Depression among high school students hit its highest rate in three decades, 41 percent, during the pandemic, according to results of the 2021 Montana Youth Risk Behavior Study.

“If anything good came out of this reporting in 2021, it was that our suicide attempts did not increase during the pandemic,” said Susan Court, state coordinator of the study for the Montana Office of Public Instruction. “Yes, depression increased, but the suicide attempts did not, and suicide ideation did not.”

Girls felt more depressed than boys, and Native American students felt more depressed than White students, Court said. The survey tracks youth who report feeling so sad or hopeless nearly every day for two weeks in a row or more that they stop doing usual activities.

Court also noted nearly 18 percent of Native American students attempted suicide last year compared to 8 percent of White students, a data point of which tribal health leaders are aware. She also said freshmen and sophomore students were more likely to have attempted suicide than juniors and seniors, and girls more so than boys.

Court provided the report Friday to the Montana Board of Public Education. She said the survey, sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tracks health risk behaviors that could result in mortality and morbidity, and she said Montana helped develop the questionnaire back in 1991, and it contains 80 percent of the original questions.

During the 2020-2021 school year, 98 percent of all school districts, and 22,576 students in grades seven through 12, completed the survey, the report said. Court noted the report represents the first time in 30 years that questions about youth health behaviors were asked in the midst of a pandemic.

Read the full article about high school youth depression during COVID-19 by Keila Szpaller at The 74.