High school and middle school students across North Carolina reported better mental health and more physical activity in 2023 than their peers in 2021. The increase comes after nearly a decade of declining trends, according to the N.C. Department of Education, which shared the latest results of the North Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey with the State Board of Education on Wednesday.
“It is very encouraging to see that students are not only recovering from the effects of the pandemic, but in many cases are performing better than they did in 2019 or even prior,” Deputy State Superintendent Michael Maher said in a news release.
The state conducts the survey every two years, asking a representative sample of middle and high school students across North Carolina whether they are engaging in certain risky behaviors, such as drug use, and asking them to rate their mental and physical health.
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In recent years, the decline in mental health among junior and senior high school students has been one of the most notable trends in survey results.
But in 2023, students felt a little hopeful.
The percentage of middle school students feeling sad or hopeless decreased from 35% in 2021 to 32% in 2023. Also, the percentage of high school students feeling sad or hopeless decreased from 43% to 39%.
Similarly, the percentage of high school students who seriously considered suicide fell from 22% to 18%, a slight improvement from the 19% recorded in 2019, before the pandemic.
About 30% of high school students in the class of 2023 said they’ve felt lonely at some point in their lives, a lower percentage than in 2021 and 2019, but still a problem, said Ellen Essick, director of the Public Instruction Department’s division of healthy schools and specialized educational support.
“Be hopeful for change, but be realistic,” Essick told state board members. “We have a lot of work to do to keep our students mentally well.”
In his presentation, Essick showed a graph that showed that there is often an inverse correlation between physical activity and feelings of sadness and hopelessness. In 2023, about 42% of high school students were physically active five or more days a week for at least an hour. This is the highest physical activity rate for North Carolina high school students since 2017. According to Essick, When people are physically active, their mental health improves too.
“This information is extremely important,” said Alan Duncan, vice chairman of the school board, stressing the need to maintain high participation in the survey. “Children have a right to their opinion and we deserve the opportunity to have that opinion heard.”
