CDC Officials 'Alarmed' at Plight of Teen Girls in US

A new CDC report paints a troubling picture of what it's like to be a teenage girl in America. On everything from depression to sexual assault to thoughts of suicide, the numbers from the 2021 survey are jarring. All in all, "America’s teen girls are engulfed in a growing wave" of sadness and trauma, says the CDC's Debra Houry, per STAT News.

• 30% of girls seriously considered attempting suicide, which is up about 60% from a decade ago, reports USA Today.
• Nearly 60% experienced persistent sadness, meaning sadness every day for at least two weeks, which is about twice the rate of boys, reports the New York Times. For LGBTQ teen girls, the figure is closer to 70%.

• 18% experienced sexual violence in the year prior to the survey, up 20% since 2017.
• 14% said they had been forced to have sex at some point in their lives, up 27% since 2019.
• "If you think about every 10 teen girls that you know, at least one and possibly more has been raped, and that is the highest level we’ve ever seen," Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, tells the Washington Post. "We are really alarmed."
• Ethier also sums things up to Times like so: "I think there’s really no question what this data is telling us. Young people are telling us that they are in crisis."
• Full report: The results come from a survey of 17,000 teens in high schools across the US in the fall of 2021 as part of the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior survey. The report is here.
• For help: If you or someone you know needs mental health support, contact the national Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988.

(More teenage girls stories.)