How your donation helps children, women and disabled everywhere!

Bullying:
As per the National Center for Education one out of every four students (22%) report being bullied during the school year. Students who experience bullying are at increased risk for poor school adjustment, greater risk for both mental health and behavior problems, anxiety, depression, academic problems, substance use, sleep difficulties and violent behavior later in adolescence and adulthood. 84% of students observed students perceived as overweight are being bullied.

There is a strong association between bullying and suicide-related behaviors. Students victimized by their peers were 2.4 times more likely to report suicidal ideation and 3.3 times more likely to report a suicide attempt than youth who reported not being bullied.

Suicide
As per the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2013 CDC WISQARS), suicide is the SECOND leading cause of death for ages 10-24, and the leading cause of death for college-age youth and ages 12-18.

Each day in our nation there are an average of over 5,400 attempts by young people grades 7-12. Four out of Five teens who attempt suicide have given clear warning signs.

Depression
As per the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, major depressive disorder affects approximately 14.8 million American adults, or about 6.7 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older, in a given year, (Archives of General Psychiatry, 2005 Jun; 62(6): 617-27).

Major depressive disorder is more prevalent in women than in men. (Journal of the American Medical Association, 2003). This 2:1 ratio exists regardless of racial or ethnic background or economic status.

As many as one in 33 children and one in eight adolescents have clinical depression. (Center for Mental Health Services, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 1996)

Drug and Substance Abuse
As per the National Institute on Drug Abuse, young adults (age 18 to 25) are the biggest abusers of prescription (Rx) opioid pain relievers, ADHD stimulants, and anti-anxiety drugs. In 2014, more than 1,700 young adults died from prescription drug (mainly opioid) overdoses—more than died from overdoses of any other drug, including heroin and cocaine combined—and many more needed emergency treatments.

Abuse of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs is costly to our Nation, exacting more than $700 billion annually in costs related to crime, lost work productivity and health care.

Monitoring the Future (MTF) is an annual survey of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan. An overall of 44,892 students from 382 public and private schools participated in the 2015 survey.

Alcohol
12th graders: 35.3%
10th graders: 21.5%
8th graders: 9.7%

Cigarettes
12th graders: 11.4%
10th graders: 6.3%
8th graders: 3.6%

Illicit Drugs
12th graders: 23.6%
10th graders: 16.5%
8th graders: 8.1%

Eating Disorder:
As per the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA), eating disorders are serious, life-threatening illnesses that impact millions of people every year in the United States.

In the United States, 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some time in their life, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, or EDNOS, which is now recognized as OSFED, other specified feeding or eating disorder.

By age 6, girls especially start to express concerns about their own weight or shape. 40-60% of elementary school girls (ages 6-12) are concerned about their weight or about becoming too fat. This concern endures through life. A new study estimates that approximately a half million teens struggle with eating disorders or disordered eating. 

There has been a rise in incidence of anorexia in young women 15-19 in each decade since 1930. The incidence of bulimia in 10-39-year-old women TRIPLED between 1988 and 1993 (Hoek& van Hoeken, 2003).

The prevalence of eating disorders is similar among Non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asians in the United States, with the exception that anorexia nervosa is more common among Non-Hispanic Whites (Hudson et al., 2007; Wade et al., 2011).

Interventions
As per the National Bullying Prevention Center (PACER’s)
Intervention and help will make a positive difference. Students reported that the most helpful things for teachers and school to do are listen to the student, monitor the situation and provide student advice. Students reported that the most harmful things that schools do are tell the student to solve the problem themselves, tell the student that the bullying wouldn’t happen if they acted differently, ignored what was going on, or tell the student to stop tattling.