Young teens are living the results of a “perfect storm” of too much time online, lingering impact of Covid pandemic and the “rise of individualism”, a leading child and adolescent psychotherapist has warned.

Dr Colman Noctor, a psychotherapist at St Patrick’s University Hospital, Dublin was commenting on findings that today’s 13-year olds were almost twice as “at risk” of depressive symptoms, with girls especially at risk, than their counterparts a decade earlier.

Drawing on data from the longitudinal Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study the report examines findings about 13-year olds born in 2008 with findings from a cohort born in 1998.

Dr Noctor said he and colleagues were “overwhelmed” with referrals for support and treatment for children experiencing mental and emotional distress. An upward trajectory had begun around 2010 – around the same time as smartphone use spiralled – and accelerated since the pandemic, he said.