Teen Mental Health Remains Poor

Teen mental health in the United States is dismal. Recent data show that four in ten teens experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, two in ten seriously considered attempting suicide, and almost one in ten attempted suicide.

These statistics are from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2013-2023. Every two years, data are collected from a nationally representative sample of U.S. high school students. The survey includes questions on sexual behavior, substance use, experiences of violence, and mental health.

Most indicators of adolescent health and well-being deteriorated between 2013 and 2023. Declining rates of substance abuse and high-risk sexual activity are some of the positive trends in the report. Condom usage, HIV testing, experiences of violence, mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors worsened significantly. I’ll focus on the data on teen mental health in this column.

40% of high school students experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in 2023, down from 42% in 2021. 29% reported experiencing poor mental health with no change over the past two years. 20% seriously considered attempting suicide, down from 22% in 2021. 16% made a suicide plan and 9% attempted suicide in 2023, down from 18% and 10% respectively in 2021. 2% were injured in a suicide attempt that had to be treated by a doctor or a nurse in 2023, down from 3% in 2021. It is encouraging that two-year changes show modest improvements in teen well-being.

Unfortunately, longitudinal data show that teen mental health is far worse than it was a decade ago. Nearly all indicators of poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors worsened among teens between 2013 to 2023, including increases in the percentage of teens who experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, seriously considered attempting suicide, made a suicide plan, or attempted suicide.

Teen girls are at greater risk of poor mental health and suicidal behaviors than boys. For example, 13% of girls reported attempting suicide in 2023, compared to only 6% of boys. Rates for all measures of mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors were at least 75% higher among girls than boys in 2023.

LGBTQ+ teens experience extremely high rates of poor mental health and suicidal behaviors, compared to cisgender teens. In 2023, 65% of LGBTQ+ teens experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. 53% of LGBTQ+ teens reported experiencing poor mental health. 41% of LGBTQ+ teens seriously considered attempting suicide. 32% of LGBTQ+ teens made a suicide plan, 20% attempted suicide, and 5% were injured in a suicide attempt that had to be treated by a doctor or a nurse in 2023. On all measures, rates for LGBTQ+ teens were at least 100% higher than those found among cisgender teens in 2023.

Looking at the modest improvements in teen mental health between 2021 and 2023, it’s clear that pandemic-era stressors were not the primary causes of our teen mental health crisis. The pandemic just exacerbated existing mental health challenges among teens. Data show that things were heading in the wrong direction long before COVID-19.

Social media and smartphone usage get a bulk of the blame for teens’ poor mental health. Yes, many teens are doomscrolling their way to depression. It’s what they’re not doing that might be more significant. Teens are spending less time with each other than previous generations. Social isolation and the atrophy of teen social life are key drivers of the U.S. teen mental health crisis. Other contributing factors include poor access to mental healthcare, problems associated with poverty, and challenges at school.

It’s not all doom and gloom for our teens. As I mentioned earlier, two-year trends show modest improvements across most mental health measures. Additionally, several high-risk sexual behaviors and many substance use indicators are heading in the right direction. Unfortunately, there’s much work to be done to address the teen mental health crisis.

Roscoe Scarborough, Ph.D. is chair of the Department of Social Sciences and associate professor of sociology at College of Coastal Georgia. He is an associate scholar at the Reg Murphy Center for Economic and Policy Studies. He can be reached by email at rscarborough@ccga.edu.