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 portion 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. More than 20,000 students were surveyed at school in the spring of 2023.
Among girls, the percentage reporting persistent sadness or hopelessness fell from 57% to 53%. The share of girls reporting they had seriously considered attempting suicide edged downward from 30% to 27%.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many school activities, increased isolation among youth and may have contributed to the 2021 findings on mental health. But long-term trends also reflect a worsening of mental health among teenagers, particularly girls.
(AP)
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The condition of being a teenager is “self-limiting” (meaning if you wait a few years, if goes away on its own). It is similar to a “cold” but very different than “cancer”, and is selling to regard it as being as serious as cancer.
It should be noted the frum schools do a better job of treating teenagers than most American public schools (probably has to do with a values-oriented curriculum, which public schools lack). For obvious political reasons, don’t expect the CDC (a government agency) to conduct research if it risks showing that the government schools might actually be the cause of the problem.