Allison Bonacci featured in Washington Times article: Teen girls lead 60% surge in depression rates, CDC report finds

By Sean Salai – The Washington Times – Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Teenage girls led a 60% jump in the number of Americans reporting clinical depression symptoms from 2013 to 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday.

The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics found the share of people ages 12 and older who reported clinical depression symptoms in a two-week period increased from 8.2% of those surveyed in 2013-14 to 13.1% between August 2021 and August 2023.

Among the depressed in 2021-23, the federal agency found that 39.3% received counseling or therapy from a mental health professional in the previous 12 months. That included 43% of female respondents and 33.2% of male participants in a public health survey.

Depression rates were highest among female respondents — 16% compared with 10.1% of male participants — and decreased as age increased. The prevalence of depression ranged from 19.2% of all adolescents ages 12-19 to just 8.7% of all adults 60 and older.

By comparison, an earlier CDC report showed that depression rates among Americans ages 20 and older did not change significantly from 2007-08 to 2015-16.

Debra Brody, a CDC epidemiologist and lead author of the report, said she could not explain the surge because the survey “is not designed to identify cause and effect relationships.”

“In addition, our study was not designed to assess underlying factors for trends in depression,” Ms. Brody told The Washington Times.

Several mental health experts not connected with the study blamed social media addiction for the trend.

They noted that the CDC surveys from 2013 to 2023 coincided with smartphone ownership becoming widespread among teens, who they said rely more than older adults on digital interaction for their self-worth.

“Social media is a major factor, especially for girls,” said Laura DeCook of the California-based company LDC Wellbeing, which leads mental health workshops for families. “It fosters insecurity, cyberbullying and pressure to perform. Girls are also more likely to internalize emotions, which shows up more in diagnoses like depression.”

Classic signs of depression include lack of energy, sleeplessness, self-hating thoughts and behavior, difficulty concentrating and completing tasks, frequent crying and persistent sadness.

According to psychologists, these symptoms have long been more common among young people. They say the best response is to accept the feelings rather than minimize them or tell teenagers to “cheer up.”

“Contrary to stereotype, older people have long had lower rates of depression than adolescents,” said Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University psychologist and addiction researcher. “The present findings are consistent with that pattern.”

In a second report on people ages 18 and older who responded to a separate public health survey in 2023, the CDC found women and people living alone were likelier than men and cohabiting adults to take prescription medications for depression.

The CDC said Wednesday that 15.3% of women reported taking antidepressants in 2023, more than twice the 7.4% of men who said the same.

The agency also noted that 14.4% of adults living alone in 2023 were medicated for depression compared with 10.9% of those living with others.

Since the pandemic, public officials have declared a youth mental health crisis linked to screen addiction and flagged an “epidemic of loneliness” driven by record numbers of Americans living alone.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, declared April 13-19 a Screen-Free Week for “Virginians of all ages” to take a break from smart devices and reconnect with “the world beyond the screen.”

“Protecting Virginia’s children and strengthening families is at the heart of everything we do,” Mr. Youngkin said Monday. “Virginia Screen-Free Week is a call to action — to hit pause on the noise of digital distractions and say yes to deeper connection, stronger mental health and a brighter future for our youth.”

In a statement to The Times, Virginia Health and Human Services Secretary Janet V. Kelly said the CDC findings echo a survey that showed depression rates increasing to 20% of her state’s teens in 2023, as roughly 78% spent over three hours a day on non-academic screen time.

“This tracks across multiple studies we have seen, including past reports from the CDC, that U.S teen girls are experiencing increased sadness and violence, that teen girls are more vulnerable to mental health risks related to online and social media exposure, and that suicide attempts in teen girls have increased, and rising rates of suicide in Black girls,” Ms. Kelly said.

Over the past two years, Virginia and several other states have banned cellphones from K-12 classrooms, noting that children increasingly use them for distractions rather than texting mom.

While boys often use digital screens to play video games that externalize their feelings, experts note that girls are more vulnerable to solitary doomscrolling on social media platforms.

Allison Bonacci, director of education for Cyber Safety Consulting, an Illinois-based company that works with schools to develop internet safety policies, said that leads to more girls neglecting sleep and exercise. 

“Girls are more likely to use image-based platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which can intensify appearance-related comparisons and body dissatisfaction,” Ms. Bonacci said. “They’re also more likely than boys to experience digital drama like exclusion and gossip online.”

Read more here: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/apr/16/teen-girls-lead-60-surge-depression-rates-cdc-report-finds/