A Staggering Number of Teens Say They’ve Been Forced Into Sex

Roughly one in seven high school female students in the United States say they have been forced into sex, according to new data released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That staggering number is even higher among queer teens: One in five LGBQ+ high school students say they have been forced into sex, as do nearly 40 percent of students who say they’ve ever had a partner of the same sex.

The data was collected as part of the CDC’s regular Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which collects responses from more than 17,000 across 152 public, charter, Catholic, and other non-public schools in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Students completed questionnaires in 2021, making this the first Youth Risk Behavior Study to examine the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on teens’ behaviors, moods, and victimization.

In total, 14 percent of female students said in 2021 they had been forced into sex, compared to 12 percent who said the same in 2011. Over that time frame, the number of male students who said they’d been forced into sex remained stable at 4 percent.

In the wake of #MeToo, female high school students may be more likely to report violence. But the level of violence may also be on the rise. Domestic abuse rose during the pandemic, and it’s likely that sexual abuse did as well. When the nation went into lockdown in March 2020, half of the people calling the National Sexual Hotline for help were minors—a first for the hotline. Not only were minors quarantined at home with potential abusers, but they had less ability to seek help from outside sources like teachers or coaches.

Regardless of the reason, researchers are extremely worried.

“If you think about every 10 teen girls that you know, at least one and possibly more has been raped, and that is the highest level we’ve ever seen,” Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, told the Washington Post. “We are really alarmed.”

This survey also found disparities in sexual victimization across different races. Nearly a third of American Indian and Alaska Native students said they had been forced into sex, compared to 24 percent of “multiracial” students and 23 percent of white students. Twenty-two percent of Black and Hispanic students, respectively, said they had been forced into sex, as did 21 percent of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students.

Ethier said that girls’ level of sexual victimization may also be tied to their grim reports about mental health. Almost 60 percent of female high school students said they had endured “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness,” a stunning increase from 36 percent in 2011. Thirty percent had seriously considered attempting suicide. This finding lines up with dire warnings from medical organizations, which have repeatedly sounded the alarm over the pandemic’s impact on youth mental health.

“More than 140,000 children in the United States lost a primary and/or secondary caregiver, with youth of color disproportionately impacted,” the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children’s Hospital Association said in a joint statement in 2021. “We are caring for young people with soaring rates of depression, anxiety, trauma, loneliness, and suicidality that will have lasting impacts on them, their families, and their communities.”

The 2021 survey may mark the last time that data from all 50 states is included. In April 2022, the Florida Department of Education quietly left the survey—in which it had participated for more than three decades—and declined to respond to questions from the Orlando Sentinel about the decision. At the time, the state had just passed its so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which limits discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in schools. Mental health advocates have warned that the law could imperil the mental health of LGBTQ+ teens, who are already struggling.

Forty-five percent of LGBQ+ high school students told the CDC that they seriously considered attempting suicide in the last year, and 22 percent did attempt suicide, according to the 2021 survey. Fifteen percent of heterosexual students said that they had seriously thought about it, while 6 percent said they had attempted suicide.

“Queer students face disproportionate rates of victimization, and this directly contributes to their higher rates of poor mental health and suicide risk,” Dr. Ronita Nath, vice president of research at the anti-suicide organization the Trevor Project, said in an emailed statement. “At a time when schools are increasingly being turned into political battlegrounds in the ‘Culture War,’ we must remember that real, young lives are at stake.”

If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673. For other resources, you can also visit the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline website or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center website.

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 1-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

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