Comparative data has shown adolescents need to feel valued and connected with their school to lead happy lives.

A professor of clinical psychology at the Queensland University of Technology, Ian Shochet, presented the findings on teenage resilience and depression to an Australian Psychological Society conference last week.

More than 2000 students were surveyed for the research on how they felt about school, their mood and other factors. They were then canvassed on the same issues 12 months later.

''The school experience is so important,'' Professor Shochet said. ''Its link with depression is more important than parental attachment. The strength of the correlation is breathtaking.''

Professor Shochet said parents should be willing to pull their children out of schools if they were miserable and find them better places elsewhere.

''I think it's very important to get the right fit for a child,'' he said. ''I would not be doing it in a knee-jerk way - you have to carefully consider it - but a sense of belonging and a good fit for a child is very important.

''If you have a school where a child is not happy, it's worth moving them to another school.''

Professor Shochet said rates of depression among young people were ''excessively high'' but resilience could be promoted to help teens avoid becoming depressed. He said one in five teenagers would experience clinical levels of depression at some point in their teenage years.

SANE Australia boss Jack Heath said on Wednesday the national suicide rate remained stubbornly high and more needed to be done, especially for teenage girls.

''Suicide among teenage girls aged 15 to 19 increased by 63 per cent from 2011 to 2012,'' he said. ''These figures make a compelling case for renewed action on suicide prevention.''

Professor Shochet developed a program called the Resourceful Adolescent Program, which has been endorsed by the federal government and is taught in some schools.

''It is aimed at improving resilience and coping in adolescents,'' he said.