Mental health has been declining for Tennessee high schoolers since 2011 and the concern is especially high for girls.
Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs Kylie Graves told members on the House Education Administration Committee Wednesday that high school girls are suffering the effects of declining mental health more than boys.
According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey which is given every two years by the Tennessee Department of Education, in 2021 nearly three in ten students reported that within the last month, their mental health was most of the time or not always good. 41 percent of high school girls reported feeling this way compared to 17 percent of high school boys.
Additionally, 42 percent of youth reported feeling symptoms of depression almost every day, which is a 63 percent increase since 2011. The report also revealed that the pandemic had a significant impact on the mental health of teenage girls who commonly showed restrictive eating.
“There’s a lot of challenges. Poverty comes at the root of a lot of challenges so that reflects in parental stress and parental mental health challenges. And so that we know that parental stress can be a risk factor for things like substance abuse, additionally abuse and neglect, parental stress, particularly financial stress is a huge risk factor,” said Graves.
Between 2019 and 2021, the suicide rate among Tennessee school aged teens increased from seven per 100 thousand to 9.4 per 100 thousand, which exceeded the rate for the country as a whole. Tennessee youths were also more likely to follow through with suicidal ideation, with eleventh-graders having both the greatest rates and being the most likely to ask for help.
Committee members asked whether social media might be a factor in the survey results.
Graves said it’s hard to pinpoint how much of a contributor it is, but it is important to address.
“I think it has its pros and cons and so I think it’s a hard thing to say blanket that it’s causing an issue for all children. There may be a child who finds social media to be really helpful in creating a connection where they feel left out at school, and so I think it’s hard to put a blanket that social media is the problem. (However) I think there’s inevitably some aspect of it that can probably harm children’s mental health,” said Graves.
Representative William Slater, R-Gallatin, echoed this, saying it’s important to keep social media and devices in mind when approaching mental health.
“I think it’s important for us to keep the year 2012 in mind. Because that’s not just the proliferation of social media but devices themselves. And in education, especially as it relates to our committee here, I think it’s important for us to look at the effect of devices, not just in school but out of school as well,” said Slater.
