Citizen Portal
Sign In

Danvers Cares presents youth risk behavior survey: sleep, bullying and mental-health disparities noted

2255979 · February 11, 2025

Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts

Subscribe
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Danvers Cares presented YRBS results for Danvers High School showing high rates of short sleep, disparities in school connectedness by race and sexual orientation, elevated bullying and self-harm reports among LGBTQ+ and transgender students, and lower rates of some substance-use measures than state averages.

Amanda Weber (Danvers High School social worker and Danvers Cares program director) and Laura Mayer (clinical social worker and school/community liaison) presented results from a youth risk behavior survey administered to Danvers High students in October 2024.

Key findings presented to the School Committee: about 35% of surveyed students reported getting fewer than six hours of sleep on an average school night; roughly 2% of respondents reported going hungry because there was not enough food at home (about 14 students in the sample of 698); 48% of students said they feel close to people at school overall, but lower connectedness was reported among Black (25%), Hispanic/Latino (30%) and LGBQ (28%) students. Transgender students reported higher rates of being treated unfairly because of gender identity (42%).

On bullying and mental health, presenters reported 16% experienced bullying on school property in the past year and 18% electronically; rates were higher among transgender and LGBQ students (transgender: ~37% on-property bullying; LGBQ: ~34% on-property). Mental-health measures showed 27% feeling overwhelmed by stress most or all of the time and 24% meeting the survey’s definition of depression (feeling sad or hopeless almost every day for two-plus weeks). The presenters said these depression and attempted-suicide numbers are lower than the most recent state averages for some measures but noted large disparities within subgroups: 38% of LGBTQ students reported considering suicide in the past 12 months versus 9% among non-LGBTQ students; attempted-suicide rates were 4% overall and 9% among LGBTQ respondents.

Danvers Cares leaders described current and planned responses: a nicotine-cessation prevention intervention that can be used as a first-offense alternative to suspension; healthy-relationships programming and assemblies during Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month; youth mental-health first-aid instructor training to expand in-district capacity; and planned family/guardian engagement events. The presenters said the full slideshow and meeting video would be posted on the Danvers Cares website and the district will re-administer the YRBS in the future to track trends.

Why this matters: The survey provides a baseline of student health and wellness indicators; the committee and Danvers Cares emphasized targeted outreach and family engagement to address disparities identified for LGBTQ+ and transgender students and to expand school-based prevention and supports.