According to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over four in ten U.S. school-aged adolescents experienced mental health problems when the coronavirus pandemic affected the American general population.
The CDC findings were based on online surveys that involved thousands of students from 128 schools during the first several months of the pandemic in 2021.
The findings indicated that 44 percent of survey respondents reported experiencing negative mood changes during the pandemic. 66 percent reported a parental figure had experienced socio-economic disruptions as a result of the pandemic. 24 percent experienced severe poverty.
“This really gives us the evidence to say with certainty that the pandemic was incredibly disruptive for young people and their families,” said one co-author of the CDC report.