Chatham Student Surveys Reveal Well-Being Metrics In Sleep, Depression, Online Socializing

CHATHAM, NJ — Some students are not getting enough sleep, show they’re wrestling with depression and have had an uptick in their online socialization, according to survey results taken from Chatham's sixth to 12th graders in May 2021.

Student emotional wellness has been a focus in the School District of the Chathams, with Health and Well-being supervisors presenting to the Board of Education and public this past Monday night, on various topics relating to student emotional health for the district’s middle and high schoolers.

Lisa Lattarulo and Karen Leister, Supervisors of Student Health and Well-being within the School District of the Chathams, presented results on well-being of approximately 1,550 students in Chatham, between the sixth and 12th grades.

Although Lafayette School students were additionally surveyed this past May, those results were not included, they said.

Lattarulo and Leister said the focus of the survey honed in on the impact of the pandemic on children’s emotional health, measured against previous results from 2016 and 2019 surveys, in partnership with the Madison Chatham Coalition.

Three items of “notable concern” in the 2021 survey were:

• Students are sleeping less, results showing that 43.2 percent of students report they have been sleeping less than in past years. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends students have between eight and 10 hours of sleep nightly, with the National Sleep Foundation recommending nine to 11 hours for children between the ages of six and 13 years; and eight to 10 hours for children 14 to 17 years of age. However, the majority of Chatham students surveyed have been getting an average of fewer than eight hours of sleep each night. Over 30 percent are sleeping seven hours or less; and about the same amount six hours or less. About 25 percent are getting at least eight hours of sleep and about five percent, nine hours of sleep, each night. Female students are sleeping less than male students, the survey indicated. The sleep deficit is potentially tied to the increase in online socializing.
• Students surveyed overall exhibited “greater signs of depression,” which Lattarulo and Leister described as the “most concerning,” with an increase in 2021 to about 23.9 percent of students reporting in the survey that they have “spent more than two weeks feeling so sad and hopeless that they stopped normally activities,” a question mental health clinicians use to diagnose depression, they said. This compared to 16.4 percent in 2019 and 13.5 percent in 2016. However, they said this trend is being reported as well with an uptick in student mental health symptoms at the national level.
• Students have spent more time socializing online as they did in past years. In 2021, around 33 percent of students surveyed said they spend three to four hours online each day, as compared to about 25 percent in 2019 and about 22 percent in 2016. In 2021, about 35 percent reported they spend between one to two hours socializing online daily, with that higher in 2019 and 2016, at over 40 percent both of those years.

Two items that were considered “overall positive trends,” included:

• There’s been a drop in substance use among students surveyed. In 2021, 12.8 percent of students said they’d had an alcoholic drink within 30 days of being surveyed, as compared to 18 percent in 2016 and 16.5 percent in 2019. Marijuana use within 30 days of being surveyed was also reported to have dipped in 2021 to 3.6 percent, from 7 percent in 2016 and 7.1 percent in 2019. However, the risk perception for marijuana use dropped to 39.6 percent in 2021, from 47.6 percent in 2016 and 46.9 percent in 2019, which Lattarulo and Leister attributed potentially to its legalization. Vaping use additionally dropped, with only 3.7 percent of students in 2021 stating they had vaped within the last 30 days since surveyed, versus 10.9 percent in 2016 and 9.8 percent in 2019.
• There was an uptick in students stating they are “feeling safer at school.” Close to 60 percent in 2021 said they feel safer when a police officer is on their school grounds, versus just over 40 percent in 2019. In 2019, over 40 percent of students indicated that they were "moderately safe," with about 30 percent of students feeling the same in 2021. In 2021, more than 60 percent stated they feel “very safe” in school, versus 2019 when less than 40 percent stated the same. Over 40 percent of Chatham students surveyed in 2021 said they don’t think about a school shooting, as compared to approximately 25 percent in 2019.

Something on par with past survey years were:

• Stress and “suicide ideation,” which Lattarulo and Leister said the reported feelings of stress students have felt between 2019 and 2021 has not changed. The highest number in both years was students feeling a level of “moderate stress,” which hovered at about 40 percent of those surveyed, in 2019 and 2021. Female students reported higher stress levels in the survey than males, with about 30 percent of males reporting moderate stress, versus close to 50 percent of females. There was a disparity between males and females surveyed for “great stress” as well, with under 10 percent of Chatham’s male students indicating they are greatly stressed, in comparison to close to 25 percent of Chatham’s female students.
• Students in 11th grade were found to be the most stressed of all students.
• In terms of suicide ideation over the previous 12 months before they were surveyed, that number has remained mainly flat for 2021, 2019 and 2016, at 8 percent, 7 percent and 8 percent each of the years. However, that still translated to 114 students in 2021, who considered suicide within the 12 months that they were surveyed, something concerning to the district's professionals.

They said many teens don’t know how to cope with stress, with expectations high, especially their academic pressure coming from themselves, then parents and then teachers, the survey results indicated. Technology use may also be impacting their mental health, Lattarulo and Leister said.

The school district has conducted risk assessments, to determine which students they may have concerns about in terms of self-harm and suicide risk. They did 69 of these assessments in the 2018-2019 school year, 46 in the 2019-2020 school year and 33 in the 2020-2021 school year, when students had a hybrid learning environment.

To date, since the start of the 2021-2022 school year, the district has conducted 11 risk assessments among students.

What supports does the district offer to its students for emotional wellness?

• There are three tiers of support, which includes school nurses, counselors and the child study team. For “Tier 1,” there are universal supports for all students, including lessons, assemblies and other activities, to create “well-balanced” individuals. Tier 2 students may need more intervention and added support. Tier 3 students, which are a few students with the greatest need, would be given more intensive support, when the impact is “on their ability to perform in school.”
• The school district provides telehealth services to 60 students districtwide, with 13 mental health professionals having administered 242 hours of therapy to students.
• There are other programs that have taught students about mindfulness, the “Summer Connect” program which offered a range of team-building activities to rising sixth and ninth graders over the summer and an expansion of extracurricular activities, among them.

Watch the full presentation on student well-being in the video below:

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.