ATLANTA, Sept. 23 -- For three years running, the question hung over pediatric clinics, school counselors, and emergency departments: whether what happened to American teenagers during the pandemic had become permanent. The CDC's latest data, released Monday, offers the clearest signal yet that the answer is no. At least not entirely.

The agency's CDC's Youth Health in Focus report, drawing on the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted in 2025 with more than 20,000 high school students, found that persistent sadness or hopelessness among teenagers dropped to 33 percent this year, down from 40 percent in 2023 and a peak of 42 percent in 2021. Suicidal ideation, the proportion of students who seriously considered attempting suicide,...