Half or more of Americans say they feel extremely or very comfortable talking about their mental health with a close friend (57%), a close family member (52%) or a mental health therapist (50%), according to a new Pew Research. Center survey.
The Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand who Americans feel comfortable talking to about their mental health and emotional well-being. For this analysis, we surveyed 10,133 US adults from February 7 to February 11, 2024.
Everyone who participated in the survey is a member of the Centers’ American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through a national random sampling of residential addresses. That way, almost every adult in the US has a chance to be selected. The survey is weighted to be representative of the US adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, party affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATPs methodology.
For this study, respondents who are not married or living with a partner were not asked about their comfort talking to a spouse or partner about their mental health and emotional well-being. Those who do not work for pay were not asked about someone they work with. Some of the items were asked in half of the sample. See the top line questionnaire below for more information on survey administration.
Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with the survey responses and methodology.
In the United States, the importance of mental health and emotional well-being has become increasingly visible, especially in light of the mental health challenges many Americans faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health professionals encourage people to turn to a trusted support network to deal with difficult times in life, so we asked US adults who they think they can open up to about their mental health .
Still, not all Americans feel comfortable talking about their mental health with loved ones or with professionals. About three in ten American adults (31%) say they would feel only somewhat comfortable talking to a close friend about their mental health, and an additional 12% would not feel very or not at all comfortable about it. Similar actions say this about talking about mental health with a family member or therapist.
When it comes to other people Americans might open up to about their mental health, comfort levels vary:
Significant others they are seen as a source of support for most people who are married or living with a partner. A large majority of these Americans (79%) feel very or very comfortable talking about their mental health with their spouse or partner. This is the highest level of comfort among the types of people we asked.
However, this source of support is not available to all adults. About four in ten Americans say they are neither married nor living with a partner, while about six in ten say they are.
Americans who attend religious services frequently feel comfortable talking about their mental health faith leaders. Overall, 31% of American adults say they would feel very or very comfortable talking about this with a spiritual or religious leader. But comfort is much greater among adults who report attending religious services at least once a week: 58% of regular attendees would be comfortable talking about their mental health with a religious leader.
Americans feel largely uncomfortable talking about your mental health with mates or neighbours. Nearly half of working Americans (48 percent) say they wouldn’t feel very comfortable or not at all comfortable talking about it with a coworker. And about two-thirds of Americans overall (68%) would be uncomfortable talking about their mental health with a neighbor.
Modest differences by gender and age
We did not find large differences in comfort talking about mental health by gender or age, although these factors are related to the likelihood of experiencing certain mental health conditions.
For example, similar proportions of women (53%) and men (47%) say they feel very or very comfortable talking to a therapist about their mental health. And women and men rank the seven sources of support included in the survey in the same order.
Differences are also modest between age groups. Adults 18-29 and those 65 and older express similar levels of comfort talking about their mental health with a close friend, family member, or therapist.
Social support networks
Health experts say that having diverse and supportive relationships can improve emotional well-being. Our survey paints a mixed picture of the networks Americans turn to to discuss mental health.
On the one hand, nearly half of Americans (47%) say they feel extremely or very comfortable having conversations about mental health with three or more of the types of people included in the survey.
On the other hand, 15% of Americans do not feel very or very comfortable talking about their mental health none of the types of people we asked.
Between these two ends of the spectrum, 17% of Americans feel comfortable talking about their mental health with only one of the types of people included in the survey, and 21% feel comfortable doing so with two types of people
The survey did not ask about the total number of people surveyed feel comfortable talking about their mental health. Some respondents may be comfortable with only one type of contact, such as a close friend, but may have more than one close friend they would feel comfortable turning to.
Single American adults are most likely to feel very uncomfortable talking about their mental health with any of the types of people we asked. Among Americans who are not married and do not live with a partner, about a quarter (23%) do not feel very or very comfortable talking about their mental health with none of the people asked in the survey. That’s higher than the share of married or partnered Americans who give that answer (10%).
Note: Below are the questions used for this analysis, along with the survey responses and methodology.
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