Alaska teens are more likely to be depressed and suicidal than they were a decade ago, and some mental health issues have increased, especially among girls, according to results from the state's most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
The survey, conducted among about 1,200 high school students across the state in 2023, revealed a number of negative trends.
Nineteen percent of respondents said they had attempted suicide at least once in the past year, compared with 8.7 percent in the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Twenty-three percent said they had thought about suicide, compared with 14.5 percent in 2011. And 43 percent said they had felt sad or hopeless for an extended period of time, preventing them from carrying out some of their usual activities, compared with 25.9 percent in the 2011 survey.
The Alaska Youth Risk Behavior Survey is administered to students every two years, but was not administered in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting school closures. The results were released this month by the Alaska Department of Public Health.
Across many mental health indicators, girls report more problems than boys: 56% of 2023 female respondents said they were too sad to engage in their usual activities, compared with 32% of male respondents. While 20% of all respondents said they had been cyberbullied (up from 15% in 2011), 25% of girls said they had been a victim of it.
Other survey results revealed a decline in lifestyle habits: The percentage of high school students maintaining a healthy weight fell from 71.9% in 2011 to 64.3% in 2023. In the 2023 survey, 53.1% of students reported drinking at least one sugary drink in the previous week, up from 44.9% in 2011. The percentage of students getting the recommended 60 minutes of exercise per day fell from 21.3% in 2011 to 18% in 2023.
Alaska Department of Public Health Director Lindsay Cato said she was saddened by the findings.
“My heart breaks for Alaskan youth who are struggling and families across our state,” Cato said in a statement. “These statistics underscore the need for continued efforts to support children and families to improve community connections, economic stability and access to quality health care services. They also underscore the need for public health and public safety to work alongside violence prevention efforts so Alaskans can focus on things like physical activity, education and nutrition. We know all of this is connected and that the consequences of these are felt in our communities and are showing up in our state's rising overdose and suicide rates.”
The Alaska results mirror some of the national trends reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationwide, surveys have shown that mental health concerns, including suicidal thoughts, are on the rise, especially among girls.
But the Alaska study also shows some positive trends.
Members of the Barrow High School football team practice at Utqiagvik Field on Aug. 3, 2022. Statewide, high school students are less likely to get the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity per day than in past years, according to results from the 2023 Alaska Youth Risk Behavior Survey. (Photo: Jeres Rosen/Alaska Beacon) Survey results show that use of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, and exposure to tobacco smoke are down, as is alcohol consumption.
Survey results show that smoking among high school students has continued to decline over the long term. For example, 6.5% of survey respondents in 2023 said they had smoked a cigarette in the past 30 days, up from 14% in 2011.
Of students who responded to the survey, 16.9% said they had consumed an alcoholic beverage in the past 30 days, up from 29% in 2011.
Use of e-cigarettes, a relatively new product, has changed significantly in recent years. The latest survey suggests that e-cigarettes are declining in popularity among Alaska high school students. In 2023, 17.3% of students reported using e-cigarettes in the past 30 days, a significantly lower percentage than the 26.1% measured in 2019 and similar to the 17.7% rate recorded in 2015, the first year that the youth survey asked students about e-cigarettes.
The drop in e-cigarette use is “obviously really exciting,” said Katie Stephens, deputy program manager for the Alaska Tobacco Prevention and Control Program.
The public health program employs a range of strategies to discourage e-cigarette use, including working with schools and community groups and running “don't buy” campaigns to counter e-cigarette companies' marketing to young people.
“This is a very comprehensive effort,” Steffens said. “I don't think there's one single thing that's going to lead to this, but we've taken a lot of the strategies we've learned from youth tobacco use in the past and used them to address e-cigarette use today.”
Part of that strategy includes establishing alternatives to the suspensions that have been routinely imposed on students who smoke or vape at school, which resulted in students losing more than 1,800 school days in 2018 and 2019, according to the Tobacco Prevention and Control Program.
An alternative response supported by the American Lung Association is education programs that inform students of the health risks but allow them to attend class as usual.
The Tobacco Prevention and Control Program encourages schools and districts to use alternatives to suspension if they have the capacity, so students can be “educated that they need to understand more about how these products affect their health,” Stephens said.
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