Burlington’s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey showed that middle and high school students’ mental health is improving over previous years, and is in many cases doing better than their peers across Middlesex County and Massachusetts.
The data is from an anonymous survey and includes responses from 706 middle school students and 671 high school students. Students answered questions about safety, discrimination, mental health, substance use, sexual behaviors, physical activity and nutrition, and other issues. The results were analyzed by grade, gender identity, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity.
More than half of Burlington middle schoolers (56 percent) reported getting more sleep than in previous years, though the town lags behind the Middlesex League, which stands at 69 percent.
In many categories, LGBTQ+ and trans or gender-diverse students in middle school reported higher rates of struggling. For instance, 48 percent of LGBTQ+ students said they had a trusted adult outside of school that they could talk to, compared to 60 percent of heterosexual students. LGBTQ+ middle schoolers were also more likely to miss breakfast and had higher use of screen time.
Latinx students also struggled in some areas: In middle school, 73 percent of Latinx students were less likely to be involved in extracurriculars, compared to 81 percent overall.
School Committee Member Katherine Bond asked what, if anything, the survey could say about why Hispanic/Latinx students participated in extracurricular activities at lower rates. “Is it because they don’t feel welcome, or they have trouble getting rides to and from?”
“We haven’t dug into it deeper, but the points you bring up, we could offer an opportunity to meet with those students to ask some of those specific questions, the barriers to participating,” said District Director of Mental Health Chrissy Conceison. “I’m imagining that it’s not one specific barrier, that there are multiple barriers.”
“One wonderful thing this community does is not charge fees for families’ participation in sports teams or performing arts, and oftentimes people make a financial argument, but I think the stronger argument is the risk behaviors that participation in these activities help students avoid or make better choices with,” said Superintendent Dr. Eric Conti.
The area of strongest growth for Burlington compared to the previous survey, which was taken in 2021, was mental health. Burlington middle and high schoolers reported lower rates of mental health struggles compared to students in Middlesex County, and all was lower than pre-Covid data. In the most striking improvement, the percentage of students engaging in self-harm behavior was down by over 50 percent in middle school.
“There’s always still room for improvement,” said Amy Doughty, BPS Director of Health and Physical Education. “Thirty-one percent of our students report that their mental health was not good sometimes, most of the time, or always in the past 30 days, and the groups at increased risk were students that identified as trans or gender-diverse, LGBTQ students, female students and 8th grade students in particular.”
The report found stress and anxiety were impacting students more than depression or sadness.
Doughty said the district uses the results of the survey to tailor health curriculum across the district, and has already implemented some mental health and wellness programs that the district believes are improving student outcomes.
“I’m glad to see the numbers generally trending in the right direction,” School Committee Member Meghan Nawoichik told Doughty and Conceison. “There seem to be some spaces where of course, there’s always going to be room for improvement as we evolve, but thank you very much for the work you’ve been doing, it’s important.”