Youth · United States
CDC's 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey: signs of stabilization, sharp inequities
Headline rates of teen sadness eased slightly from 2021, but remain near decade highs and skew heavily by gender and identity.
The 2023 YRBS results show, for the first time in a decade, a modest decline in the share of high school students reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness — from 42% in 2021 to 40% in 2023. The same survey shows continued high rates among female students and LGBTQ+ students, and adds new findings about the mental health impact of unfair school discipline and racism in schools.
The data does not show recovery; it shows the bleeding has slowed. Most experts read it as a signal that pandemic-era spikes are easing without erasing the longer underlying trends visible since the mid-2010s.
Read the CDC's full results page for the breakouts by demographic group and the full trends report.
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