Teenage girls report record levels of sadness, C.D.C. Find

Teenage girls reported high rates of sadness, suicidal thoughts, and sexual violence, as did teenage girls who identified as gay or bisexual.< /p>

Nearly three in five teenage girls experienced persistent sadness in 2021, double the rate for boys, and one in three girls seriously considered attempting suicide, according to data released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The findings, based on surveys of teens across the country, also showed high levels of violence, depression and suicidal thoughts among young lesbians , gays and bisexuals. More than one in five college students said they had attempted suicide in the year before the survey, the agency found.

Sadness rates are the highest reported in a decade, reflecting a long-running national tragedy that has only been compounded by the isolation and stress of the pandemic.

"I think there's really no doubt about what this data is telling us," said Dr. Kathleen Ethier, director of the C.D.C.'s adolescent and school health program. "Young people are telling us they are in crisis."

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey was conducted among 17,000 teenagers in secondary schools across the United States in the fall of 2021. The survey is conducted every two years, and rates of mental health issues have increased with each report since 2011, Dr. Ethier said.

"There was a health crisis before the pandemic - it just didn't grab everyone's attention the way it does now," said Dr. Cori Green, Director of Behavioral Health Education and Pediatric Integration at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.

Nevertheless, Dr. Green said she sees more of his young patients who tested positive during depression screenings. "The pandemic has led to increased social isolation - a risk factor for depression," she said.

She also pointed out that the symptoms of depression sometimes manifests differently in boys and girls, which may not be fully reflected in the survey. Although girls with depression often have lingering feelings of sadness or hopelessness, which the survey asked about, boys with depression often show irritability or aggression, she said. said.

Across a handful of subjects, survey results suggested teens were doing better than in previous years. They reported lower rates of illicit drug use and bullying at school, for example. And teens are having less sex, with fewer sexual partners, than in previous years.

But about 57% of girls and 69% of teens who are gay, lesbian or bisexuals reported feeling sad every day for at least two weeks during the previous year. And 14% of girls, up from 12% in 2011, said they had been forced to have sex at some point in their lives, as did 20% of gay, lesbian or bisexual teens.

"When we look at experiences of violence, girls experience almost every type of violence more than boys," said Dr. Ethier of the C.D.C. Researchers should study not only the increase in reports of violence, she said, but its causes: "We need to talk about what is happening with adolescents that might lead them to commit sexual violence." p>

Researchers also analyzed data by race and ethnicity, finding that black and Hispanic students were more likely to report skipping school due to concerns about violence . White students, however, were more likely to report experiencing sexual violence.

Increases in sadness and hopelessness were reported across all racial groups in course of the last decade. Although black college students were less likely to report these negative feelings than other groups, they were more likely to report suicide attempts than white, Asian, or Hispanic teens.

The 2021 survey asked about students' sexual orientation, but did not ask about their gender identity, so data on risk factors for transgender students is not available.

Dr. Victor Fornari, vice president of child and adolescent psychiatry for Northwell Health, New York's largest health system, noted that the decline in teen wellbeing coincides with the rise of smartphones. . Al...