When schools pivoted to remote learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the first casualty was children’s mental health.
A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed teenagers’ mental health from January 2021 to June 2021. Compared with 2019, the study found that the proportion of mental health-related emergency department visits in 2020 increased by about 31 percent among children aged 12–17 years.
Overall, 37.1 percent of students experienced bouts of poor mental health during the pandemic, and 31.1 percent experienced poor mental health during the preceding 30 days. During the 12 months before the survey, 44.2 percent experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, 19.9 percent had seriously considered attempting suicide, and 9.0 percent had attempted suicide.
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