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Change Your Mind with New Scientist

Change Your Mind with New Scientist

Adolescence - What's going on with teenage mental health?

Sep 24, 2026 · 39m

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About this episode

Is now really the worst time in history to be a teenager? This week, health Journalists Cat de Lange and Helen Thomson take on a topic that worries many parents: teenage mental health. Helping them wade through the misinformation is Lucy Foulkes, a psychologist at the University of Oxford who specialises in teenage mental health and social development. She explains why adolescence is such a vulnerable time for the brain, and why it lasts much longer than you might expect. She also shares a surprising idea about whether all our talk about mental health might have unexpected downsides. Are smartphones really villain they're made out to be, or is something bigger going on? Cat and Helen come…