Teens today are more likley to say they feel persistently sad or hopeless and think about suicide.

Question

Forty percent of highschool students reported to experiance, persistent feelings such being sad and hopeless in 2023, according Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Which focus on many studies on teen bahavior such as meltal health, sexual behavior and other important issues. lots of theses reports came in during the convid19 pandemic (about 42% two years earlier).

CNN spoke with Matt Richtel who wrote a book “How we grow up”, focusing on the transition towrds teen behavoir of idenity, and the challenges that come with that, and why has the been so effective for the past decades. in his interveiw with CNN he mentions those challgenes such as, the teen tends to move quickly cuaing them to feel overwelmed or anxiety, for newer generations are surronded by social media making them feel insheltered. teens not knwing why there upset, translating them to have bad days. Not understanding or even having the motivatiin of adolescence wanting to explore, exmaple not wanitng to read.

Methods from Richtel, he metioned for teens to deal with situations like these. Is to find the skills of coping, also going to therapy that focus more congnitive behavior and dialectical therapy.

Answer 1

This claim, "Teens today are more likely to say they feel persistently sad or hopeless and think about suicide", came from CNN is true. In CNN, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey was used to evaluate the wellbeing of high school students in the United States between 2021 and 2023. Seeing the outcomes validates the assertion that 40% of students who responded to the survey in 2023 reported having ongoing depressive or dismal feelings. Although that percentage decreased from its peak of 42% in 2021, it is still almost 10 percentage points greater than it was ten years ago. 

CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/06/health/teen-mental-health-cdc-wellness, is a valid source because of its excellent reporting and programming. CNN has won numerous journalism honors throughout the years, including several News and Documentary Emmy Awards. CDC, NPR, American Psychological Association all confirm this claim. CDC, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/su/su7304a9.htm, has a very similar claim and also cites the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, https://www.upforlearning.org/resource-center/yrbs-and-getting-to-y-resources/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20533224908&gbraid=0AAAAApnSrXLERI15LtZ36kNYxUPDxdWCk&gclid=Cj0KCQjwl5jHBhDHARIsAB0Yqjy3DZ59cmpO3KEEQnqIbzXLg2uuGHO4wKjo7uRn09FY_syJwXjnI6AaAqfLEALw_wc. To track health risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disease, injury, and social problems among young people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created and maintains the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a behavioral health survey. In American middle and high schools, the YRBS is given every two years. According to the CDC, descriptive analyses have been conducted to identify the prevalence estimates and associated 95% CIs for each of the risk indicators for mental health and suicide, as well as for each of the risk indicators by protective factor. Pairwise t-tests were used to compare the prevalence of suicide and mental health indicators by each protective factor and by demographic feature. All metrics of association and prevalence estimates were based on Taylor Series Linearization. The p<0.05 level was used to determine whether a test was statistically significant. 

Answer 2

This is true. The author of this post used a credible source that includes the CDC. The author above provided facts and reasonable statistics that help readers know that the claim is not coming from a misleading place. The article linked a statistic from the CDC, saying that, "there were increases in students' experiences of violence, signs of poor mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors," over the years from 2013-2023 in the "Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report."  Which I believe with the rise of social media within those 10 years. The CNN article helped go into a little more detail on why teens today feel this way, including examples of how the world now is moving quickly without the time to really take it in and understand it, internal conflict, and not knowing how to cope with all these feelings teens hold. Another study from the CDC, "Mental Health and Suicide Risk Among High School Students and Protective Factors," says that from 2021 "over 42% of of high school students experienced persistent of sadness or hopelessness," and in 2023 overall it was about 39.7% who felt that way. These statistics help backup the authors claim and also go into why teens are feeling that way. When doing my own research, I also found an article from the Yale School of Medicine, "Youth Suicide Is on the Rise: Yale aims to Save Lives," that says, "suicide deaths among 10- to 24-year-olds increased by 62% from 2007 to 2021." This further proves the author's claim that teens are likely to feel sad and hopeless and think about suicide.

Answer 3

Claim: Teens today are more likely to say they feel persistently sad or hopeless and think about suicide.

In the CNN article cited here, it also mentions particularly girls.

According to the CDC, in 2021, 42% of U.S. high school students experienced persistent sadness and hopelessness. Almost a third experienced poor mental health in the past month, and 10% attempted suicide in the last year.

Furthermore: in 2021, nearly three and five teenage girls reported depressive symptoms. Three in ten seriously considered attempting suicide, and more than one in 10 girls attempted suicide.

The claim was made in a CNN article, which is a mainstream news source. I fact-checked their findings using the CDC. The data cited from the CDC was taken from the findings from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (a survey). The CDC is a credible public health source that got its findings from U.S. high school students nationwide.

It's clear that there is an overall trend of declining mental health amongst teens, specifically females. According to these sources, it seems to be due to multiple causes. Some theories are because of the earlier onset of puberty or the overuse of social media.

The verdict is true. CNN accurately reported the CDC's findings of teens today saying they feel persistent sadness and hopelessness, and increased thoughts about suicide.

