
Teen Girls Suffering From Unprecedented Levels of Depression: CDC Report the CDC stated on Monday that sexual assault and other traumatic events have contributed to an unparalleled degree of depression and suicide ideation among young women in the United States.
According to Kathleen Ethier, a prominent CDC member, teenage girls in the United States are experiencing a mental health crisis due to the epidemic of violence and trauma they are witnessing.
The 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the CDC reveals alarming tendencies. Nearly 60% of adolescent females reported feeling “persistently sad or hopeless.” This is the highest proportion seen in almost ten years. And 30% stated they have given serious thought to ending their own lives by suicide, a number that has increased by nearly 60% in the previous decade.
In all, 17,232 American high school pupils participated in the poll, which has been taken every other year for the past 30 years. Over the last year, more than 40% of students reported feeling so gloomy or dismal that they could not participate in their typical activities, such as academics or athletics, for at least two weeks. Researchers found that when comparing the sexes, girls reported these emotions at far higher rates than boys.
More than half (52%) of young people who called themselves gay, lesbian, bisexual, or were still questioning themselves reported mental health issues. Transgender identity was not probed for in this survey.
More than a fifth of these young people tried to commit suicide in the previous 12 months, according to a report by CDC. Discrimination and brutality toward LGBTQ teens primarily led to their waning mental health.
The CDC survey did discover a startling increase in violent acts, especially against females. This month, the assault on 14-year-old New Jersey high school student Adriana Kuch made headlines across the country. Kuch’s father said that his daughter had been made a spectacle of when a video of the event was shared online. Kuch committed suicide a few days after the incident.
The CDC also reported an increase in sexual violence against females, with one in five claiming she had been a victim in the previous year. 14% of those surveyed reported being coerced into sexual activity. That’s an increase from 2019 when 11% of teenage females reported experiencing sexual assault.
Keeping these instances in mind, it’s crucial for parents of teens to watch out for any red flags. It’s common for adolescents to act moodily or withdraw from their relatives during adolescence, so it can be difficult to see warning signs. If parents notice any shifts in a teen’s eating or sleeping patterns, they might want to question them about it.
The research from the CDC recommends increasing school-based programs like sex education to combat the rising mental health epidemic in the country.
“We suggest that our schools start by educating their staff and their families all that mental health is, what supports are available, and how they can access their services,” stated Anna King, president of the National PTA and part of the meeting on Monday.
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