SACO, Maine — A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates teenagers are facing more mental health challenges than they were a decade ago. The groups most affected are teenage girls and LGBTQ+ youth.
The "Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report: 2011-2021" includes data collected from the fall of 2021. It looks at behaviors and experiences among high school students in our country, including sexual behaviors, substance use, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, violence, poor mental health, and social determinants of health, like unstable housing. The report found that while some aspects of adolescent health are improving, like risky sexual behavior, substance use, and bullying at school, almost all others are getting worse.
The report indicates in 2021, 40 percent of high school students reported feeling "so sad or hopeless that they could not engage in their regular activities for at least two weeks during the previous year." It also found "significant increases" in the number of youth who considered suicide seriously, made a suicide plan, and attempted suicide.
Those numbers get worse when looking at teenage girls versus boys. Data from 2021 found nearly 30 percent of female students drank alcohol in the past month. Almost 20 percent of female students reported experiencing sexual violence in the past year, and 14 percent said they had been physically forced to have sex.
Nearly 60 percent of female students in 2021 reported experiencing persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in the past year. That's up from 36 percent in 2011, is almost twice as high as reported numbers from teenage boys, and marks the highest level reported over the past decade. Nearly a quarter of female students made a suicide plan.
"In elementary school for example, [girls] are valued for being truly who they are. If they’re interested in sports or academics, that’s their identity. Sadly, many of them hit middle school, and all of a sudden they’re really sexualized and objectified," Marc Kaplan, medical director of Sweetser, said about a possible reason for the disparity in these numbers.
Kaplan said objectification and societal pressures can lead to girls feeling alienated, anxious, and not good enough. A surge in social media use has also made it easier for girls to compare themselves to others online, where it seems like everyone else is having a better life. Isolation during COVID-19 made matters worse when schools shut down in-person operations for a time.
"Things were on the upswing in a very bad way anyway, but then COVID hit, and COVID had a devastating effect on the mental health of teenagers," Kaplan said. "I remember in June of 2020, the CDC was showing data of about a 30 percent uptick in anxiety and depression."
The report points to school connectedness and parental monitoring as ways to mitigate effects of isolation and stress on teenagers. Kaplan said it's important that parents are "hands-on" and try to be just as involved in their teenager's lives as they were when they were kids.
"When they’re 15 or 16 [years old], you have to find ways to connect to them," Kaplan said. "That whole concept of being valued in the family is very important and [so is] participating together in pro-social activities, or supporting [your] daughter in activities – whether it’s theater, a part-time job, sports, a school newspaper."
If you're in need of immediate mental health help, you can contact the Maine Crisis Line at 1-888-568-1112 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.