CDC Report Warns Teen Girls Facing a Wave of Sadness and Violence

CDC Report Warns, Teen Girls Facing a Wave , of Sadness and Violence.

On February 14, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that young women in America are facing unprecedented levels of hopelessness.

Our teenage girls are suffering through an overwhelming wave of violence and trauma, and it’s affecting their mental health, Kathleen Ethier, Director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, via NBC.

NBC reports that the results of the CDC's 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey show that a wave of sexual violence and trauma is impacting the mental health of young women.

According to the CDC report, nearly three in every five teen girls said that they felt "persistently sad or hopeless," the highest rate in a decade.

The report also found that 30% of those surveyed said they have considered suicide, a percentage which has risen by almost 60% in the last ten years.

As a parent to a teenage girl, I am heartbroken.

As a public health leader, I’m driven to act, Dr. Debra Houry, CDC’s chief medical officer, via NBC.

It was so striking to us, the consistency with which girls were faring more poorly than boys, Kathleen Ethier, Director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, via NBC.

Julie Cerel, director of the Suicide Prevention & Exposure Lab at the University of Kentucky, warns that most schools are ill-equipped due to limited funding.

It's a lot to ask schools with teachers who are underpaid and not necessarily trained.

What we've been doing hasn't been working, Julie Cerel, Director of the Suicide Prevention & Exposure Lab at the University of Kentucky, via NBC