New report highlights mental health struggles for teenagers as they enter new school year

Editor's note: The following article contains information about thoughts of suicide and attempted suicide. Coping skills, support and treatment work for most people who have thought about suicide. If you are experiencing mental health-related distress, contact the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline.

Millions of teenagers in the U.S. are struggling with their mental health.

While some areas of mental health are improving, teens are experiencing more violence and bullying in schools than they were two years ago, and more teens are skipping school because they don’t feel safe there, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control.

Local mental health professionals and school district officials say it’s important for parents, teachers and school personnel to be aware of the signs of mental stress among teens as they enter a new school year.

The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey produced some sobering statistics, even in areas where progress was made.

For example, the CDC reported small decreases from two years ago in the number of overall students, female students and Hispanic students

who felt persistently sad or hopeless, but the percentage in those categories is still 40%, 53% and 42%, respectively. To put it another way, teenage girls in the U.S. who have not felt hopeless or persistently sad are in the minority.

LGBTQ+ teenagers are the most vulnerable of all the cohorts. Sixty-five percent said they experienced persistent sadness or hopelessness; 53% said they experienced “poor mental health” in the last 30 days; and 41% said they have seriously considered suicide.

“We need to give them a forum to talk,” Southeast Behavioral Hospital director of clinical services John Cooley said of such students. “Maybe one-to-one, with the school counselor or the teacher, talking about how they feel about themselves, how they’re feeling accepted and just let them know that they’re not alone. Maybe they’re having difficulty with their parents about coming out. If they’ve got the freedom to really talk about it, if they have other friends that they can relate to, that will go a long way to reducing their strong feelings about not having a place to be themselves.”

John Cooley, director of clinical services, Southeast Behavioral HospitalSoutheast Behavioral Hospital

Over the previous 10 years, the survey statistics have worsened relating to experiences of violence, persistent sadness or hopelessness and suicidal thoughts and behaviors overall. Bullying is down somewhat over the past decade, but up from two years ago.

All these statistics point to the importance of the role schools play in supporting vulnerable teens and creating a safe culture.

“Honestly, the information did not surprise me,” said Mandy Keys, assistant superintendent of special services in the Cape Girardeau School District. “Even in our school district, we work hard to provide supports, but we’re seeing it in the school district and we’re seeing it in the community. We’re seeing it in employees. It’s a widespread struggle, and I do think that it’s great that we as a society are more open now to talk about mental health.”

Keys said, “We deal with students often making statements about wanting to die; or 'things would just be better if I wasn’t here'; or just straight-up saying, 'You know, ‘I’m going to kill myself.’ It’s discussed a lot amongst youth.”

Keys said Missouri requires all staff members to receive two hours of training per year to learn about suicide awareness and recognizing signs of anxiety and depression. District staff also undergoes separate state-required training on sexual abuse prevention and relationship training. The training helps the district come up with strategies and protocols on how to help students to reduce the risk of suicides. The district has a mental health counselor who sees students who need counseling, in addition to the counselors in every building.

“Our counselors push in, and they’re constantly talking (to students) about how they can develop appropriate coping skills, how they can learn to be mindful and practice mindfulness techniques and biofeedback. And what can I do when I have big emotions? … We want to make sure that we’re being gentle with the conversations that we are having.”

The Cape Girardeau School District is a Care to Learn District, which means it raises money for food and mental health services for students who cannot afford it.

“Students can go to any teacher and share their concerns and the teachers are trained to refer to a counselor or administration,” Keys said.

The Cape Giardeau School District has access to three school-based therapists through the Community Counseling Center.

“It’s so important that we address mental health just as soon as we can identify it,” said Cooley, the clinical director at the Southeast Behavior Health Hospital. “We know that even little kids and elementary kids, junior high and high school, all those types of children do have some mental health issues and may not have an easy time talking about it, particularly if there’s any kind of trauma that goes on in the family. … Another issue kids have to deal with is getting along with their peers and realizing that everybody’s kind of in a different place, and everybody copes with their thoughts and feelings differently, and that we need to accept our friends for where they are and who they are.”

To that end, the CDC’s report says that incidents of bullying are on the rise over the past two years.

Nineteen percent of all students say they were bullied in school over the past year. That number jumps to 29% for teens on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. White students (23%) experienced bullying at a higher rate than any other race. Girls reported bullying more than boys.

Keys said counselors address classrooms about the topic of bullying, but she said often it comes down to one student’s word against another. But all students can report bullying or violence on an app the school created that allows for anonymous reporting.

“We do teach our students to be active bystanders, not silent bystanders,” Keys said. “So if they see something, report something, that’s huge in the district. We talk about that continuously.”

Keys said bullying on social media platforms often spills into the schools.

Cooley said mental health issues such as depression and anxiety — often triggered by trauma — can affect a student’s ability to learn. It can affect their ability to focus, which can be amplified if a student has trouble sleeping at night. Cooley said it’s a good idea for parents to limit their teenager’s phone past established bed times. He offered some signs to watch for regarding a teenager’s mental health:

• isolating themselves from peers;

• wearing fearful expressions or acting as if they’re fearful;

• inattention or distracted in classroom settings;

• becoming inactive outside of school;

• intense anxiety or dread of going to school;

• major differences in attitude from day to day.

“One of the things I recommend is check on the kids, check on their wellbeing as often as you can if you’re a parent or a teacher, even a coach,” Cooley said. “See how their day is going, if they’re doing OK, if they have friends and see if they’re isolating themselves. Are they avoiding participating in things? Even if your kids get tired of asking how their day was. If a kid says that they’re fine, you can’t do much about that, but continuously check on them. It’s a real positive thing, asking the kid if they’ve got a minute, taking the temperature of the room, so to speak, to see how they’re doing if there’s something in the family or kid’s life that is going on. You know, ‘We heard that you had this death in the family. Are you OK today? If we can identify some of those issues that’ll give us a head start.”