Not long after the pandemic started, researchers began to document declines in child and adolescence mental health. The numbers are stark.
Hospital emergency room visits spiked for suspected suicide attempts among girls ages 12 to 17,according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From February to March 2021, the number jumped by 51 percent compared with the same period during 2019.For boys, the increase was 4 percent Early research from MIT suggested the suicide rate for people aged 10 to 19 increased in 2020, compared with before the pandemic. More recently, CDC provisional data for 2021 showed an increase in the national rate from 2020 to 2021,especially for people ages 15 to 24.
In other research, the CDC found nearly 45 percent of high school students were so constantly sad or hopeless in 2021 that they were unable to engage in regular activities. Almost I in 5 seriously considered suicide, and 9 percent of the teenagers surveyed by the CDC tried to take their lives during the previous 12months. Family upheaval (变故), meanwhile, was widespread, particularly in the early pandemic: Nearly 30percent of students said an adult in their home had lost a job, and 24 percent said they went hungry for a lack of food.
There are no directly comparable per-pandemic studies, but Kathleen Ether. the CDC’s director of the division of adolescent and school health, said student well-being is significantly better for teens who report feeling connected to their schools - a problem for a population that, nationwide, was kept out of them for so long. There is 20 years of research showing that it not only has an impact on how young people do while they’re adolescents, but it has 20-year impacts on all kinds of measures of health, including emotional well-being, suicidality and substance (违禁药物) use, she said.
It also left many children grieving. More than 230,000 U.S, students under 18 are believed to be mourning the ultimate loss: the death of a parent or primary caregiver in a pandemic-related loss, according to research by the CDC, Imperial College London, Harvard University, Oxford University and the University of Cape Town. In the United States, children of color were hit the hardest, another study found.It estimated that Black and Hispanic children had a higher rate of caregiver loss at nearly twice that of White children.
12. What does the underlined word “spiked” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A.Accounted. | B.Boosted. | C.Reduced. | D.Accused. |
13. What can we infer about the senior students in Paragraph 3?
A.Almost half of the students were too desperate to live normal lives. |
B.About 20 percent of the students attempted a suicide previously. |
C.They became starved due to the unemployment of adults. |
D.Family upheaval mainly contributes to their psychological disorders. |
14. What do we know about Black and Hispanic children according to the text?
A.Over 230,000 Black and Hispanic students suffered from a family loss by the age of 18. |
B.The US white people have so much racial discrimination against them. |
C.They may enter the child welfare system after experiencing the death of a parent. |
D.They were more likely to lose a caregiver than White, non-Hispanic children. |
15. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?
A.Entertainment. | B.Health. | C.Education. | D.Science. |