February 14, 2023 – The recent discovery of a dramatic increase within the variety of teenage girls reporting being victims of sexual assault can have a now-familiar cause: the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CDC reported on Monday that teenage girls are experiencing record levels of sexual violence and that just about three in five girls report feeling always sad or hopeless.
For students who discover as LGBTQ+, the numbers were even worse: Nearly 70% of them reported experiencing feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness, and nearly one in 4 (22%) LGBTQ+ teens had attempted suicide in 2021, the report said.
Protective aspects equivalent to attending school and participating in various activities were largely lacking for a lot of teenagers throughout the pandemic, which can explain the rise in cases of sexual violence, says Dr. Carlos A. Cuevas, clinical psychologist and co-director of the Center on Crime Race and Injustice at Northeastern University in Boston.
This – along with other mental, emotional and physical stressors throughout the COVID-19 crisis – has created an unsafe and unhealthy environment for some girls.
“As people emerged from the pandemic and we began to feel the impact of the pandemic on mental health, there were waiting lists everywhere. So accessing these resources became more difficult because the demand for mental health services just exploded,” says Cuevas.
In addition, teenage girls usually tend to be victims of sexual assault than boys, which can explain why they’re overrepresented in the information, Cuevas says.
If your child is being sexually abused, there are a couple of things parents should remember. First, it's essential that your child knows that she or he is the victim in this example, says Cuevas.
“I think sometimes there's still a kind of victim-blaming mentality, even unintentionally,” he says. “Make the message really clear: It's not their fault and they are not responsible in any way.”
Parents must also search for resources their child may have to process any trauma they’ve experienced. For some, this is likely to be medical care after a physical attack. For others, it is likely to be mental health services and even legal recourse, equivalent to filing a report.
“You want to offer those options, but the person who was the victim actually determines when and how those things happen,” Cuevas says. “So you really have to be there and be able to ask them what they need and try to make that possible for them.”
And yet one more thing: If your teen shares his or her experience of sexual assault on social media, there generally is a number of consequences.
“Some teenagers will talk about it [sexual assault] and post on TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram, and that means they may get supportive or hurtful feedback from people,” Cuevas says. “Remember, we're talking about children here; they're not developmentally capable of planning and thinking, 'Oh, I might not get the support I expect if I post this.'”
Goldie Taylor, an Atlanta-based journalist, political analyst and human rights activist, experienced sexual assault herself as a young girl. She experienced it when she was 11 years old, a story she tells in her memoir. The love you save.
When Taylor learned about the CDC study, she rushed to read it herself. She, too, sees signs of the pandemic's impact in the report.
“While mental health continues to be a major issue post-pandemic, given the issues surrounding quarantine, I also believe it has sparked a renewed interest in seeking help – and measuring the impact on children,” says Taylor. “The most shocking, even to me, were the statistics on sexual violence against young girls. We know from other studies that the vast majority of pregnancies among girls aged 11 involve male adolescents and adults.”
Unfortunately, Taylor says little has changed since her own traumatic experience as a child. Back then, there was little support. And today, she says, “there are far too few providers in this country to effectively deal with what can only be described as a pandemic of sexual violence.”
“The study’s findings are indeed a stark reminder of the needs of our children,” said Debra Houry, MD, MPH, acting deputy director of the CDC, in a press release concerning the findings.
“High school needs to be a time of pioneering, not trauma. These data show that our kids need far more support to manage, have hope and thrive,” she says.
The new analysis examined data from 2011 to 2021 from the CDC's Youth Risk and Behavior Survey, a biannual analysis of health behaviors among students in grades 9 through 12. The 2021 survey is the first since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and included 17,232 respondents.
Although researchers found signs of improvement in risky sexual behavior and substance abuse, as well as fewer experiences of bullying, the analysis found that adolescent mental health has worsened over the past decade. This trend was particularly troubling for teenage girls: 57% reported feeling consistently sad or hopeless in 2021, an increase of 60% from a decade ago. By comparison, 29% of teenage boys reported feeling consistently sad or hopeless, compared to 21% in 2011.
Almost a third of girls (30%) reported seriously considering suicide, up from 19% in 2011. Among teenage boys, serious suicidal thoughts increased from 13% to 14% from 2011 to 2021. The proportion of teenage girls who had attempted suicide in 2021 was 13%, almost twice the proportion of teenage boys (7%).
More than half of students with same-sex partners (58%) reported seriously considering suicide, and 45% of LGBTQ+ teens reported the same thoughts. One-third of students with same-sex partners reported attempting suicide in the past year.
The report did not include trend data on LGBTQ+ students due to changes in survey methodologies. The 2021 survey did not include a question on gender identity, but it will be included in future surveys, researchers say.
Hispanic and multiracial students were more likely to experience persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness compared to their peers, with 46% and 49% reporting these feelings, respectively. From 2011 to 2021, the percentage of students reporting feelings of hopelessness increased in every racial and ethnic group. The percentage of black, Hispanic and white teens who seriously considered suicide also increased over the decade. (A other CDC report Approved last week found that the suicide rate among Black people in the United States ages 10 to 24 increased 36.6% between 2018 and 2021, the largest increase of any racial or ethnic group.)
The survey also found an alarming rise in sexual violence against teenage girls. Almost one in five girls (18%) have experienced sexual violence in the past year, a 20% increase from 2017. More than one in ten teenage girls (14%) reported being forced into sex, the researchers said.
Rates of sexual violence were even higher among lesbian, bisexual, gay or questioning teens. Nearly two in five teens with a same-sex partner (39%) experienced sexual violence and 37% reported being sexually assaulted. More than one in five LGBTQ+ teens (22%) had experienced sexual violence and 20% reported being coerced into sex, the report found.
Among racial and ethnic groups, American Indian and Alaska Native students and multiracial students were more prone to experience sexual violence. The proportion of white students reporting sexual violence increased from 2017 to 2021, but this trend was not observed amongst other racial and ethnic groups.
Delaney Ruston, MD, an internist in Seattle and developer of ScreenagerA Documentary 2016 on the results of technology on adolescents, it’s stated that excessive use of social media can increase depression amongst teenagers – especially, but not only, girls.
“They can spend hours scrolling and consuming media, and instead of engaging in activities and interactions that would help them heal from the symptoms of depression, they get stuck,” Ruston says in an interview. “As a general practitioner working with teenagers, this is an extremely common problem I see in my clinic.”
One approach that can assist, Ruston says, is behavioral activation. “This is a strategy where you get people, usually with the support of other people, to do small activities that help reset the reward pathways in the brain so that they experience a level of well-being and hope that eventually reverses the depression. Being stuck on screens prevents these healing effects.”
The report also emphasized the importance of school-based services to support students and combat these troubling trends of worsening mental health. “Schools are the gateway to needed services for many young people,” the report said. “Schools can provide health, behavioral, and mental health services directly or establish referral systems to connect with community-based care settings.”
“Young people are experiencing a level of need that calls us to act with urgency and compassion,” said Dr. Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health, in an announcement. “With the right programs and services, schools have a unique opportunity to help our youth thrive.”