CNN "Why teens are so stressed, according to an expert"

https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/14/health/teen-mental-health-stress-school-wellness

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Transcript: YRBS Telebreifing"

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2023/t0214-yrbs.html

Answer 4

Yes this claim is true. I have found many articles that support this claim, one of which coming directly from the CDC itself. The article goes more in depth in the concern that doctors and mental health professionals are finding themselves in when it comes to poor mental health within teen. the CDC refers to the Youth Risky Behavior Surveillance System when discussing the statistics behind the teen mental health decline. For example the article says that 39.7% of students experienced persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, 28.5% experienced poor mental health, 20.4% had considered attempting suicide, and 9.4% had actually attempted suicide. The article also goes into say how race, sex, sexual identity, grade, and ethnicity.  Many other websites such as the American Psychological Association, NPR, CNN, and The Jed Foundation have all curated articles speaking on the CDC and YRBSS findings when it comes to youth mental health. These findings were originally gathered in 2023 but to the current date we have new surveys showing almost identical data to what was originally found back in 2023. 

Answer 5

The claim that teenagers today are more susceptible to suicide and depression is true. This article discusses how differing factors, such as growing up in a constantly changing social media world, or the Covid-19 pandemic have led adolescents to feel hopeless, and have struggled to be understood. CNN did pull data from a Youth Risk Behavioral Survey, which is a credible source. As well as turned to Matt Ritchtel, who is a science based reporter, and spent years researching adolescent mental health, for questions and advice on to better understand why there is an increase in depression amongst young children. When looking for another sources to support this claim, I had found many. The CDC had also come out with a survey stating that 39.7% of students had experienced feelings of sadness or hopelessness, following slightly smaller statistics of worsening mental health recently. A JAMA article had also had stated that "the overall incidence and prevalence of depression diagnosed clinically increased by approximately 60%..." "...Rates increased across all subgroups and were greater during the COVID-10 pandemic." Both of these sources are reliable, and do support the claim that teens during current day do experience more feelings of sadness. However, the claim is a little vague with statements such as "hopelessness" and "sadness" and then jumping to something intense such as suicide. While both of the supporting articles do support the claim, it would make more sense for the claim to be phrased in a different way. Such as "Teenagers today experience more feelings of depression since the global pandemic in 2020, leading some to experience other side effects such as  suicidal thoughts." 

Answer 6

The claim is true, CNN has been researching the causes of teens, or children reflecting on their adolescence. Teens reflect on how the world around them causes them to lose motivation, or waste their childhood due to events occurring around them. The website above explains the behaviors or survey results shown through youth risk surveys. These claims may seek bias is the reporter has directly had an impact with harmful comments, or noticing the “identity struggle” within others.

Answer 7

After fact checking, I can confidently say that this claim is true. It is supported by a study I found by Yale Medicine that shows an increase in suicide rates and depression among teens, why, and how we can help them and prevent suicides. The study found that, " 57% of teenage girls had 'persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness' that year" which is the highest rate in the past decade among teen girls, " and as many as 30% had seriously considered suicide". Experts suggest that it may be linked to the isolation felt during the pandemic, social media, bullying, breakups, and family problems, sexual violence. The source I found seems to have no bias, as it uses data from polls, and scientific research to support the claim.

This claim is true and can be supported through not only my source, but many others.

Answer 8

This claim appears to be true. The data that the original CNN article cites is from the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Summary. The data from this research does state that studies found 40% of high school students felt sad or hopeless multiple times a week, particularly in young girls. The same research also found that 20% of all students seriously considered suicide.

Aside from the CDC, there have been multiple reliable sources that studied mental health in teens, and found that depression and anxiety rates are prevalent among the population. WHO reported this September that 1 in 7 10-19 year olds have a mental disorder, such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, psychosis, etc. Other findings from this study also seem to be corroborate Matt Richtel's claim that teens suffer from mental health because of social issues, technology, living situations, etc. WHO reports that, "Factors that can contribute to stress during adolescence include exposure to adversity, pressure to conform with peers and exploration of identity. Media influence and gender norms can exacerbate the disparity between an adolescent’s lived reality and their perceptions or aspirations for the future. Other important determinants include the quality of their home life and relationships with peers."

Pew Research Center also reported back in 2019 that young girls from 12-17 years old are 3x more likely to develop mental health issues than boys, and 2.4 million had experienced a depressive episode before. Although the article is older, the information it contains is still relevant.

All in all, the multitude of sources as well as their reliability leads me to believe this claim is true. Although some of these sources like CDC have been considered biased and influenced by political ideas, I don't think this worry is applicable here, as mental health is a universal issue.

Answer 9

This claim is true according to the sources the original post provided, and also other sources such as the World Health Organization, which claims that depression, among other mental illnesses, are prevalent within teens: "Depression, anxiety and behavioural disorders are among the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents". This reflects the users initial claim, agreeing that teens have depression. Further justifying the claim is the user's documented source from CNN, which states "Forty percent of high school students reported experiencing persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in 2023". It is important to mention that these feelings of depression and sadness has increased 10% more than the previous decade. This shows that it is clearly becoming a more prevalent issue now than ever before. And while social media may be some cause to this, according to the same CNN article based on the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, "Some kids, interestingly, are actually in a better mood after using social media", so it is obvious that social media is not the definite cause for all teens' mental illness. 

Answer 10

Both of these articles provide strong evidence that adolescents from the age of 10-19 struggle with mental health disorder. It also shows that suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in young adults in the age range of 15-29. These two articles make it very prominent that mental health is very prominent in teens and young adults and there is not a ton of resources and is a very taboo topic that needs to be spoken up more so we can protect our adolescents no matter where they a from. These are both very trust worthy sites because one is a government website and the other is a world health organization that give such good statistics and what it really looks like for mental health involving teens and young adults.

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2025/04-05/teen-social-emotional-support

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescent-mental-health