Young Adult Health and Mental Health at Age 22: Evidence from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study

The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) has been following a large and diverse sample of children born in 20 large US cities since their births in 1998 to 2000. Between October 2020 and January 2024, the children, who are now young adults, were re-interviewed and provided information about their health and mental health at age 22. When the data are weighted, as they are here, these young people are nationally representative of young adults born in large cities in the United States. As the FFCWS youth transition into young adulthood, these interviews provide an opportunity to learn how today’s young adults are faring. In this brief, which is the fifth in a series, we focus on young adults’ health and mental health, at a time when young people nationally are reporting high levels of psychological distress and health problems.

Key Findings

• Young adults are generally healthy, with very few reporting that their overall health is fair or poor.
   
• But rates of mental health problems are high, particularly for young women and particularly for depression. Nearly half of all young women report symptoms that meet a liberal definition for depression and over a quarter have been diagnosed with depression by a doctor
   
• The gap between symptoms and doctor diagnosis varies by race/ethnicity as well as gender. In particular, Black young women are the most likely to report symptoms that meet a liberal definition for depression, but are among the least likely (along with Hispanic young women) to be diagnosed by a doctor.
   
• Future research is needed to better understand risk and protective factors for mental health problems—at the individual, family, and community level – as well as to understand which policies might be most beneficial.

The study is a joint effort by Princeton University’s Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child and Family Wellbeing and the Columbia Population Research Center.

The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study is a long-running collaborative birth cohort study, which has followed a large and diverse sample of children since their births in 1998 to 2000. The children were born in 20 large cities but now reside all over the United States. When weighted, the study provides data that is nationally representative of young adults born in large cities and as such is the only nationally representative sample of a contemporary cohort of young adults followed longitudinally since birth.

Suggested Citation:

Dickerson, Tia, Hye-Min Jung, and Jane Waldfogel. 2025. Young adults health and mental age 22: Evidence from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Princeton, NJ: The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study. 

Published on April 28, 2025