High school students throughout Northern Virginia are continuing to experience surging rates of mental health issues in the wake of the pandemic, according to a recent study published by the Community Foundation of Northern Virginia.
The youth-focused sections of the report, part of a 2022 Virginia School Survey of Climate and Working Conditions analyzing mental health needs, found recent spikes of depression, anxiety, sadness, and suicidal ideations among high school student populations in Fairfax County.
Among the study’s findings, student surveys indicated the following:
- One in 10 high school students seriously contemplated suicide over the past year;
- One in three experienced symptoms of clinical anxiety;
- 25 percent reported symptoms of clinical depression, “where sadness and reduced interest/pleasure in daily activities occurred more than half of the time.”
In total, 47 percent of Northern Virginia high school students surveyed reported at least one episode of a mental health need within the past year. Among that population, LGBTQ and female students reported approximately twice the rate of persistent sadness or psychological stress as male, heterosexual, and cisgender peers.
“Rates of these negative feelings were particularly high among transgender/questioning students, where 70 percent reported persistent sadness and 57 percent reported psychological stress,” the authors wrote.
Broken down by race and ethnicity, 42 percent of students identifying as Hispanic or “other/mixed race” reported persistent sadness, compared to around 36 percent of students of other races. White students, meanwhile, reported higher rates of psychological stress than their peers.
Food insecurity, or concern with going hungry, was another factor influencing mental health, with 63 percent of those students who experienced food insecurity reporting persistent sadness and stress.
Other sources of stress and sadness included feeling overwhelmed by overbearing schedules, “with too little time to play or spend with friends,” the authors wrote.
“The role of downtime — time to attend to basic needs (sleep, meals, hygiene), relax, socialize, pursue hobbies/entertainment — in mental health is far more complex than simply ‘not having enough,'” the report said. “As total downtime goes up, stress goes down, from 42 percent of youth with fewer than 9 hours of downtime to 25 percent with 16 or more hours.”
Additionally, levels of sadness among teens were found to be intricately tied to the factors such as lack of sleep and the availability of positive adult influences.
To remedy some of the aforementioned trends, the authors suggest focusing mental health outreach efforts toward youth experiencing heightened risk factors like those highlighted in the report.
Adequate sleep and establishing a network of supportive adults in the lives of teens were also among the recommendations.
“It is important to recognize that feelings of depression and anxiety are not just a teenager problem,” the authors concluded. “In fall 2021, over a quarter of the adult population was struggling with clinical levels of anxiety and/or depression. … Adults with their own mental health needs may have limited ability to provide emotional support to others, and could benefit from receipt of mental health support, too.”
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