The mental health of youth in Rhode Island and across the nation appears to be improving, but only slightly, with nearly a third of Rhode Island high schoolers experiencing feelings of sadness or hopelessness, according to Rhode Island Kids Count.
Those numbers are even higher nationally, according to a Centers for Disease Control survey that found that 40 percent of students with “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” down only 2 percent from 2021 to 2023.
Rhode Island Kids Count released its survey and recommendations last week, based on a 2015-2023 Rhode Island Youth Behavior Survey. The CDC released its 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey in late September.
Not surprisingly, both surveys show that minorities suffer greater mental health concerns, with housing, economics and access to healthcare significant factors.
For many students, depression is so high that they contemplate and even attempt suicide. Nationally, the CDC says that black students’ suicide attempts dropped from 14 percent to 10 percent, and those injured in a suicide attempt from 4 percent to 2 percent.
In Rhode Island, Kids Count says that 10 percent of black students attempted suicide in 2023, down from a high of 17 percent in 2015; some 12 percent of Hispanic/Latino students attempted suicide in 2023, down slightly from 14 percent in 2015; and 7 percent of white students attempted suicide in 2023, down from 8 percent in 2015.
Kids Count has a wide range of recommendations, none particularly surprising, recognizing the link between mental health and poverty, juvenile justice, racism, early childhood education, among several items.
Here are some of the highlights from CDC study:
- More than half of female students felt persistently sad or hopeless, declining from 57 percent in 2021 to 53 percent in 2023. And the number of female students who seriously considered attempting suicide dropped from 30 percent to 27 percent.
- The percentage of Hispanic students “who felt persistently sad and or hopelessness” dropped from 46 percent to 42 percent; those seriously considering suicide from 22 percent to 18 percent.
- However, not everything was moving in the right direction.
- The percentage of students overall threatened or injured with a weapon at school rose from 7 percent to 9 percent.
- The percentage of students bullied at school rose from 15 percent to 19 percent.
- The percentage of students who missed school because of safety concerns, either at school or on the way to school, rose from 9 percent to 13 percent.
Kids Count focuses on disparities in resources in “communities and neighborhoods.” Here’s some of Kids Count’s findings and recommendations:
- Juvenile Justice: Prohibit questioning juveniles suspected of “delinquent or criminal behavior” unless a parent or guardian is present; establish a minimum age of incarceration; increase juvenile hearing boards.
- Hire additional social workers in schools.
- A series of recommendations that would expand affordable, quality childcare.
- “Raise more state general revenues to fund early childhood programs.”
- “End deep child poverty” by “updating the cash assistance benefit” through the RI Works Program.
- Housing programs to assure “safe, affordable, well-maintained and stable homes.”
- Kids Count also supports funding dual language programs administered by the Rhode Island Department of Education; increase the number of educators of color; among several other items.
Many of the proposed solutions are consistent with the CDC’s recommendations:
- Provide professional development to educators on classroom management and inclusivity.
- Support student-led inclusive clubs.
- Identify safe spaces and safe people.
- Enforce anti-harassment policies.
- “Schools can also increase connectedness by putting relationship building programs in place that help strengthen connections between students, families, and school communities.”