Sexual assault and other traumatic experiences have led to record levels of hopelessness and suicidal thoughts among young women in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.
Results from the CDC’s 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey showed that nearly three in five teenage girls (57 percent) reported feeling “persistently sad or hopeless,” the highest rate in a decade.
Also, according to the source, 30 percent said they had seriously considered suicide, a percentage that has risen to nearly 60 percent in the past 10 years.
The poll, which has been conducted every two years for three decades, includes responses from 17,232 high school students in the country.
Overall, more than 40 percent of boys and girls said they felt so sad or hopeless in the past year that they were unable to do their usual activities, such as schoolwork or sports, for at least two weeks.
When the researchers looked at the gender differences, they found that women were much more likely to report such feelings compared to men.
Sexual violence has been on the rise among young women, the report said, as one in five claimed to have suffered it in the past year.
14 percent said they had been forced to have sex, a jump from 11 percent of girls who said they had been assaulted in 2019, he said.
“Our teenage girls are going through an overwhelming wave of violence and trauma, and it’s taking its toll on their mental health,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s Division of School and Adolescent Health.
The poll also found that more than a fifth of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-identifying youth (22 percent) had attempted suicide in the past year.