Depression and thoughts of suicide have dramatically increased among teen girls, following a ten-year trend, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to a new CDC study, 57 percent of high school girls reported feelings of sadness or hopeless in 2021 (a 58 percent increase from 2011), while 30 percent seriously considered suicide (a nearly 60 percent increase from 2011), and 24 percent made plans for suicide (a 60 percent increase from 2011).
The rate at which teen girls felt sadness or hopelessness is about double the rate of their male counterparts, but the mental health of America’s young people is generally poor.
Forty-two percent of high school students overall felt persistent sadness or hopelessness, 22 percent seriously considered suicide, 18 percent made a plan for suicide, and 10 percent attempted suicide.
These are the highest numbers reported in a decade.
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which is conducted every two years, was administered to around 17,000 students across the country in 2021.
“As we saw in the 10 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health among students overall continues to worsen, with more than 40% of high school students feeling so sad or hopeless that they could not engage in their regular activities for at least two weeks during the previous year – a possible indication of the experience of depressive symptoms,” the CDC said of their findings. “We also saw significant increases in the percentage of youth who seriously considered suicide, made a suicide plan, and attempted suicide.”
“Across almost all measures of substance use, experiences of violence, mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors, female students are faring more poorly than male students,” the report continued. “These differences, and the rates at which female students are reporting such negative experiences, are stark.”
Findings for teen girls showed that 30 percent had used alcohol in the past month, 20 percent experienced sexual violence, and 14 percent had been forced to have sex.
“Unfortunately, almost all indicators of health and well-being in this report including protective sexual behaviors (i.e. condom use, sexually transmitted disease (STD) testing, and HIV testing), experiences of violence, mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors worsened significantly,” the CDC said.
“Young people are telling us that they are in crisis,” Dr. Kathleen Ethier, who is in charge of the CDC’s adolescent and school health program, said, according to the New York Times.
There were some areas in which teenagers improved, such as a decrease in sexual activity and fewer sexual partners overall, as well as lower rates of drug use and bullying.
However, teens were lacking in “school connectedness” which is “feeling close to people at school, has a long-lasting, protective impact for adolescents well into adulthood.”
There did appear to be good numbers for “parental monitoring,” where “students overwhelmingly said that their parents mostly or always knew where they were and who they were with.”
Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.
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