With families around the country preparing to go back to school, there is promising news about teen mental health: Girls seem to be feeling a little better.
The percentage of teen girls who expressed persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness has declined since 2021, from 57% to 53%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
They’re also less likely to attempt suicide. In 2023, 27% of surveyed girls had seriously considered ending her life, compared to 30% in 2021.
“These data show that we’ve made some progress in tackling these issues in recent years, which proves that they are not insurmountable,” Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s division of adolescent and school health, said in a news release about the survey.
Just a year ago, the CDC reported that teen girls were suffering through an unprecedented wave of sadness and trauma, with many reporting they were unable to do regular activities such as schoolwork or sports.
The new findings, which include feedback from more than 20,000 students nationwide, offer a glimmer of hope following years of worsening mental health among young girls — especially since the pandemic.
“It’s always encouraging when fewer kids report experiencing persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness,” said Dr. Ellen Rome, head of adolescent medicine at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital. “But the numbers are still overwhelmingly high and should provoke thought and concern and action to help.”
Female students continue to struggle more than their male peers, the report found.
Dr. Anisha Abraham, head of the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Children’s National in Washington, D.C., said, “the fact remains that half of female students who were surveyed still experience persistent feelings of sadness or helplessness.”
Even with slight improvements in their mental health, Dr. Gary Maslow, a professor of pediatrics at Duke University, said “it’s a flip of a coin.”
“Imagine being in a high school classroom of 20 kids with 10 girls, and half of them have been thinking about suicide,” he said.
The more positive findings about girls were muted, however, with a rise in students reporting school violence. The percentage of teens who said they felt threatened at school rose from 7% to 9% from 2021 to 2023. And the percentage of kids who said they felt bullied at school during that time period went from 15% to 19%.
The emotional toll was worse for students who identify as anything other heterosexual. LGBTQ+ high school students reported higher rates of “violence, poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors than their peers,” the CDC said in its report.
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