Survey results published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday, March 31, showed that mental health concerns among high school students in the United States were heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Findings from the new CDC survey suggest that the mental health of American youths was even worse during the pandemic, with significant increases in U.S. high school students reporting persistent feelings of hopelessness or sadness. The number of high school students who considered suicide or attempted suicide over the past decade has also increased.
According to the CNN report, the CDC survey discovered that more than a third (37 percent) of high school students in the United States experienced poor mental health during the pandemic.
The youth in the United States are in crisis
More than four out of 10 (44 percent) high school students had felt persistent hopelessness or sadness that caused them to stop doing some of their usual activities. About one in five students seriously considered death from suicide, and about one in 10 high school students had a suicide attempt.
According to the CDC study, poor mental health was most prevalent among gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth and female high school students. Kathleen Ethier, the director of the CDC's adolescent and school health division, did not mince any words during a media briefing on Thursday, telling reporters that the youth are in crisis.
Ethier told NBC News that the data from the CDC and others like it show that young people and their families have been under incredible levels of stress during the COVID pandemic. Ethier added that their data exposes cracks and uncovers an important layer of insight into the extreme disruptions that some of the youth in the United States have encountered during the pandemic.
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Racism contributed to poor mental health of some students
The CDC survey also found that students who felt virtually connected or close to people at their own school were significantly less likely to report poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey also showed that lesbian, bisexual, and gay students were less likely than heterosexual students to feel connected to people at their schools.
The issue of racism was also tackled in the CDC study. The survey showed that more than a third of high school students, including more than half of Black students and nearly two-thirds of Asian students, experienced racism before or during the COVID pandemic.
The students who said they had been treated unfairly or badly in school because of their ethnicity or race were also less likely to feel connected to people at their high school. These students are more likely to experience poor mental health. They will also have difficulty concentrating and remembering or making decisions. According to NPR, the CDC declared that racism was a serious public health threat last year.
