NC teens' well-being is improving post-pandemic, but it's still worse than it used to be, new data show
There’s been a post-pandemic boost to kids’ well-being, but there’s still room to improve.
State education officials reported survey results Wednesday that show teenagers are doing better health-wise than they were just a couple of years ago.
More North Carolina students are eating breakfast, excising regularly and feeling better emotionally.
Still, they’re doing worse than they were 10 years ago. Four in 10 students said they felt so sad or hopeless at one point in the past year that they stopped doing normal activities — a depressive episode. That’s up from three in ten a decade ago. About 30% of high school students said they felt lonely in 2013, down from 33% in 2021 but up from 20% in 2013. About 55% of high school students said they felt good about themselves, up from 49% in 2021 but down from 75% in 2013.
The survey results come from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, an anonymous, optional survey that school systems opt-in to give to their middle and high school students every other year.
Even before the pandemic, metrics were worsening. Some haven’t been where officials want them to be at any point, pre- or post-pandemic.
Most students are still not exercising everyday and even fewer are eating breakfast everyday. Most students aren’t getting eight hours of sleep.
“Moving in the right direction is still not where we want to be,” Ellen Essick, chief of healthy schools and specialized instructional support for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, told the State Board of Education on Wednesday. “We’ve got a lot of work to do to make sure our students are mentally well.”
State education officials say they want schools to do more to help kids be physically active, by requiring schools to provide more opportunities for kids to be physically active during the school day. They believe that will help boost teenagers’ moods, too.
They also think that could improve academics.
Of students who said they earn mostly “A” grades in school, 48% said they exercise at least 60 minutes per day, five days per week. Just 35% of them said they had a depressive episode in the past year.
But of students who said they earned mostly “D” or “F” grades, 37% said they were exercising 60 minutes per day, five days per week. And 62% of them said they had experienced a depressive episode in the past year.
Board Member Catty Moore said the state used to require two credits of physical education but has for a long time since only required one credit. That’s something she hopes state lawmakers will reconsider. Allowing extracurricular sports t count toward that credit could also reduce any credit burdens on students who participate, she said.
While education officials said they were concerned about social media use and sleep statistics, they said the survey didn’t show a meaningful connection between academic achievement and frequent social media use or academic achievement and sleep. About 80% of students who earned any grade said they used social media “several times per day.”
Department of Public Instruction officials focused on helping kids be more physically active, but some board members noted other challenges to well-being, including social media use and higher suicide ideation among LGBTQ+ students.
While numbers have slightly improved for LGBTQ+ students since the survey question was introduced in 2017, 19% of them reported attempting suicide in the past year in 2023. That’s down from 25% in 2017 but remains nearly three times as high as the rate for heterosexual students — 7% in 2023.
“I would be remiss if I did not say that I was still very concerned for the numbers of our LGBTQ students,” Board Member John Blackburn said. “Those trends continue to be very alarming.”
Board members did hear some other possible ways to address students’ worsening well-being.
Paul Travers, principal of Washington Elementary in Guilford County Schools, talked about how his school now incorporates yoga, reading, more physical activity and heart-rate monitoring throughout the schoolday. The school began doing this in 2021 and has seen its test scores surpass pre-pandemic levels. About half as many students are reporting that they have tried to hurt themselves.
Love and attention is clearly helping students at that school, Board Member Wendell Hall said. Students feel cared for and are responding to that. Hall suggested more funding to help schools do similar things to Washington Elementary but said staff can show they care right now.
“Money can’t buy that,” he said. “It’s in every last one of us. We can give it, we can give it freely.”
