Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
7 Figures: The Dangers Kids and Teens Face
7 Figures: The Dangers Kids and Teens Face
Jul 3, 2025 10:08 PM

Parents worry a lot about their kids. But which dangers are most probable? Pew Research recently conducted a study examining the data on the dangers that teens and kids face.

Here are seven figures you should know from the report:

1. Around 15 percent of eighth-graders, three-in-ten high-school sophomores and four-in-ten seniors report some use of illicit drugs in the past 12 months. More than 1-in-3 (35.3 percent) high school seniors reported any alcohol use in the past 30 days, and 11.4 percent reported smoking cigarettes. Seniors were also as likely to have smoked marijuana in the past 30 days (21.3 percent) as to have gotten drunk (20.6 percent).

2. Nearly 1 our of every 4 (24.7 percent) high-school students say they’ve been in a physical fight at least once in the past 12 months before the 2013 survey. (Only 3.1 percent needed medical attention after the fight.)

3. In 2012, the arrest rate for youths ages 10 to 17 was around four of every 100 youths. While the rates for all racial subgroups has been declining, the arrest rate for black youths is still more than twice that of any other group.

4. There were 24.2 births per 1,000 teen females in 2014, a record low. The rates, however, differ considerably between racial subgroups: the highest subgroup birth rate was Hispanic teens (41.7 per 1,000) while the lowest was Asian teens (8.7 per 1,000).

5. About one-in-ten adolescents, or around 2.6 million, have experienced major depression in the past year, with 7.7 percent saying their depression caused severe impairment.

6. In 2013, the last year for which there plete data, 1,258 youths were reported killed by firearms (equivalent to 1.71 per 100,000), and 6,104 suffered nonfatal firearm injuries (8.29 per 100,000). Broken out by subgroups, the rate of nonfatal firearm injury was 1.68 per 100,000 for white youths, 5.3 per 100,000 for Hispanic youths, and 24.67 per 100,000 for black youths.

7. According to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, only 332 stranger abductions were reported last year; since 2007, the number of stranger abductions has ranged between 200 and 520.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Whose Higher Ed Bubble Will Burst?
College Freshman Consider the following (emphasis added): “Higher education is an industry in danger,” says Clayton Christensen, the Harvard Business School guru and a senior advisor (unpaid) at Academic Partnerships. “It’s very plausible to say that 15 years from now half of the universities that exist will be bankrupt and in some fundamental way facing extinction and the need to totally change themselves.” (Caroline Howard, “No College Left Behind,” Forbes, 2/12/14) Richard Lyons, the dean of University of California, Berkeley’s...
The Freedom for Patient, Faithful Service
Buried in a note in my book about the economic teachings of the ecumenical movement is this insight from Richard A. Wynia: “The Lord does not ask for success in our work for Him; He asks forfaithfulness.” This captures the central claim of Tyler Wigg-Stevenson’s book, The World is Not Ours to Save: Finding the Freedom to Do Good (IVP, 2013), which I review over at Canon & Culture. As Wigg-Stevenson puts it, “Our job is not to win the...
Dear Future Mom: Children with Down Syndrome Are a Gift to Us All
“I’m expecting a baby,” writes a future mother. “I’ve discovered he has Down syndrome. I’m scared: what kind of life will my child have?” In response, CoorDown, an Italian organization that supports those with the disability, created the following video, answering the mother through the voices of 15 children with Down syndrome: “Your child can be happy,” they conclude, “and you’ll be happy, too.” Or, as Katrina Trinko summarizes: “Don’t be scared. Be excited.” That goes for the rest of...
Samuel Gregg: Defending Paul Ryan
At National Review Online, Acton’s Director of Research, Sam Gregg, takes issue with a New York Times article that takes a “dim view” of Congressman Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.). Specifically, Gregg takes on author Timothy Egan’s charge that Ryan suffers from “Irish-Amnesia” because the congressman suggests that we in the United States have created a culture of dependency. Such attitudes and critiques, the piece argued, reflected a type of ancestral amnesia on Ryan’s part. Egan reminds his readers that some English...
Bill Gates on Poverty and Inequality
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Bill Gates — the richest man in the world — shares his thoughts on poverty and inequality: Should the state be playing a greater role in helping people at the lowest end of the e scale? Poverty today looks very different than poverty in the past. The real thing you want to look at is consumption and use that as a metric and say, “Have you been worried about having enough to eat?...
The Blight Of Worklessness
Work is good. It gives meaning and purpose to our lives. It affords us an avenue for our God-given talents. It provides our e, gives service to others, and fashions our society. We are, in God’s image and likeness, workers and creators. Reihan Salam and Rich Lowry, at National Review Online, are talking about the need for work; not just jobs, but work – real, meaningful work. In their discussion, they note that the Democratic party (the “blue collar” party)...
Radio Free Acton: For The Life Of The World
The Brad Pitt of Acton. In this edition of Radio Free Acton, Paul Edwards goes behind the scenes at the premiere of For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles, the new curriculum produced by the Acton Institute that examines God’s mission in the world and our place in it. Edwards looks at the curriculum itself, speaks with some of the folks who made it, and gauges audience reaction to the premiere. You can listen via the audio...
Surviving Sex Trafficking
Vednita Carter wants this to be perfectly clear: human beings are not for sale. It’s a battle, she says, one where she is on the front lines. Carter used to be a prostitute. But don’t think of a woman wearing outrageous outfits, standing on a street corner. No, think sex trafficking. At 18, she was hoping to make money for college when she responded to an advertisement for “dancers.” At first, she danced fully clothed, but her bosses and then-boyfriend...
It’s Official, Millennials: The White House Thinks You’re Stupid
The Affordable Care Act [ACA] has seen more than it’s share of disasters. The clunky website got off to a horrendous start, the “fixes” didn’t work, Kathleen Sebelius got raked over the coals (“Don’t do this to me!”) at a House hearing, and not enough young people are signing up. The solution? The White House has created an “ACA Bracket” (Get it? Huh? Get it?) site where young folks can go and vote for their favorite GIFs and then head...
5 Facts About Patrick, the Indiana Jones of Saints
An aristocratic British teenager is kidnapped by pirates, sold into slavery, escapes and returns home, es a priest, returns to his land of captivity and face off against hordes of Druids. Here are five facts about the amazing life of St. Patrick, the Indiana Jones of Christian saints: 1. Taken from his home in southern Britain, Patrick was captured by pirates in A.D. 405 when he was only sixteen years old and sold into slavery in Ireland. He would spend...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved