Teens today are more likley to say they feel persistently sad or hopeless and think about suicide.

Question

Forty percent of highschool students reported to experiance, persistent feelings such being sad and hopeless in 2023, according Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Which focus on many studies on teen bahavior such as meltal health, sexual behavior and other important issues. lots of theses reports came in during the convid19 pandemic (about 42% two years earlier).

CNN spoke with Matt Richtel who wrote a book “How we grow up”, focusing on the transition towrds teen behavoir of idenity, and the challenges that come with that, and why has the been so effective for the past decades. in his interveiw with CNN he mentions those challgenes such as, the teen tends to move quickly cuaing them to feel overwelmed or anxiety, for newer generations are surronded by social media making them feel insheltered. teens not knwing why there upset, translating them to have bad days. Not understanding or even having the motivatiin of adolescence wanting to explore, exmaple not wanitng to read.

Methods from Richtel, he metioned for teens to deal with situations like these. Is to find the skills of coping, also going to therapy that focus more congnitive behavior and dialectical therapy.

Answer 1

This is true. The CDC reported that in 2023 "40% of students had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness". They also revealed that "2 in 10 students seriously considered attempting suicide". These percentages are concerning and have increased immensely in comparison to data from the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 2013 that reported only 30% of students maintained these persistent depressing feelings. This data shows how students are largely in distress and are more prone to feelings of sadness. The data comes from the CDC which is a credible source that gets their information through the use of annual surveys. Suicide is a big issue in our society, and while awareness has increased so has the statistics. According to research done by Brown University in 2023 nearly 48,000 Americans die of suicide each year. It was also stated that "10% of youth in grades 9-12 reported that they had made a suicidal attempt in the last 12 months". This supports the claim that teens today have reported to feel persistently more sad and think about suicide more often. Increased social media use, academic pressure, and social isolation has all contributed to the rise in anxiety and sadness felt among teens today.

sources:

https://www.cdc.gov/healthy-youth/mental-health/index.html

https://www.brownhealth.org/be-well/rise-suicide

https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/29622/CDC-Teens-mental-health-worse-than-a-decade-ago?autologincheck=redirected

Answer 2

According to an article from the CDC, a very trusted source, this claim is very true. The article quoted that "39.7% of students experienced persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, 28.5% experienced poor mental health, 20.4% seriously considered attempting suicide, and 9.5% had attempted suicide."

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/su/su7304a9.htm#:~:text=Prevalence%20estimates%20were%20calculated%20for,grade%2C%20and%20race%20and%20ethnicity.

Answer 3

Recent data shows that teens today are increasingly reporting feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and suicidal thoughts. While most young children display positive mental health indicators, about one in five children between ages 3-17 have been diagnosed with a mental, emotional, or behavioral condition, such as anxiety or depression. Suicide rates among young people have risen a lot, up 62% between 2007 and 2021, with alarming increases among black children and preteens. Some experts claim this rise in mental health crises is because of factors like violence and safety concerns. In response to this rise, organizations like Yale’s Center for Brain and Mind Health are expanding suicide research, developing better risk detection tools and emphasizing family involvement. 

https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/youth-suicide-is-on-the-rise-yale-aims-to-save-lives/

https://www.cdc.gov/children-mental-health/data-research/index.html

Answer 4

This claim is extremely true through fact-checking and personal observation. I came across a popular CNN article when fact-checking and came across a CDC report in 2023 that claimed the same theory. It's pretty recent, but the evidence is true and continues to be true to this day. I looked into another recent (April 2025) article from Pew Research Center that claims that teens' mental health is plummeting. They provided a survey they conducted that showed that 77% of teenagers worry for teen mental health due to a wide variety of issues like social media, pressure and expectations, bullying, etc. 

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/04/22/teens-social-media-and-mental-health/

https://www.cdc.gov/yrbs/dstr/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/14/health/teen-mental-health-stress-school-wellness

Answer 5

This is a sad but well proven claim. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2023 about 40% of US high school students reported that in the past year they felt persistently sad or hopeless. That same survey also found that about 20% of students said they had seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, and about 9.5% said they had actually attempted suicide. https://www.cdc.gov/healthy-youth/mental-health/index.html

There is a notable rise in this issue. Between 2019 and 2021, the percentage of teens experiencing persistent sadness/hopelessness increased from 37 % to 42 %  https://usafacts.org/articles/the-cdc-says-teen-mental-health-is-in-crisis-who-is-most-at-risk/

Female students and students identifying as LGBTQ+ report much higher rates. For example, among LGBQ+ students, 65.7% felt persistent sadness or hopelessness. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/su/su7304a9.htm

This data sows us that the pandemic dramatically increased sadness and thoughts of depression. This is most likely due to the fact that during the pandemic, kids were locked int heir houses, feeling more lonely, as well as being on social media as their only sense of engagement with other people outside family. The mixture of the two can certainly have a negative affect on teenagers mental health.