The AP (8/6, Johnson ) reports, “There are small signs of improvement in the mental health of U.S. teenagers, a government survey released Tuesday said, but the share of students – particularly girls – feeling sad and hopeless remained high.” From 2021 to 2023, the percentage “of high school students who reported feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness declined from 42% to 40%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report” (PDF). Among girls, the CDC found “the percentage reporting persistent sadness or hopelessness fell from 57% to 53%.”
The New York Times (8/6, Ghorayshi ) reports the survey found “just 28 percent of teenage boys felt persistent sadness, about the same as in 2021.” Meanwhile, “suicide risk among girls stayed roughly the same as the last survey.” However, “Black students, who reported troubling increases in suicide attempts in 2021, reported significantly fewer attempts in 2023.”
ABC News (8/6, Kekatos ) reports the survey found “youth who identify as LGBTQ+ reported higher rates of poor mental health and experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors than their cisgender and heterosexual peers.” Last year, “more than three in five LGBTQ+…high school students said they experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and more than half reported having poor mental health, according to” the findings.
Also reporting is CNN (8/6, Goodman ).
Related Links:
— “High schoolers’ mental health shows small improvement in a US government survey,”Carla K. Johnson, AP, August , 2024