CAUTION

US Teenages girls engulfed by 'sadness, violence, trauma': report

US health authorities sounded the alarm Monday about a mental health crisis among American high school students, particularly teenage girls suffering from sadness, violence and trauma.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looked at health behaviors and experiences among high school students from 2011 to 2021.

"These data show a distressing picture," CDC chief medical officer Debra Houry told reporters. "America's teen girls are engulfed in a growing wave of sadness, violence and trauma.

"Over the past decade teens, especially girls, have experienced dramatic increases in experiences of violence and poor mental health and suicide risk," Houry said.

The CDC said several areas of adolescent health and well-being are improving, including risky sexual behavior, alcohol and substance use, and the level of bullying at school.

But mental health among high school students -- who are generally between 15 and 18 years old in the United States -- continued to worsen overall.

Nearly three in five teenage American girls -- 57 percent -- felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021 -- double that of boys, the report said.

The was a nearly 60 percent increase since 2011 and the highest level reported over the past decade.

Nearly one in three teen girls -- 30 percent -- seriously considered attempting suicide, up nearly 60 percent from a decade ago, and more than twice the number of boys.

Nearly one in five teen girls -- 18 percent -- experienced sexual violence in the past year, up 20 percent since 2017, when CDC started monitoring this measure.

And 14 percent of teen girls had been forced to have sex -- up 27 percent since 2019.

- 'Young people are in crisis' -

"These data are clear -- our young people are in crisis," said Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC division of adolescent and school health.