Acceptance of homosexuality has decreased sharply among adolescents in the Netherlands

Acceptance of homosexuality among adolescents decreased sharply between 2021 and 2025. Adolescents also increasingly see school as a less enjoyable place. These are two of the many findings from the four-yearly Dutch Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study (PDF, in Dutch). This study, conducted by Utrecht University and the Trimbos Institute, focuses on the health and well-being of adolescents in the Netherlands.

Gonneke Stevens, the lead researcher of the HBSC study and Professor of Adolescent Health and Wellbeing at Utrecht University, indicates that between 2021 and 2025, the percentage of boys in secondary education who had a positive attitude towards homosexuality fell from 40% to 22%. “Girls have a more positive attitude towards homosexuality than boys, but this percentage also decreased sharply among girls. Among girls in secondary education, it fell from 78% to 51%.”

How students feel about school

The percentage of secondary-school students who enjoy school has been steadily decreasing for more than ten years, including during the most recent four-year period. According to Stevens, this development is connected to other changes. Between 2017 and 2025, secondary-school students became less positive about the atmosphere among classmates. They also reported more often that they were being bullied. The level of pressure caused by schoolwork did not change between 2021 and 2025. It is still high: “More than half of the girls and more than one-third of the boys in secondary education experienced a lot of pressure from their schoolwork in 2025.”

Mental health among girls

When the previous HBSC report was published four years ago, the researchers warned about the sharp decline in girls’ mental health. According to Stevens and her colleagues, the situation has not improved. “Our results show that, in 2025, girls in secondary education scored much less positively on all eight measures of mental health than they did in 2017. This was also the case in 2021. “For example, the percentage of girls with emotional problems increased from 29% in 2017 to 43% in 2025. The percentage of girls with behavioural problems increased from 12% to 21% during the same period.” Among girls in primary school, there were some signs of improvement in their mental health in 2025.

Around half of the children in Year 6 have a smartphone.

Social media

Between 2017 and 2025, the percentage of adolescents who were in contact with others through social media throughout the entire day did not change. However, between 2017 and 2021, the number of girls with problematic social-media use increased. In 2025, this figure was still higher among girls in secondary education than it was in 2017. Social media use is considered problematic when it interferes with other important parts of a person’s life and when the person feels unable to control their use. In 2025, the researchers also asked adolescents whether they had already had their own smartphone in Year 6 of primary school (i.e., when they were around 10)—or even earlier. About half said yes.

Alcohol, smoking and vaping

In 2025, the percentage of adolescents who had ever drunk alcohol, or had drunk alcohol during the previous month, was lower than in 2021. Nevertheless, almost 40% of all secondary-school students had drunk alcohol at least once in 2025. In addition, most young people who drink still consume a large amount of alcohol. Stevens also points out that, since 2017, the percentage of girls who smoke has gradually increased. “This means that, in 2025, we saw for the first time that girls smoked more often than boys. The same is true for vaping.”

Boys in primary school became more physically active during the last four years.

Fruit and physical activity

During the last four years, the percentage of primary-school students who ate fruit at least once every day increased considerably, from 42% to 54%. “This percentage has never been this high since the first HBSC study in 2001.” The percentage also increased among secondary-school students, but the increase was much smaller than among primary-school students. Another positive development is that boys in primary school became more physically active during the last four years. “We also saw a decrease between 2021 and 2025 in the percentage of primary-school boys who played video games for at least 24 hours per week. This fell from 19% to 13%.”