By Minnie Bredouw, Illustration: Adriana Crespo/TIME, TIME, February 15, 2023
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, 19-year-old Steven Yglecias was, like many teens, living at home and feeling directionless. “I felt uninspired,” Steven told me. “Life was an emotional roller coaster each day.”
Steven is one of the millions of young people who struggle with mental health challenges. In the decade before the pandemic, the share of high school students who reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness increased by 40% to more than 1 in 3 students. The pandemic only exacerbated this trend, leading the American Academy of Pediatrics to declare a national state of emergency. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2021, 44% of high school students reported they persistently felt sad or hopeless during the past year. This number is even higher for girls (57%) and teens that identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual (69%), as seen in another staggering report by the CDC.
Much ink has been spilled on possible interventions—from limiting social media usage to increasing access to mental health support on school campuses—but the vast majority of proposed “solutions” focus on crisis response rather than crisis prevention. And amid increasingly stressful academic settings, our country’s education system is only beginning to design introspection into the curriculum. If we want students like Steven to be well, we must encourage healthy behavior instead of just addressing illness.
Comments (0)