Our Youth’s Perspective 2026: Supporting Mental Health During Transitions

• Transcript

  Ron Dahl Transitions are fundamental aspects of our adolescent years. This includes the physical changes that come with puberty, as well as the social transitions to new schools and new friend groups. Learning how to navigate these periods of rapid change is essential to healthy growth and development in adolescence.

  Maya Bachi It’s really different to have someone, like, plan your, like, class schedule versus like doing it yourself and going through that process. So I think that’s definitely something that’s like really important for personal growth. 

  Ron Dahl Yet, these transitions also create stress, uncertainties, and challenges in ways that are part of adolescent vulnerability to mental health. 

  Odalis Hernandez I would constantly feel like I didn’t deserve to be where I was, or that everybody else had everything figured out except for me. I felt isolated in a way, like I was the only one constantly overwhelmed. 

  Ron Dahl Fortunately, we know a great deal about how to support youth mental health. Meaningful connections with other people represent one of the most powerful ways to promote well-being throughout the changes of adolescence.

  Alex Binaford I can definitely see how, like social relationships can help you with stress and understanding when you’re taking on too much. 

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  Ron Dahl I’m Ron Dahl, founding director of the Center for the Developing Adolescent, and this is Adaptivity, where we explore the science of adolescence, untangling misconceptions about the years between childhood and adulthood.

  We explore new insights into the rapid cognitive, emotional, and social changes that are happening during these years. And how the developing adolescent brain is primed to promote healthy and adaptive learning.

  This is the first episode of our annual three-part miniseries of Adaptivity brought to you by members of the Center’s Youth Scientific Council on Adolescence. This council is a group of high school and college students who work with the Center for the Developing Adolescent to help us inform and communicate the science. 

  In this episode, YSCA members Alex Binaford, Maya Bachi, and Odalis Hernandez talk with Jennifer Pfeifer, a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon. They wanted to understand how transitions during our adolescent years can impact mental health–and what youth need to support their well-being.

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  Alex Binaford Hi, we are Alex Binaford

  Maya Bachi Maya Bachi

  Odalis Hernandez and Odalis Hernandez

  Alex Binaford And we are members of the Youth Scientific Council on Adolescents, also known as YSCA. I’m Alex and I’m a third year student at UCLA. I’m currently majoring in history and am on a pre-med track.

  Odalis Hernandez I’m a senior at Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, and I intend on majoring in public health next year.

  Maya Bachi I’m Maya and I’m a second year student at Santa Monica College majoring in psychology. I’m hoping to transfer to UCLA and pursue graduate school for clinical psychology. Before we get started, it should be known that we’re going to be discussing potentially difficult topics surrounding psychological disorders. So if you need to talk to someone, the crisis text line at 741741 provides support 24/7/365. And if you or anyone you know is in crisis, please call or text 988.

  Alex Binaford We are going to be discussing the topic of mental health disorders in relation to academic stress. Specifically, what factors influence adolescent mental health disorders from the transition of high school to college regarding academics and access to mental health services.

  Odalis Hernandez Mental health disorders affect one’s constant state of emotional well-being, such as feelings and behaviors. Some examples of the more common mental health disorders we will be discussing include depression and anxiety.

  Alex Binaford According to the CDC, in 2023, 40 percent of high school students had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Many of these students don’t have access to mental health services.

  Odalis Hernandez Today, students face disparity when it comes to accessing school provided mental health resources, especially in the public school sectors, leaving a significant gap between proper diagnosis and untreated diagnosis.

  Maya Bachi In addition to difficulty accessing mental health services, mental health stigma also prevents students and adolescents from seeking help. According to the American Psychological Association, 84 percent of U.S. adults believe the term mental illness still carries stigma, and 35 percent would view someone differently if they knew that they had a mental health condition. 

  Personally, I come from an immigrant family, and I’ve experienced firsthand how stigma from family has kept me from seeking mental health services earlier. While stigma has improved in recent years, older generations and certain cultural or family dynamics still play a role in influencing adolescents’ approach in dealing with mental health challenges, often leading to shame, silence, and further struggles. 

  Today, we’re joined by Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer, a professor at the University of Oregon whose work focuses on the transition from childhood through adolescence. A period characterized by changing brains and bodies, affect, motivation, peer relationships, and conceptions of self. Her research studies the development of these phenomena on multiple levels, with the goal of enabling healthy transitions from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. Thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Pfeifer.

