Annual Kids Count report shows increase in anxiety, depression

This year’s annual Kid Count report shows a 26-percent increase in anxiety and depression for kids ages three to 17 in the U-S through 2020 at the height of the pandemic.

“Kids are dealing with the world they’re dealing with violence in a variety of ways when you think about kids doing active shooter drills in their school or many kids in the states are dealing with challenges related to racism.”

Debra Fitzpatrick with the Children’s Defense Fund Minnesota says mental health outcomes were even worse for LGBTQ+ children and children of color in Minnesota. She says more than 30-percent of LGBTQ 11th graders in the 2019 Minnesota Student Survey reported an attempted suicide at some point in their life compared to seven-percent of their heterosexual counterparts.