A recently published study Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that levels of sadness and hopelessness are decreasing in some American teenagers, especially girls.
However, the survey and experts said challenges remain, as some statistics in the most recent report worsened. Of particular concern is a growing group of students who missed school because they did not feel safe.
“I was happy to see a little bit of improvement” in teens’ mental health, Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, a nonprofit that works to reduce chronic absenteeism, told the Guardian. “I think schools have heard the message that they need to invest more in social-emotional support and a sense of belonging.”
It was a message echoed by top officials at the CDC, which came with a caveat: “The data released today show improvements in a number of metrics measuring young people’s mental well-being — progress we can build on,” Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer and deputy director for programs and science, said in a press release accompanying the data.
“But this work is far from over,” Houry said. “Every child deserves to feel safe and supported, and CDC will continue its work to translate this data into action until we reach that goal.”
The new data come from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a biennial report on sexual behavior, substance use, violent experiences and mental health among ninth- through 12th-grade students. The survey measures these experiences across six demographic groups, including gender, sexual identity, race, ethnicity and grade level, and began in 1990.
This report reflects data from 2023 and provides the first update to the research since 2021, when experts saw a troubling deterioration in young people’s mental health despite the Covid-19 pandemic, prompting the American Academy of Pediatrics to to call for a national emergency to address the crisis.
According to the data, there were glimpses of hope between 2021 and 2023. The overall number of students reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness dropped from 42% to 40%. The number of female students who felt the same also dropped, from 57% to 53%.
Hispanic students also reported a decrease in feelings of persistent sadness (from 46% to 42%), lower rates of poor mental health (from 30% to 26%), and a decrease in those who seriously considered a suicide attempt (22% to 18%) and those who made a suicide plan (19% to 16%). Black students were also significantly less likely to report attempting suicide in this survey (from 14% to 10%) and were less likely to be injured in suicide attempts (from 4% to 2%).
Other challenges remain. The report continues to show disparities in youth mental health experienced by girls and LGBTQ+ students. Girls score worse than their male counterparts on nearly every measure of substance use, experiences of violence, mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. LGBTQ+ youth face similar disparities, with three in five experiencing persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.
Worryingly, the survey also found worsening trends in school safety. More students were bullied at school (15% to 19%) between 2021-2023, and more students missed school due to safety concerns (increasing from 9% to 13%). The percentage of students who were threatened or injured at school also increased (7% to 9%).
The percentage of girls and Asian-American students who reported missing school for safety reasons was even more dramatic, rising from 10% to 16%, respectively, and doubling for Asian-Americans, from 5% to 10%.
“I’m Chinese American, and I personally feel less safe in the United States than I did 10 years ago,” Chang said. “It doesn’t surprise me that one of the groups that is most nervous is Asian American kids.”
Chang continued: “When we live in a world outside that blames people — blames people for the pandemic, says they are a threat to the well-being of society — you worry about how that plays out in schools. Schools are always, in part, a reflection of the world outside.”