  Jennifer Pfeifer It’s a pleasure to be here today.

  Maya Bachi I know I gave you a brief introduction, but would you like to tell us a little bit more about, like, the work you do?

  Jennifer Pfeifer Sure. So I direct the Developmental Social Neuroscience Lab at the University of Oregon, and we are particularly interested in how the biological changes during adolescence, like changes in brains and bodies during puberty, are related to social changes during that time, and how all of that can affect adolescent emergent mental health issues over time within young people.

  Maya Bachi Well, thank you so much.

  Odalis Hernandez I’m Odalis and it’s great to have you here, Dr. Pfeifer. I know mental health disorders can affect students in ways that aren’t always visible. Things like struggling to concentrate, constantly overthinking or feeling guilty for no reason, sometimes even feeling like you’re stuck in a constant cycle of helplessness which can make daily life and even school feel overwhelming. 

  For me personally, one of the hardest things was dealing with imposter syndrome. I would constantly feel like I didn’t deserve to be where I was, or that everybody else had everything figured out except for me. I felt isolated in a way, like I was the only one constantly overwhelmed. But being able to access not only school distributed mental health resources, but also groups like the YSCA, helped me realize I wasn’t alone. Just being in spaces where mental health was openly talked about made a huge difference. Showing me that mental health struggles can look really different for everyone, especially when people don’t fully understand what they’re experiencing. 

  So my questions to you, Dr. Pfeifer, would be based on your research, what tends to happen when mental health or mood disorders go untreated during adolescence, and how might that affect someone later in college or even adulthood?

  Jennifer Pfeifer That’s a great question. So to start off, as you guys mentioned, it’s really important to recognize how common mental health problems are. It’s about 1 in 5 young people experience a major depressive episode and roughly 1 in 3 adolescents have an anxiety disorder, and over 1 in 4 youth in the 18- to 25-year age range have a substance use disorder. 

  So, and these are statistics from 2023, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. So this is really common. And a really unfortunate general rule of thumb is that at best, about half of those with mental health concerns receive mental health treatment of any kind. So we know that when mental health problems go untreated, they tend to increase over time. And the kinds of early symptoms that someone might have that could be mild or sort of situational, can progress into patterns that are harder to break avoidance or feelings of hopelessness or just sort of difficulties in your basic daily functioning. So what that can look like for adolescents might be things like checking out from school, less academic engagement. More irritability. Losing interest in activities and friendships or other relationships. Trouble sleeping or oversleeping and changes in appetite and weight. 

  One troubling thing that young people experiencing mental health problems like depression or anxiety, can start to believe, is that these patterns are just really part of who they are, rather than a condition that can be treated successfully. Even while they might believe that these things can change in general about other people.

  Odalis Hernandez I’m really glad you brought up all those statistics, but it also leads me to wonder, do you believe race or cultural backgrounds influence how different mental health disorders are portrayed, experienced, or even diagnosed?

  Jennifer Pfeifer Absolutely. We know that culture dramatically shapes how mental health symptoms are expressed and interpreted as well as treated. Different communities have different norms about things like emotional expression and coping and help seeking. And these norms influence whether someone’s struggles are recognized as distress or just sort of normalized. Like this is just how life is. And at the clinical level, we also know that racial and cultural biases can lead to misdiagnosis. So, for example, Black youth are often overdiagnosed with behavioral disorders and under-diagnosed with mood disorders. Cultural context also affects stigma. So in some communities, mental health challenges are seen more like as a personal failing, a personal weakness, and in others, they’re viewed through spiritual or family lenses. All of this together can impact how and even if young people seek support, and when they do, what kind of supports they receive. 

  Something that I wanted to say earlier, but really connects here as well, is just that. The good news is that early support can make a huge difference. Adolescence being this time of high neuroplasticity means that intervening early really makes a difference. And this is when so many mental health disorders are emerging across the entire lifespan. There are lots of different kinds of supports available in different settings, but a really unfortunate aspect of this is that there aren’t enough supports available to meet all these needs, these youth mental health needs. So what that means is that often young people don’t get seen until they are a lot farther along and have been struggling for a long time. And I think this is why as a society, we desperately need to invest in training a larger, more diverse youth mental health service workforce. And a really good example of this is the Balmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health at the University of Oregon, which is training undergraduates with a bachelor’s degree to provide these services in K through 12 schools and other community settings.

