Reading: The Mental Health Crisis Among Teenagers
The mental health crisis among teenagers is a B2–C1 reading text on a contemporary public-health concern. The text covers rising teenage anxiety and depression rates, hypotheses about causes (smartphone use, social media comparison, academic pressure, post-pandemic effects, declining outdoor time, parenting changes), the evidence-vs-correlation debates, and proposed interventions (screen-time regulation, school mental-health programmes, parenting-style adjustment, social-media regulation). Learners read for trend-analysis, hypothesis-comparison, and intervention-evaluation.
This worksheet builds B2–C1 reading comprehension through a public-health analysis text.
Worksheet preview
What’s inside:
- A B2–C1 reading text (~600 words) on teenage mental health
- Pre-reading vocabulary box with mental-health and adolescent-development terms
- Comprehension items: trend-identification, hypothesis-comparison, intervention-evaluation
- Vocabulary-in-context: mental-health and policy vocabulary
- Writing follow-up: propose an evidence-based intervention to address teenage mental health
- Full Answer Key plus Teacher Notes
Common challenges: Public-health vocabulary at C1 is technical — prevalence, incidence, longitudinal, cross-sectional, correlation, causation, comorbidity. Distinguishing competing hypotheses requires careful reading: smartphone causation vs many other contributing factors. Sensitive-topic handling: the text addresses serious mental health without sensationalising.
For: Adult and teenage learners (14+) at CEFR B2 to C1, in upper-intermediate and advanced classes, 1:1 lessons, or self-study. Maps onto Cambridge C1 Advanced (CAE) Reading. Part of the Society & Issues Readings collection — the natural next step is A Complex Argumentative Text: AI and Society, which extends society reading into the C1-level argumentative-text territory.
