The latest national health statistics report, which reviewed perceived social and emotional support among teenagers, was released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in July.
Covering the timespan between July 2021 and December 2022, the report analyzed self-reported feelings of 12- to 17-year-olds, compared teens’ perspectives to those of parents and identified disparities in health and well-being outcomes depending on the level of support received.
In 2021–22, the CDC found that 59 percent of teenagers reported always or usually getting the social-emotional help they needed, though differences by demographic groups were observed. Young men were more likely than young women to fall into this category and Black (42 percent) and Hispanic (50 percent) teens were less likely to receive this level of support than their white (63 percent) and Asian (61 percent) peers.
“Sexual or gender minority teenagers (43.9 percent) were less likely to have always or usually received support compared with teenagers who were not a sexual or gender minority (63.5 percent),” according to the report. “The percentage of teenagers who always or usually received social and emotional support differed by family income and parental education level, with higher education and family income being associated with higher rates of support.”
There weren’t significant differences by region (west, south, midwest, northeast) at 56-63 percent or urbanization level (large central or fringe metropolitan, medium or small metropolitan, nonmetropolitan) at 59-61 percent.
Research indicates that social-emotional support is critical as it better equips teenagers to deal with stressors and makes them less likely to experience adverse physical and/or mental health outcomes. Lacking social-emotional support can also lead to social isolation, which is associated with worse physical and mental health, satisfaction in life and sleep quality.
Thirty-four percent of teens sometimes or rarely received support and 7 percent report never getting the support they needed.
Comparing teens who always or usually received support to those who sometimes, rarely or never did, the more supported group reported better outcomes in the following areas:
- Poor sleep quality: 37 percent vs. 67 percent
- Very low life satisfaction: 1 percent vs. 14 percent
- Depression symptoms: 8 percent vs. 31 percent
- Anxiety symptoms: 13 percent vs. 33 percent
- Poor or fair health: 5 percent vs. 14 percent
While 59 percent of teenagers said they always or usually got the social-emotional help required, 93 percent of parents believed this to be true.
“These discrepancies were not limited to any one subgroup of teenagers but were present to varying degrees regardless of the teen- and family-level characteristic examined,” the report states. “This suggests a systematic bias where parents consistently report higher levels of social and emotional support compared with their teenager’s perception, and in doing so may underestimate their teenager’s perceived need for social and emotional support.”
Teens and parents’ differing concepts of what constitutes social-emotional support could also contribute to the stark results.
The report suggests that having both teen- and parent-based data could paint a clearer picture of the reality of young people emerging from the pandemic.
