario students still report struggling with their mental health. For the first time in years, though, the number is moving in the right direction.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health released its latest Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey on Monday, and the headline on teen mental health is cautiously good news. The same survey found a tenfold jump in students placing sports bets, which is where the concern has shifted.
What does struggling with mental health look like now?
In 2025, 46 percent of students in Grades 7 to 12 reported struggling with mental health at a moderate to serious level, down from 51 percent when the survey last ran in 2023. CAMH reported improvements in self-harm, self-rated mental health and feelings of school connectedness as well.
The survey has run every two years since 1977. This round gathered anonymous online responses from 11,108 students across 246 schools and 42 school boards between December 2024 and June 2025. Lead investigator Hayley Hamilton, co-director of CAMH's Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, called the decrease encouraging while noting the share of students struggling remains well above where it sat a decade ago. She pointed to the resources directed at youth mental health in recent years, along with more students actually using services at school. The longer-term rise, she suggested, may reflect factors like social media, and may also reflect reduced stigma, since young people today are more willing to say how they are doing. Alcohol and drug use also continued to fall, with students waiting longer before trying them.
Why are teens betting on sports in such numbers?
Because it moved fast. CAMH's own summary of the findings records teens betting on sports rising from 1 percent of students in 2019 to 10 percent in 2025, with online gambling overall climbing from 8 percent in 2023 to 12 percent in 2025. Nearly a quarter of students, 23 percent, said they see or hear advertising for online gambling sites every single day.
Hamilton connected the increase to Ontario's regulatory change opening the market to private betting sites, noting that despite age restrictions on those platforms, students are finding ways to gamble anyway. The practical upshot for parents is that the average Ontario teenager now encounters sports betting far more routinely than most adults did at the same age, and the advertising around it is a daily presence in their feeds. Screen-heavy evenings are part of that exposure, which connects to what nightly viewing habits do to the brain.
How do you start talking to teens about it?
More calmly than the headlines usually allow. Distress is easing, substance use is falling, and more students are reaching out for help at school, which suggests asking for support is becoming ordinary rather than a last resort. That is a genuinely good trend in teen mental health, and it is worth naming at home.
On gambling, talking to teens works best when it sounds like the conversations you already have about alcohol or vaping: a real risk, discussed plainly, rather than a lecture. Ask whether betting comes up among their friends or in the content they watch. Point out how much of the advertising is designed to make wagering feel like a normal part of being a sports fan. Curiosity travels further than prohibition here, partly because the exposure is constant and partly because teenagers notice when adults have actually looked at the thing they are worried about.
Where can you find help for your teen?
The survey's own findings point at the answer: support works when young people can reach it. Make sure your teen knows what is available at their school and that using it is nothing to hide. Help for your teen outside school is harder to navigate, and waits can be long, as pressure on psychiatric services across the country shows.
For families, the practical move is to start early rather than waiting for a crisis point, and to compare availability across several providers instead of joining one list and hoping. Social connection matters here too, since isolation carries measurable health effects of its own.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the 2025 OSDUHS survey find?
It found 46 percent of Ontario students in Grades 7 to 12 reported moderate to serious psychological distress in 2025, down from 51 percent in 2023. Self-harm and self-rated mental health also improved, and substance use continued to decline. Online gambling and sports betting rose sharply over the same period.
How many teens are betting on sports?
About one in 10 Ontario students reported placing sports bets in 2025, up from 1 percent in 2019. Online gambling of any kind rose from 8 percent in 2023 to 12 percent in 2025. Nearly a quarter of students reported seeing or hearing online gambling advertising every day.
Is teen mental health actually improving?
On these measures, teen mental health is improving, though from a high baseline. Distress fell five percentage points between 2023 and 2025, and researchers describe the improvement as a rebound from pandemic-era peaks. Roughly half of students still report meaningful distress, and the level remains considerably higher than it was a decade ago.
How do I talk to my teen about gambling?
Treat it the way you treat alcohol or vaping, as a genuine risk worth discussing rather than a harmless game. Ask whether betting comes up among friends or in the content they watch, and talk about how advertising is designed to make wagering feel like a normal part of following sports.
If you are looking for support for a teenager or for yourself, Medimap can shorten the search, letting you find and book mental health practitioners near you or browse the Health Hub for more on youth and family wellbeing.
This article is general information and not medical advice. If you or a young person you know is in crisis, call or text 9-8-8, the Suicide Crisis Helpline. In a medical emergency, call 911.
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