Mental health issues
It's a well-established fact that children's and teens' mental health took a hit during the pandemic. But new research suggests that teen girls in particular are suffering in unprecedented ways.
A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was published in early February 2023 found that, in 2021, 57% of high school girls reported experiencing “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in the past year,” up from 36% in 2011. That's nearly twice as high as the 29% of males who reported having those feelings in 2021.
What's worse, 30% of the girls surveyed reported seriously considering suicide and 13% attempted suicide one or more times in 2021. That is beyond shocking. It's appalling.
We are a research team that studies children and their social and emotional development, and during the pandemic we've been specifically focused on mental health in children and adolescents. Since 2020, we've seen more changes in girls, overall, including increases in depression and thoughts of suicide.
In our view, a number of key factors have converged to create this mental health crisis in teen girls.
The stress experienced by teens is unique and significant.
A perfect storm
Previous CDC research has shown that the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected girls. And in a 2021 study that our team conducted with 240 teens, 70% of girls said that they “very much” missed seeing people during the pandemic, compared with only 28% of boys reporting that sentiment.
A second factor is social media, which can be a wonderful source of support but also, at times, a crushing blow to the self-esteem and psychological well-being of girls.
Finally, we think that all young people are struggling with issues like climate change and social upheaval. These aren't just abstractions for many boys and girls: They are their future. Children and teens are usually neither indifferent to nor unaware of political realities.
So how can parents, teachers and friends help girls through this crisis?
Here are six strategies that research shows can work.
• More emphasis on social support
Social and emotional connectivity between humans is likely one of the most potent weapons we have against significant stress and sadness. Studies have found strong links between a lack of parental and peer support and depression during adolescence. Support from friends can also help mitigate the link between extreme adolescent anxiety and suicidal thoughts. In one study of teens, social support was linked to greater resilience — such as being better able to withstand certain types of social cruelty like bullying.
• Supporting one another instead of competing
During the 1970s and 1980s, competition between women was seen as something that held women back. Unfortunately, this message seems to have been lost in the tsunami of media coverage about bodies, looks and social achievement. Research has found that social media encourages competition between girls, particularly around their physical appearance.
Teaching girls at young ages to be cheerleaders for one another — and modeling that behavior as grownups — can help ease the sense of competition that today's teens are facing.
For most of the year, even regular and generally attentive visitors to the woods might still miss Hutton's vireos.
They are, admittedly, easy to miss. Hutton's vireos essentially stick to oaks and are uncommon in yards and residential areas. They are small, weighing about as much as two nickels. They are not colorful, being a kind of pale gray on their head and breast, and a dull greenish on their back. (Vireo is Latin for I am green, which is the core meaning of their endearing traditional name of greenlet.) The closest things they have to a field mark are their two white wing bars with a dark area in between.
For most of the year, even regular and generally attentive visitors to the woods might still miss Hutton's vireos, quiet birds that live life at a sedate and non-attention-grabbing pace. I checked my old bird books to