CDC Youth Risk Behavior, summary report 2011-2021

[calimich]

This CDC report is making news, it's too large to upload, find it here: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/YRBS_Data-Summary-Trends_Report2023_508.pdf

I think it's well done, lots of data presented visually, and some striking trends. I have mixed feelings about the findings -- hopeful about the role schools can play, worry for my young daughters, and confident that demand for our services is only increasing.

One early quote that stood out to me -
"Across almost all measures of substance use, experiences of violence, mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors, female students are faring more poorly than male students. These differences, and the rates at which female students are reporting such negative experiences, are stark."

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[borne_before]

This CDC report is making news, it's too large to upload, find it here: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/YRBS_Data-Summary-Trends_Report2023_508.pdf

I think it's well done, lots of data presented visually, and some striking trends. I have mixed feelings about the findings -- hopeful about the role schools can play, worry for my young daughters, and confident that demand for our services is only increasing.

One early quote that stood out to me -
"Across almost all measures of substance use, experiences of violence, mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors, female students are faring more poorly than male students. These differences, and the rates at which female students are reporting such negative experiences, are stark."

It's so unfair that schools are always tasked with changing societies largest failures - from malnutrition to integration, to now ensuring the mental health of everyone. I say this as a someone with a doctorate in school psychology - but schools should be no replacement for parents - and if we put all of our eggs in a single basket for youth, then we're going to be sorely disappointed. I am extremely cynical because schools hand's are largely tied and I say with my research chiefly being on universal screening in a context of multi-tiered systems of supports for risky behaviors. Once kid's are identified - what do you do with them? Stress the system more?

This is especially true when social media and the mainstream media are training our young people's brains to think in cognitive distortions and optimizing for personality disordered behavior and thought.