Yes, the COVID pandemic has made the problem worse. But our teens were in trouble long before that
Young people in the United States are experiencing a mental health crisis. Warnings from the surgeon general, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and other prominent organizations, as well as regular news reports, highlight the catastrophe, with parents struggling to help their children, and students lined up in school halls to get even a few minutes with counselors, psychologists or social workers who are overwhelmed with young patients seeking services.
The results are clear. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where one of us is the director of adolescent and school health, reveal that in the 10 years prior to the pandemic, a remarkably high number of young people reported feeling severe emotional distress. Specifically, in 2019, 37 percent of high school students questioned in a survey said they felt so sad and hopeless that they couldn’t participate in their regular activities, and about one in five U.S.
More than a quarter of youth in the U.S. told us they experienced hunger, and more than half told us they experienced emotional abuse by an adult in their homes. We also heard that more than 60 percent of Asian students and more than half of Black students experienced racism in their schools. As we saw prepandemic, emotional distress and suicidal thoughts and behaviors continued to worsen, and these problems were more significant among female and LGBQ students.
Science also has identified effective strategies to prevent emotional or behavioral distress by teaching children skills for how to interpret or cope with stressors, how to develop healthy social relationships, strategies to lower anxiety, and how to spot the warning signs for depression. Yet resources are not available to allow these prevention approaches to be deployed at scale or used among populations most at need. Thus, youth continue to suffer needlessly.
These approaches are not controversial. Methods to increase connectedness include classroom management techniques that reinforce attentive, cooperative and collaborative behaviors, reduce peer victimization and help youth understand how others feel and behave.