Big Rise in U.S. Teen Girls Reporting Violence, Sadness

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

An alarming new survey shows that American teen girls are experiencing record-high levels of violence, sadness, and suicide risk.

Schools may be the answer to improving what’s happening for young people, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 3 in 5 girls — 57% — said they felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021. That’s up 60%, the CDC reported, and those numbers are double the number of teen boys experiencing sadness or hopelessness.

Girls fared worse than boys across nearly all measures, though all teens reported increasing mental health challenges, experiences of violence, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), 30% of teen girls seriously considered attempting suicide. About 18% experienced sexual violence in the past year, up 20% from 2017, when the CDC started monitoring this measure.

About 14% had ever been forced to have sex, up 27% since 2019.

Meanwhile, about 52% of LGBTQ students had recently experienced poor mental health and 22% had attempted suicide in the past year.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/depression-in-teen-girls-2659407498.html