More Israeli adolescents are experiencing mental distress daily, and while fewer are experimenting with cannabis, tobacco use and binge drinking are on the rise. These and other trends were revealed by WHO/Europe’s recent Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, conducted at Bar-Ilan University in collaboration with the Israeli ministries of education and health. The study also found that social media use and screen addiction have increased, which may impact adolescent well-being.
In Israel, as around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the lives of children and adolescents. Measures taken to control the spread of the virus, such as school closures, lockdowns and social distancing, impacted their daily routines and well-being as they navigated a new normal with restrictions and limited social interactions. The HBSC study in Israel investigated shifts in risk behaviours and mental health from the pre-pandemic period (2019) to when school and community activities resumed in 2022.
Mental distress
In 2019, 20% of Israeli adolescents reported daily psychosomatic symptoms, such as feeling low or nervous or having difficulty sleeping. This proportion increased to about 30% in 2022, pointing to a significant rise in mental distress following the pandemic, which continued even after schools reopened.
These adolescents also reported feeling disengaged in school and noted a lack of a sense of belonging or support, indicating their difficulty in readjusting to school after such a long period of closure and social distancing.
Cannabis, tobacco and alcohol use
The study results revealed a decrease in adolescents reporting cannabis use, with only 6.1% in 2022 compared to 9.2% in 2019. During the pandemic in 2021, 9.0% of adolescents reported using cannabis.
As for tobacco use, the past 20 years saw a consistent drop in cigarette smoking among Israeli adolescents, from 33.6% in 1998 to 10.7% in 2019. This decline in prevalence continued into the lockdown period in 2021, dropping to 7.5%, but immediately after social restrictions were lifted and school and community activities resumed in 2022, it increased to 9.2%.
Binge drinking – consuming 5 or more alcoholic drinks within a few hours – is also a growing concern among youth. Since the implementation of the Israeli national alcohol prevention programme in 2010–2014, binge drinking among Israeli youth consistently declined, from 20.6% in 2009 to 7% in 2019. This downward trend continued until 2021, with only 5% of adolescents reporting binge drinking while social distancing measures were still in place. Data from 2022, however, show that after restrictions were lifted, binge drinking prevalence increased to 12.5%.
These findings suggest that adolescent drinking is linked to social leisure-time activities with peers and not always to an addiction to alcohol. Professor Yossi Harel-Fisch, Director of the International Research Program on Adolescent Well-Being and Health at Bar-Ilan University, and Principal Investigator for HBSC Israel, explains, “We are concerned, since the troubling increase in both cigarette smoking and binge drinking seems to be associated with the resumption of social nightlife activities and the belief that the 2 years of social distancing can now be ‘compensated’ by embracing the use of tobacco and alcohol as part of renewed social leisure-time activities.”
Social media use and cyberbullying
“Our findings also imply that the social restrictions imposed caused many adolescents to turn to social media as a means of social connectedness and entertainment, resulting in a significant increase in mental distress and problematic social media use,” Professor Harel-Fisch points out.
Problematic social media use, an indicator of screen addiction, is defined as the extensive use of social media to the extent that it significantly disrupts daily life. The data showed that 15.3% of adolescents were classified as problematic social media users in 2022, compared to only 4.3% in 2019.
Despite the increase in screen addiction, cyberbullying declined from 10.4% in 2019 to 7.6% in 2022. Professor Harel-Fisch adds, “This may imply that the steps taken by the Child Online Protection Bureau since its establishment in 2018 were not adversely affected by the increased exposure to the Internet during the pandemic, and continue to bear fruit even in the post-pandemic period.”
The findings from this study have been presented and discussed with government agencies, experts and decision-makers, and are being used to implement intensive evidence-based school strategies to enhance adolescent well-being and promote healthy behaviours in Israel.