CDC youth survey finds improved teen mental health, realigns report focus

Report omits substance use, sexual behavior, firearms exposure data

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted every two years for more than 35 years, found that persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness among high schoolers fell from 42% in 2021 to 40% in 2023 and 33% in 2025. The share of students who seriously considered suicide declined from 22% in 2021 to 14% in 2025, and the share who made a suicide plan — which the report notes raises the risk of an attempt — fell from 18% to 12% over the same period.

“We see in this report that our children are eating healthier, engaging in team sports, and experiencing fewer feelings of sadness and hopelessness,” said Dr. Jennifer Shuford, the CDC’s deputy director and chief medical officer, at a press conference last week announcing the report’s findings. “This is good news for kids, for us, and for our country. The focus here is clear: healthier youth today, healthier adults tomorrow.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health in 2021, a year that saw record highs in suicide attempts, suicidal ideation and emergency room visits for suicidality, according to Dr. Vera Feuer, chief clinical officer at the Child Mind Institute. The improvement in those indicators, Feuer said, is “encouraging,” though the percentages “still represent large numbers of teens.”

“What we’re seeing is that since 2021, there’s actually been a really nice improvement in many mental health indicators for young people,” said Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medicine at Mass General Brigham for Children in Boston. “I think that’s a cause for optimism.”

The 2025 report also covers physical health, finding that more students ate fruits and vegetables compared with the previous survey and that more reported playing on a sports team, though overall levels of physical activity did not change substantially.

This year’s report differs from previous editions not only in its findings but in what it highlights. The survey questions themselves have not changed, according to Hadland, who is part of the team that administers the YRBS in Massachusetts. But the report leads with nutrition, exercise, sleep, screen time and mental health — the priority topics of the Make America Healthy Again initiative that Kennedy has championed.

The highlights, Shuford said at the press conference, “align with the Make America Healthy Again initiative led by President Trump and Secretary Kennedy — who are committed to preventing chronic disease across our country, especially in our nation’s youth.”

Researchers identified several subjects that appeared in earlier reports but are absent from the 2025 edition. Hadland said the report is missing “rich data on what’s going on with substance use with young people” — including recent trends in vaping that past reports captured. The report also omits information on sexual behaviors, exposure to firearms and other forms of violence, and school connectedness, a protective factor for mental health, according to Feuer. Guns remain the leading cause of death among children and teens in the United States.

The report also includes less detail than previous editions on health disparities by race and ethnicity and omits any mention of LGBTQ+ youth, both researchers said. “The extent to which we could observe health inequities by race and ethnicity and then by membership in the LGBTQIA+ community were really much more absent in this report,” Hadland said.

Mike Underwood, acting director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, acknowledged in response to a reporter’s question that “there are significant disparities when we look at behaviors among different groups of students.” He said the data was collected and is available on the YRBS website, and encouraged “states and communities to go and look through their data.”