High Schoolers Persistently Sad or Hopeless · Girls · U.S. (CDC YRBS)

## What this measures

The share of U.S. high school girls who felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that they stopped doing some usual activities, in the past 12 months. National estimates from CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey, every other year.

## Why it matters

It is CDC's longest-running measure of persistent sadness among teenagers, asked since 1999, and the series at the center of the debate over smartphones, social media and adolescent mental health.

## How to read it

Percent of U.S. high school students (grades 9 to 12) answering yes, from a national school-based survey run every two years. Each point is dated January 1 of the survey year. The 95% confidence interval, about two to five points wide, is stored with each point; read moves smaller than that as noise. CDC publishes each cycle the summer after the survey or later.

## What it does not say

A self-report from students in school on the survey day; students who are absent or have left school are not counted. It is not a clinical diagnosis. It does not say why the share moved.

## Source

CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), national high school estimates: data.cdc.gov `svam-8dhg` (DASH YRBSS High School, question H25, through 2017) and `nu3s-3dwd` (YRBSS Mental Health Indicators, 2019 onward), https://www.cdc.gov/yrbs/. Public domain; source: CDC. Use does not imply endorsement by CDC, HHS or the U.S. Government. The data are available from data.cdc.gov at no charge. Refreshed monthly by cdc-yrbs-sync.