Some youth experience cognitive difficulties that interfere with their ability to learn and function well in a school environment. We examined correlates of perceived cognitive impairment among high school students who completed a national survey conducted by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2019.
Participants were high school students (grades 9–12) who completed the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) in 2019. The CDC uses this survey to monitor risk behaviors. Students answered the following question ‘Because of a physical, mental, or emotional problem, do you have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions?’ as either ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Student responses to this question were analyzed in relation to demographic variables and variables pertaining to adversity, mental health problems, and drug use.
The sample included 8,349 students between the ages of 14 and 18, with 4,093 boys (49%) and 4,256 girls (51%). A large proportion reported having serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions due to physical, mental, or emotional problems (38%). A significantly larger proportion of girls (45%) than boys (30%) reported experiencing cognitive impairment [
A remarkably large proportion of high school students in the United States reported experiencing serious difficulty with their cognitive functioning over the past year. Girls were significantly more likely to endorse perceived cognitive difficulties compared to boys. There was a strong association between perceived cognitive impairment and the experience of psychosocial adversity.