Less risky behavior, more sadness

The survey, which uses anonymous student responses, reached 1,418 students at 29 BPS high schools.

Some activities requiring in-person socializing, such as sexual activity, rebounded from the 2021 survey, conducted at the height of the pandemic, but the long-term trend was a continuing decline. Two-thirds of survey respondents said they had never had sex, versus 39.4 percent in 1993; 19 percent had been in a physical fight in the past year, versus 43 percent in 1993; and 16.4 percent drank alcohol, compared with 40.1 percent in 1993. Marijuana use was level compared with 1993, at about 17 percent, but harder drugs have become less popular.

The district data also showed 38.7 percent of BPS students surveyed said they had felt persistently sad or hopeless, the second-highest number since the question was first asked in 1999, when 32.2 percent answered yes. State- and nationwide, that number had been on the rise for a decade. More than a quarter of Boston students said their mental health was not good most of the time.

Rising mental health issues were not reflected in rising rates of attempted suicide, however; 6.7 percent said they had ever attempted suicide, down from 13.5 percent in 1993.

District staff cited health education and policies to ensure healthier behavior as potential causes for the long-term progress. Jill Carter, who heads the district’s office of health and wellness, pointed to cigarette smoking as a particularly strong example: More than 20 percent of Boston teenagers said they smoked 30 years ago, compared with less than 3 percent in last year’s survey.

“The focus on the tobacco policies that made it harder for kids to get access to tobacco [and] a lot of money went to tobacco education across the state,” contributed to the decline, Carter said.

But Robert Bardwell, director of the Massachusetts School Counselors Association, said both the positive and negative trends may have the same root: technology.

“As a result of cellphones our society has forever changed, and not necessarily in good ways,” Bardwell said. “I can do most any social activity and be by myself, so why do I need to go out and party with people?”

That tendency to socialize remotely from home, Bardwell said, could be causing the reductions in risky behavior — which are often driven by peer pressure or are otherwise social activities — but also the rise in youth mental health issues.

“There are many reasons why mental health challenges have increased, but this is certainly one of them,” he said. “Part of the issue is that people are not hanging out.”

Bardwell said the pandemic also traumatized many students, among other causes of rising mental health issues.

Some questions bucked the trends. While most drug use was down — heroin and cocaine use are at all-time lows — marijuana use was essentially level with the earliest survey. In 2023, 17.4 percent of respondents said they had used marijuana, compared with 17.8 percent in 1993 but down significantly from the peak of 27 percent in 2011. And vaping nicotine was significantly more common than smoking cigarettes; one in 10 students said they vaped.

When the students are sexually active, the survey showed fewer students practice safe sex — 54.8 percent said they used a condom during their last sexual intercourse, 15 percent used birth-control pills, and only 8.2 percent had ever been tested for HIV. But pregnancy rates were still way down: 1.6 percent said they had been pregnant or gotten someone pregnant, compared with 11.1 percent in 1993. Last fall, the state approved new health and sex education guidelines for the first time in more than two decades, Carter noted.

The survey also showed only slight progress in reducing rates of sexual assault and physical abuse. Just over 7 percent of students said they had experienced sexual violence. And while rates of reported fighting, violence, and weapon-carrying are down, the percentage of students reporting they stayed home from school for safety reasons was near an all-time high — 12.2 percent.

There are differences by race, gender, and sexual orientation in many of the areas surveyed. Female and LGBTQ+ students were much more likely to report mental health issues. Black and Latino students were more likely than white students to report being in fights or feeling unsafe going to school. White students were the most likely to drink alcohol, while Latino students were the most likely to use marijuana.

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Christopher Huffaker can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @huffakingit.