In a first-of-its-kind study, the Centers for Disease Control asked teens to self-report the adversities they faced in their lives and to examine how those adversities affected them. As described in the Center's report of October 10, 2024, the study found that not only are high schoolers today experiencing high levels of adversity, the number-one type of childhood adversity they face is at home. Sixty-one percent of teens said they experience “being put down or insulted by a parent or adult at home” (what researchers call “emotional abuse”). An equally worrisome finding of the study, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Health Conditions and Risk Behaviors Among High School Students, is that 28% of high schoolers said they live with a parent who is struggling with depression, anxiety, or another mental health disorder (what researchers call “household poor mental health”).

I’ve been asking teens at schools around the country what they wish they could say to their parents but can’t. This is part of my two-year-long Post-it Note Project in which teens write down their feelings on Post-it notes, expressing the things they can’t say out loud.

Notably, many teens in different parts of the country tell me that not only are they struggling, they don’t feel they have an adult they can turn to at home. They want to be able to talk to their parents, but, first, their parents need to be better regulated and calmer—parents they can count on to have their backs.

Here are just a handful of the responses I’ve received........

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