  Alex Binaford Hi, this is Alex again. How should students know when they’re taking on too much? And how do you create, like, a perfect schedule?

  Jennifer Pfeifer You know, too much can vary between people and between situations. It’s not something that you can set an absolute standard for. And so I think what can be really valuable here is making sure that you maintain those social connections, connections that you have with family members, connections that you had with your high school friends before entering university, before entering college, and help use them a little bit as a barometer for assessing whether from the outside, as someone who knows you well, it looks like you’re doing too much. It looks like you’re taking on too much. 

  You know, those signs that we were talking about in terms of those kinds of mental health symptoms and an increase, a little bit of escalation of those mental health problems. They can be looking for some of those things. So too much might not mean you’re saying, I think I’m doing too much. Am I doing too much? But it might mean someone saying, I noticed that you have a shorter fuse all the time. You know, you really seem really stressed and irritable. And so having those social connections with family members, with friends from your old school environments, but also working to build those social connections with friends in your new school environment is really important. 

  And one thing that’s easy to forget is that building those social connections does take effort and engagement, and you have to put yourself out there to make those connections because they are new and these new relationships take some investment and risk. So I just want to encourage people to take those risks, to engage in these small little acts of reaching out to others to try and build those new social connections, because those people who are in your most immediate environment, even though they may be newer relationships and they don’t necessarily have as long of a history with you, they’re right there with you. And they can also help you know that there might be a little too much going on.

  Alex Binaford Yeah, that’s great advice. I can definitely see how, like, social relationships can help you with stress and understanding when you’re taking on too much. A big thing that I struggled with was the transition phase from high school to college. How do you think that transitional periods in adolescence impact their mental health? And why do you think that transitional periods are so important to adolescent development and growth?

  Jennifer Pfeifer Oh, I love this question. So change is why I love studying adolescence. There are just so many transitions like entering new schools, shifting friend groups, starting jobs, or new activities or new relationships, and even all the physical changes that are happening during this time. These all represent really important opportunities to promote healthy developmental outcomes. 

  What I mean by that is like a system that’s still changing is one that’s flexible and can lead to growth and improvement. It might not feel like it on the inside. When you have so many things, you’re adjusting and recalibrating, even if those are positive things that can create a sense of stress. But when we support young people by investing our time and energy to help them navigate change, we’re actually building their adaptability, their “resilience muscles.” 

  One specific set of research findings that interests me about transitional periods in adolescents and their mental health is that going through change with others makes it more bearable. 

  So if you are experiencing changes well before or well after your peers. That can be a mental health stressor. We see this in cases like early or late puberty, which we’re not exactly talking about here. That’s a little bit earlier in adolescence, right? But identifying young people at risk because they’re experiencing significant changes a little ahead or behind their peers could be also an indicator that extra support would be really valuable right then.

  And I think your question about why I think transitional periods are important to adolescent development and growth is just, you can’t grow if you stay exactly the same, right? So change is necessary for growth and transitions. Let adolescents practice skills that really lay the foundation for their adult lives. So navigating new circumstances and just all kinds of uncertainty and ambiguity, advocating for yourself, building new social connections. And just like across any kind of domain you can think of trying something new that you very well could fail at because we know that failure is actually also key for learning. 

  So I think parents, especially in this sort of transition where you’ve got high schoolers in the environment, maybe heading towards college, there are things that parents can also do to help out, to sort of scaffold that transition. So things like limiting punitive behavior or controlling behavior and managing expectations because those kinds of things can feed into an adolescent’s fear of failure, which is we don’t want them to have that because failures and trying new things is so important to learning.

  Alex Binaford I really liked what you said about trying new things and like taking risks. So do you have any quick advice on how to make these transition phases smoother? I know you kind of talked on it, but do you have, like, a quick like one sentence?

  Jennifer Pfeifer Ooh, one sentence. That’s tricky. I have a couple, I have maybe like four or five ideas.

  Alex Binaford Go ahead, say it! 

  Jennifer Pfeifer Okay. A couple of high points for just how to try and make these transition phases smoother is: 

  One, think about where you can provide predictable structure. It’s not going to be that you can do that everywhere, but finding some elements of continuity or normalcy is valuable, and also just knowing what to expect, even if they haven’t experienced it before. To the extent you can tell them what to expect, that can help reduce anxiety. 

