More than half of high school students say they faced emotional abuse throughout pandemic, CDC report finds

• More than half of high schoolers said they were verbally insulted or cursed at during the pandemic, a CDC study found.
• The study also showed mental health issues among American teenagers.

More than half of American teenagers said they were victims of various forms of emotional abuse in their households during the pandemic, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"These data echo a cry for help," Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC's acting principal deputy director, told NBC News. "The COVID-19 pandemic has created traumatic stressors that have the potential to further erode students' mental wellbeing."

The CDC's findings were based on survey responses from 7,705 high school students nationwide and published in various individual reports.

According to the survey, 66% of students reported that they had difficulty completing their schoolwork, 55% said they had been cursed at or verbally insulted by adults in the household, and 11.3% said they were victims of physical abuse.

The report also found that 44% of the students said they experienced hopelessness during the past year — making it difficult for them to carry out daily functions — and almost 20% said they contemplated committing suicide.

"Our data make it clear that young people experienced significant disruption and adversity during the pandemic and are experiencing a mental health crisis," Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health, told reporters Thursday.

It's not immediately clear how exactly the lockdown caused by the pandemic influenced the study's findings.

A previous CDC study released in February shows that American teenagers had faced increasing levels of mental health issues between 2013 and 2019 prior to the onset of the pandemic in 2020.