It's hard to overstate the disruptive impact the pandemic has had on people.
Its effect on mental health is a big one, and for teenagers, that hit particularly hard.
Kathleen Ethier knows this well. She leads the Division of Adolescent and School Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which this month published a survey that points to some very grim findings. From January to June 2021, CDC researchers collected data on the behaviors and experiences of 7,705 public and private high school students across the U.S.
Almost half of teens reported consistently feeling sad or hopeless â almost every day for two weeks or more in a row, to the point that they stopped doing their usual activities â in the 12 months before taking the survey.
One particular finding was sobering: 47% of lesbian, gay and bisexual teens said they had "seriously considered committing suicide."
Ethier, who has worked at the CDC for more than 20 years, tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoethat the numbers show how the pandemic accelerated an already worrying decline in teen mental health.
But, even as the numbers warn of a crisis, the survey also provided hope for possible improvement. It found that teens who feel connected to others at school report better levels of mental health.
To read more of Ayesha Rascoe and Fernando Narro's article, please click here.
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