  Two, name the changes like just acknowledging that something is a major transition helps young people feel seen. 

  Building supportive relationships early on. So adolescents, you know, in early adolescence, even parents can really be pouring into their relationships with their, their younger adolescent, because we know from a whole host of research that parents still really matter to adolescents and even beyond parents, a single trusted adult can buffer a lot of stress. And so whether that’s a parent or extended family member or maybe a teacher or a mentor. So supportive relationships are really valuable here. 

  And then I mentioned this before, but encouraging peer connections to social belonging is just one of the most protective factors, strongest protective factors during transitions. 

  And then I think you can think about, on that foundation, adding teaching some skills proactively like time management, communication and emotion regulation. And by teaching these skills, what you really want to do is scaffold these skills. So don’t do it for them, don’t manage their schoolwork for them, don’t regulate their emotions for them, but let them practice doing those things so that in that period, that transition period where you are necessarily as a parent, for example, more, more separate. And as a young person, more separate from your family. In many, many cases, you have this, have some practice doing these things more autonomously, more on your own. 

  Stress is a part of life. The goal is not to eliminate stress, but just build young people’s self-efficacy. You know, help them feel capable, help them feel connected while they’re navigating changes and new situations.

  Maya Bachi Hi, this is Maya again. I really like how you answered Alex’s question. I definitely struggled a lot with, like, building a new schedule. Um, when I was transitioning from high school to college. So your answer was really helpful and I definitely wish I knew this sooner because I definitely did college, like, alone at the beginning, I didn’t have that like peer bond because I was starting a new school. So just knowing that sooner would have helped me a lot and I would have joined, like, more clubs and been more involved on campus sooner. I know you briefly touched on this, like how students would feel like evaluated by friends and family, but are there any other factors you feel also contribute to like stigma?

  Jennifer Pfeifer Well, I think that the societal conversation is really interesting. We touched on this earlier that we have come a long way. We’ve come a long way in feeling comfortable talking about mental health. And each generation is increasingly comfortable about that. But I don’t think we’ve come quite as far in terms of normalizing, seeking help. And so I think that’s where there’s still maybe a lag and there can be a whole range there too, depending on cultural background. And in some communities where seeking help is more accepted than in other communities. So we have a long way to come as a society. 

  And I think one thing that I’ve found helpful sort of personally, and I think is consistent with the research in terms of this, is just to normalize help seeking, not just to normalize that we can have mental health problems, but that we can seek help. And that that kind of even doing so proactively is a really incredible thing we can do for our health and well-being. So we just need to keep that work going. By reducing the stigma around seeking help. 

  And I think that you can do this by working it into everyday conversations. Like don’t only talk about help seeking when there’s a crisis, right? And for young people, I think having peer supported spaces, spaces where there are other peers that can be seen, sort of having these conversations and opening up, that can really also help reduce stigma for young people in particular. 

  And then of course, you know, really representation matters. So when students can see professionals who share their cultural background or identity, that can make them feel more comfortable.

  Maya Bachi Yeah, I love that. I definitely think that we need to, like, shift that narrative. I’ve seen that with my peers as well, how there’s like this block to seeking services even though you know you need help. Is there anything you would say to a student if they, like, expressed that they needed help, but they weren’t really ready to go for it?

  Jennifer Pfeifer I think what I would do personally, and what I think is consistent with the ways that research suggests we can really help as many people as possible, is to encourage them to try it. To encourage them to think about not waiting until it feels so bad. But to start early, there’s not harm and there’s huge benefit in reaching out early. Again, we’re facing this crisis as a society by not having a large enough mental health workforce, and that absolutely still needs to be addressed. 

  But if you’re a young person in this moment and maybe thinking about it or questioning, that’s something that a mental health service provider can actually do is sort of evaluate how things are going for you, help you understand it better and assess that need and provide supports that are tailored to the level of, you know, challenges that someone might be facing.

  Maya Bachi Yeah. Thank you so much. That was really helpful. And thank you so much for taking the time to share your expertise and your insights with us today. We really appreciate it, and we loved having you here.

  Odalis Hernandez Thank you so much, Doctor Pfeifer. I really appreciated this conversation, and I learned a lot from you.

