At its meeting Tuesday night, the Board of Health was presented with data taken from Marblehead High School’s youth risk study.
MHS Clinical Social Worker Gina Hart and Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Julia Ferreira presented the data to the board members, which involved alcohol and drug use among high schoolers, mental health, and discrimination.
The data was taken from an Oct. 11, 2023 survey from students in all four high-school grades, ages 14-18. Hart said that they received an 85% response rate, while only 8.3% were opted out by a parent or guardian. 677 responses were also gathered for supplemental questions via an anonymous Google form.
“743 students responded to it, which is great,” Hart said. “We’re always trying to do new things to engage students and increase buy-in to take the survey.”
The percentage of students who took the survey was up from 75% in 2022.
Lifetime, meaning if students have tried a substance at any point, uses of drugs and alcohol for students reflected some change from 2021 to 2023. Alcohol use remained about the same at 40.5%, up a half-percentage point from 2023, but down a half-percentage point from 2021.
Cannabis use went up 2% from 20% in 2022, but was still down 1 percentage point from 2021. Nicotine use saw a 4% jump from 34% to 38% from 2022 to 2023. Data from 2021 for nicotine use was not available.
Hart also presented basic protective and risk factors that were taken into account. 95.5% of students reported that they had positive connections with peers. 62.8% reported feeling connected with a staff member at the school, and 89.6% said that were engaged in extracurricular activities.
Only 30.3% reported getting eight hours of sleep or more, which is the recommended number for kids in the age group. Though Hart said that number is “a risk factor,” that number was up from 14% last year.
Hart noted that many numbers in the survey are up from the previous year.
“We’re going to see a lot of data trending in a positive direction, which is great,” Hart said.
In terms of data gathered on Mental Health, reports of students experiencing anxiety was down to 24.4% from 34% in 2022. Reports of depression were down from 21% in 2022 to 15.5% in 2023, and psychotic experiences went down slightly from 12% in 2023 to 11.4%.
The mental health data was gathered from a symptomatic questionnaire, focusing on a wide range of symptoms of anxiety, depression ,and psychotic experiences.
The number of students who had suicidal thoughts went down from 17.6% to 15.9%, though the number of students who reported non-suicidal self injuries remained roughly the same as the previous year, going down slightly from 11.5% to 11.3%.
12.10% reported having a plan for suicide, compared to 12.6% from 2022. Suicide attempts went up to 3.1% from 1.6% amongst students who answered the survey, something that Hart said should be closely monitored.
“This is something we want to pay attention to,” Hart said.
Almost half of the students surveyed (45.9%) reported struggling regularly with body image or a negative perception of how they look.
A number of students also reported being discriminated against based on race or ethnicity.
35.7% reported being called a racially insulting name, while 16.3% reported others their age not including them in their activities.
The data was gathered from students who identified as other than white.
Board Chair Helaine Hazlett questioned why students who identified as white were not included.
“I think there are white people that feel discriminated against,” Hazlett said.
Board member Tom McMahon agreed with Hazlett, stating that he had experienced “some racism towards me” at a gym within the last few months.
Toward the end of the presentation, Ferreira informed the board of a number of school-wide and district-wide programs and initiatives to support students overall well-being.
“We want to make sure that we are supporting all students and their academic and social emotional learning,” Ferreira said.