CDC Survey Finds Mental Health and Suicide Risk Among US Teens Has Improved

A new survey from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that mental health and suicide risk indicators among American teenagers have improved, according to NPR.

The findings come from the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a long-running national survey that tracks health behaviors and risks among US high school students, including questions on mental health, substance use, sexual behavior, and other factors linked to adolescent wellbeing. Alongside the improved mental health and suicide risk findings, the latest survey also highlighted data on students' diets, sleep and nutrition habits.

These areas — diet, sleep and nutrition — have been identified as priorities by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has made addressing chronic disease among children a central focus of his tenure, including through his "Make America Healthy Again" initiative.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey has been conducted by the CDC every two years since 1991, providing one of the most comprehensive long-term pictures of adolescent health trends in the United States. Previous rounds of the survey had shown rising rates of reported sadness, hopelessness and suicidal thoughts among teenagers, particularly among girls and LGBTQ+ students, trends that public health officials and researchers had linked to factors including social media use and the aftereffects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Specific figures from the latest survey on the scale of improvement, and how they compare with previous years' results, were not detailed in the excerpt reviewed for this report.