It’s already well-established that the massive societal disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic took a huge toll on the mental health of America’s young people.
New research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (h/t Axios Philadelphia) shows that the Keystone State’s children were diagnosed with anxiety and depression at a rate that slightly outpaced the national average.
Thirteen percent of Pennsylvania’s young people received such diagnoses in 2020, up from the 10.2 percent who received a similar diagnosis in 2016, the research showed. That’s an increase of 27.5 percent, and slightly higher than the national increase of 25.5 percent during the same time period, the research showed.