  Alex Binaford Yeah. Thank you.

  Jennifer Pfeifer Oh you’re welcome. This is a super important topic, so I’m very glad we’re talking about it.

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  Odalis Hernandez I really liked how she mentioned the importance of building sort of the social interactions and social relationships with sort of the people that surround you as you transition from high school to college. And I think that’s really relevant for my own experience, because I’m typically the type of person who, like, keeps to herself and the type of person who’s really bad at replying. But knowing now that building these sort of relationships with the peers around me is going to help me and is going to probably have positive impacts on my mental health. Makes me want to, you know, try harder and, you know, build these as soon as possible.

  Alex Binaford Yeah, I completely agree, Odalis. I thought that some of the most important things that she talked about were the social relationships, especially when she was talking about how, you know when you’re taking on too much with your classwork or your schedule. She said that a lot of the times you don’t realize it yourself, but it’s like the people around you who realize it. And I thought that was really insightful. I also liked what she said about transition phases and how taking risks is really important, and how being part of change and changing is like going to lead you to the most growth. I also like what she said about parents and how parents, like, need to allow their kids to fail sometimes in order for them to grow. I thought that was really important and interesting.

  Maya Bachi Yeah, I agree. I definitely think that what she said about parents letting their kids do things on their own instead of, like, coddling them is really powerful because it’s really different to have someone, like, plan your, like, class schedule versus like doing it yourself and going through that process. So I think that’s definitely something that’s, like, really important for personal growth. 

  I also really liked how she highlighted this difference in stigma towards, like, mental health disorders versus stigma towards seeking mental health services, because I think we have gone a long way in terms of like stigma towards mental health services. You know, there’s new ways that we talk about these things that are less stigmatized, but there’s definitely still a really large barrier for adolescents and people in general, like actually going forward and seeking mental health services. So I really like that she touched on that and like made that distinction. 

  Personally, what worked for me to start my mental health journey was when a teacher at Santa Monica College really normalized therapy for me, and they spoke about it in a way that wasn’t just like, oh, like you clearly are in distress, like you need therapy. It was more like a, This is just like an everyday thing that will just boost. Well, not every day, but like a weekly thing in your life that will just make your life better. 

  And just that, like, normalization made me feel comfortable, like reaching out to them and asking what kind of services, like, my college has. So that’s really where it started for me. And I know it can be difficult when you’re like an adolescent to, like, find these resources. So that’s why this really started in college for me when I had, like, more autonomy and like, I could make this change for myself versus, like, going to a parent, which was already like a source of stigma in my life to, like, find these services.

  Alex Binaford Thank you for listening. This has been Alex,

  Maya Bachi Maya,

  Odalis Hernandez And Odalis,

  Alex Binaford discussing mental health and transitional periods for adolescents. For more YSCA podcasts, please check out the next episode about the impact of adolescent peer and romantic relationships on adulthood.

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  Ron Dahl Our adolescent years represent a virtual metamorphosis–a period of multiple physical and social transitions–a transformative time of growth, learning, and identity development. We face great uncertainty during these transitions, in ways that create challenges and vulnerabilities as we’re learning to navigate changes in our bodies, schools, relationships, and our complex and increasingly technocentric social worlds. How can we increase our hoped-for outcomes, so that we learn how to manage these transitions in ways that lead to positive growth and healthy development? By recognizing that healthy relationships–connections with peers and trusted adults–are at the very heart of what matters. 

  I’m Ron Dahl, and this has been a special episode of Adaptivity from the Center for the Developing Adolescent.

  We’d like to thank Alex Binaford, Maya Bachi, and Odalis Hernandez from the Center’s Youth Scientific Council on Adolescence for delving into this topic and sharing their reflections with us.

  Thanks also to Jennifer Pfeifer, University of Oregon psychology professor and co-director of the National Scientific Council on Adolescence. 

  For more on the developmental science of adolescence and the YSCA, go to our website at developingadolescent.org.

  If you’d like to learn more about the science of adolescence, visit us at adaptivitypodcast.com or share your thoughts through the contact information at our website.

  Our podcast is produced at UC Berkeley for the Center for the Developing Adolescent. Our senior producer is Polly Stryker. Our producer is Meghan Lynch Forder. And our engineer is Rob Speight.

  A special thanks to Ava Trimble for her facilitation of the YSCA projects.

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