Study Finds Improvement in Youth Mental Health But Shows Teen Girls Still Struggling

A new government study finds youth mental health may be improving slightly since the pandemic, but teen girls are still struggling with feelings of sadness, hopelessness and thoughts of suicide, CNN reports.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), included more than 20,000 students in grades nine through 12. The survey found a two-point improvement in the percentage of teens who said they experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness from 2021 to 2023.

The survey found that in 2023, 40% of teens answering the survey said they experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, down from a high of 42% in 2021 but is still about 10% higher than it was a decade ago. The survey also found 20% of teens said they seriously considered suicide, up from 17% in 2013. Nine percent said they had attempted suicide, down from a high of 10% in 2021, but higher than the 8% reported in 2013.

More than half of those identifying in the survey as girls (53%) said they felt persistently sad or hopeless compared with 28% of those identifying as boys. In 2013, those numbers were 39% for girls and 21% for boys.