Teens in Crisis: School Versus Family

America’s adolescents are suffering from a mental health crisis, and the evidence suggests an extraordinary but significant contributing factor. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) paints a troubling picture: in 2021–2022, among U.S. adolescents ages 12–17, 21% reported symptoms of anxiety and 17% reported symptoms of depression within the previous two weeks. Among high school students in 2023, 40% experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness over the previous year, 20% seriously considered attempting suicide, 16% made a suicide plan, and 9% attempted suicide. These statistics follow strongly after adolescent depression already increased from 8.1% in 2009 to 15.8% in 2019, a relatively larger increase than reported in a previous examination in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 2005

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