Adolescent girls across the country are facing record levels of violence, sadness and despair, according to new survey data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And teens who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning and other non-heterosexual identities also experience high levels of violence and distress, the survey found.
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“There is no question from this data [that] young people are telling us that they are in crisis,” says Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health. “And there is this growing wave of violence and trauma that’s affecting young people, especially teen girls and LGBTQ+ youth.”
Every two years, the CDC surveys 9th through 12th graders across the country about a range of health behaviors and experiences for a report titled, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. On Monday, it released the results from the most recent survey conducted in 2021, along with the trends over the past decade.
While 11% of all teens reported facing sexual violence in the past year, 18% of girls and 22% of LGBTQ+ youth reported the same. Among racial and ethnic groups, American Indian or Alaska Native teens were the most likely to have faced sexual violence.
And more than 1 in 10 girls had been forced to have sex in their lifetime, says Ethier.
“That is just an overwhelming finding,” she says. “So, not surprisingly, we’re also seeing that almost 60% of teen girls had depressive symptoms in the past year, which is the highest level in a decade.”
Nearly one in three girls also reported…
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