The COVID pandemic continues to take its toll.
The pandemic caused significant stress and uncertainty, especially for young people who experienced high levels of depression, anxiety, and loneliness.
A new report on youth risk behavior, just in time for the start of the new school year, shows that there is “still much work ahead” when it comes to kids’ mental health. The report from the CDC monitors adolescent health behaviors and experiences over time, identifying emerging issues.
“These data show that we’ve made some progress in tackling these issues in recent years, which proves that they are not insurmountable. However, there’s still much work ahead,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health. “Considering the vital role schools play in promoting health and well-being, it is critical to address school-based violence and safety concerns.”
While the report shows some improvement in mental health among some teens, including decreases in the percentage of students feeling persistently sad or hopeless, it also highlights increases in the percentage of teens reporting incidents of school-based violence and absenteeism due to safety concerns.
CNN reports on the findings. Here’s the start of the story:
Compared with a decade ago, teens, and especially girls, are more likely to say they feel persistently sad and hopeless and to think about or attempt suicide, according to a new report. Still, recent data suggest things might be improving slightly since the pandemic.
The report, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which has been fielded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more than three decades as a way to measure the well-being of American high school students, found a two-point improvement in the percentage who said they experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness from 2021 to 2023, the most recent years measured by the survey. But overall, the outlook for teens is still pretty dark.
In 2023, 40% of students who answered the survey said they experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. That metric was down from a high of 42% in 2021 but is still about 10 percentage points higher than it was a decade ago.
In addition, 20% said they seriously considered suicide, up from 17% in 2013. Nine percent said they had attempted suicide; that’s down from a high of 10% in 2021, but still higher than the 8% reported in 2013.