Troubled Teen Statistics - Troubled Teens

Troubled Teen Information

Troubledteens.com has been offering help for parents of troubled teens for many years. The article below presents a collection of research conducted by third parties. It is intended to help you as a parent to be better educated and more aware of possible dangers your teen may be exposing themselves to...

Alarming teenage statistics every parent should be aware of

Some of these statistic are bordering on the ridiculous (if your daughter watches a lot of rap videos, they more like to contract an STD), while others startling statistics provide valuable insights for parents (your teenager is 104 times more likely to try cocaine if they've experimented with Marijuana).

This collection of statistics, when considered more broadly, can provide a useful insight into teenage life and the pressures and issues your teenager may be facing on the daily basis. Many of these issues are often difficult to talk about - STD's, pregnancy, depression and drug use are not typically familial dinner conversation topics.

Below is a collection of data, statistics and research relating to Teenagers today:

Teenage Mental Health Statistics

According According to Mental Health: a Report of the Surgeon General:

Approximately 20% of the nation’s children and youth are at risk for or have mental disorders (DHHS, 1999). Emotional disturbance and mental health conditions affecting as many as one in five adolescents require treatment, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, 2007).
Research findings indicate that young people experience many different types of problems, including mood disorders: 6.2% , major depression 5% and bipolar disorder *( 1%). Amazingly 10% to 15% of youth exhibit symptoms of depression any given time. 13% of children (9-17) have anxiety disorders.

Alternative therapy statistics

According to Report of Findings from a Multi-Center Study of Youth Outcomes in Private Residential Treatment (Canyon Research & Consulting, INC 2006)

Around 95% of youth attending residential treatment had been treated previously (80% have received outpatient care, 38% had tried wilderness therapy, 33% had at least one psychiatric hospitlization, 67% were prescribed psychotropic medications within 3 months prior to admission
The most common problems included 44% disruptive behavior disorders, 36% substance abuse disorders, 31% mood disorders (or a combination of these problems)
In a study of 993 students, in 5 different states, across 9 different therapeutic programs up to 80% of adolescents improve during residential treatment

Teenage sexuality statistics

Heritage.org (A conservative / Republican "Think Tank")

Every day, 8,000 teenagers in the United States become infected by a sexually transmitted disease.[1] This year, nearly 3 million teens will become infected. Overall, roughly one-quarter of the nation's sexually active teens have been infected by a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
When compared to teens that are not sexually active, teenage boys and girls who are sexually active are significantly less likely to be happy and more likely to feel depressed.
When compared to teens that are not sexually active, teenage boys and girls who are sexually active are significantly more likely to attempt suicide.
25.3% of sexually active teens are depressed vs. 7.7% of teens who are not sexually active.
14.3% of sexually active girls attempted suicide while 5.1% of teens who are not sexually active have attempted suicide.
In general, individuals who engage in premarital sexual activity are 50 percent more likely to divorce later in life than those who do not.10 Divorce, in turn, leads to sharp reductions in adult happiness and child well-being.
A study reported in Pediatrics magazine found that sexually active boys aged 12 through 16 are four times more likely to smoke and six times more likely to use alcohol than are those who describe themselves as virgins. Among girls in this same age cohort, those who are sexually active are seven times more likely to smoke and 10 times more likely to use marijuana than are those who are virgins.

According to Medicalnewstoday.com

Nearly 31% of girls ages 15 to 19 who have had sexual intercourse at least once become pregnant, and more than 13% of sexually active teenage boys say they have been involved in a pregnancy
Nearly 50% of teenage girls who have sex for the first time before age 15 report having been pregnant, compared with almost 25% of girls age 15 or older,
In addition, 22% of sexually active boys age 15 and under report having been involved in a pregnancy, compared with 9% of teenage boys age 15 or older.

According to Sadd.org (Students Against Destructive Decisions)

Currently 46.8% of all high school students report they have had sexual intercourse
Nationwide, 6.2% of high school students had had sexual intercourse for the first time before age 13. Overall, the prevalence of having had sexual intercourse before age 13 was higher among male (8.8%) than female (3.7%) students.
Among the 33.9% of currently sexually active high school students nationwide, 23.3% had drunk alcohol or used drugs before their last sexual intercourse.
Youth exposed to sexual content on television were more likely to overestimate the frequency of sexual activity among peers and more likely to have more permissive attitudes toward premarital sex.
Three in ten teenage girls (31%) become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20 Ð more than 750,000 teen pregnancies a year. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended and 81% are to unmarried teens.
Despite impressive declines over the past decade, the United States still has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the Western industrialized world. Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least $7 billion annually.
A majority of both girls and boys who are sexually active wish they had waited. Of those who have had sex, more than one half of teen boys (55%) and the majority of teen girls (70%) said they wish they had waited longer to have sex.
Nineteen (19) million new STD infections occur each year, almost half of them among young people ages 15 to 24.
One in two sexually active youth will contract an STD by age 25.
Half of all new HIV infections occur among adolescents.
In 2004, an estimated 7,761 young people were living with AIDS, a 42% increase since 2000, when 5,457 young people were living with AIDS.

According to the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood:

Teen girls who watch more then 14 hours of rap videos are more likely to have multiple sex partners and to be diagnosed with a STD.
42% of the songs on the top 10 CDs in 1999 contained sexual content, 19% included direct descriptions of sexual intercourse.
On average, music videos contain 93 sexual situations per hour, including eleven "hard core" scenes depicting behaviors such as intercourse and oral sex.

According to Soundvision.com (An Islamic multimedia company)

In the U.S., 7 in 10 women who had sex before age 14, and 6 in 10 of those who had sex before age 15 report having had sex involuntarily. (Facts in Brief: Teen Sex and Pregnancy, The Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York, 1996).
-Nationally, nearly one million young women under age 20 become pregnant each year. That means close to 2800 teens get pregnant each day.( Facts in Brief: Teen Sex and Pregnancy, The Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York, 1996).
-Approximately 4 in 10 young women in the U.S. become pregnant at least once before turning 20 years old.( Facts in Brief: Teen Sex and Pregnancy, The Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York, 1996).
-In the U.S., 1 in 4 sexually active teens become infected with an STD every year. Some common STDs are chlamydia, gonorrhea, genital warts (also known as HPV - human papillomavirus), and herpes. (Facts in Brief: Teen Sex and Pregnancy, The Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York, 1996).

Teen Drug Statistics

According to Gdcada.org/statistics (The Council on Alcohol & Drug Abuse"

Drug use has gone down since 1990 but prescription drug use has skyrocketed among teens since then
Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States
The risk of using cocaine is estimated to be more than 104 times greater for those who have tried marijuana than for those who have never tried it.
There have been over 7,000 published scientific and medical studies documenting the damage that marijuana poses. Not one study has shown marijuana to be safe.

University of Michigan report on teen drug usage

Teen drug usage remains high for prescription drug use.
The supply of OxyContin (a commonly abused prescription drug among teens) is soaring. Sales of OxyContin, first marketed in 1996, hit $1.2 billion in 2003.
The FDA reports that OxyContin may have played a role in 464 deaths across the U.S. in 2000 to 2001.

Teenage obesity and body image statistics

According to childstats.gov (Forum on Child and Family Statistics)

Child hood obesity has increase in children ages 6-17 from 6% in 1980 to 18% in 2004.
Obesity is one of the leading causes of low self-esteem.
Obesity often is easily fixed by minor adjustments in a teen's life.