# Youth in the United States

Youth is an age group in the demographics of the United States. In 2010, it was estimated that 20.2% of the population of the United States were 0–14 years old (30,305,704 females and 31,639,127 males).

## Concerns from parents

According to a survey of parents in 2011, the issues of greatest concern about children are as follows, with percentages of adults who rate each item as a "big problem":
* Childhood obesity: 33%
* Drug abuse: 33%
* Tobacco smoking: 25%
* Teen pregnancy: 24%
* Bullying: 24%
* Internet safety: 23%
* Stress: 22%
* Alcohol abuse: 20%
* Driving accidents: 20%
* Sexting: 20%

## Sexuality

Adolescent sexuality in the United States relates to the sexuality of American adolescents and its place in American society, both in terms of their feelings, behaviors and development and in terms of the response of the government, educators and interested groups.

## Youth rights

The National Youth Rights Association is the primary youth rights organization in the United States, with local chapters across the country and constant media exposure. The organization known as Americans for a Society Free from Age Restrictions is also an important organization. The Freechild Project has gained a reputation for interjecting youth rights issues into organizations historically focused on youth development and youth service through their consulting and training activities. The Global Youth Action Network engages young people around the world in advocating for youth rights, and Peacefire provides technology-specific support for youth rights activists.
Choose Responsibility and their successor organization, the Amethyst Initiative, founded by Dr. John McCardell Jr., exist to promote the discussion of the drinking age, specifically. Choose Responsibility focuses on promoting a legal drinking age of 18, but includes provisions such as education and licensing. The Amethyst Initiative, a collaboration of college presidents and other educators, focuses on discussion and examination of the drinking age, with specific attention paid to the culture of alcohol as it exists on college campuses and the negative impact of the drinking age on alcohol education and responsible drinking.

## Youth politics

With roots in the early youth activism of the newsboys and Mother Jones' child labor protests at the turn of the 20th century, youth politics were first identified in American politics with the formation of the American Youth Congress in the 1930s. In the 1950s and 1960s organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Students for a Democratic Society were closely associated with youth politics, despite the broad social statements of documents including the liberal Port Huron Statement and the conservative Sharon Statement and leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr.
   Our answer is the world's hope; it is to rely on youth. The cruelties and obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. It cannot be moved by those who cling to a present which is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement of danger. It demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. - Robert F. Kennedy, South Africa, 6-6-1966

### Youth vote

The youth vote in the United States is the cohort of 18–24 year-olds as a voting demographic, though some scholars define youth voting as voters under 30. Many policy areas specifically affect the youth of the United States, such as education issues and the juvenile justice system; however, young people also care about issues that affect the population as a whole, such as national debt and war.
Young people have the lowest turnout, though as the individual ages, turnout increases to a peak at the age of 50 and then falls again.

## Mental health

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 46% of American adolescents aged 13–18 will suffer from some form of mental disorder. About 21% will suffer from a disorder that is categorized as “severe,” meaning that the disorder impairs their daily functioning, but almost two-thirds of these adolescents will not receive formal mental health support. The most common types of disorders among adolescents as reported by the NIMH is anxiety disorders (including generalized anxiety disorder, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and others), with a lifetime prevalence of about 25% in youth aged 13–18 and 6% of those cases being categorized as severe. Next is mood disorders (major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, and/or bipolar disorder), with a lifetime prevalence of 14% and 4.7% for severe cases in adolescents. A similarly common disorder is Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which is categorized as a childhood disorder but oftentimes carries through into adolescence and adulthood. The prevalence for ADHD in American adolescents is 9%, and 1.8% for severe cases. It is important to understand that ADHD is a serious issue in not only children but adults. When children have ADHD a number of mental illnesses can come from that which can affect their education and hold them back from succeeding.
According to Mental Health America, more than 10% of young people exhibit symptoms of depression strong enough to severely undermine their ability to function at school, at home, or whilst managing relationships.
A 2021 study conducted by NIMH managed to link 31.4% of suicide deaths to a mental health disorder, the most common ones being attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or depression. Suicide was the second leading cause of death among persons aged 10–29 years in the United States during 2011–2019. More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease combined. There are an average of over 3,470 attempts by students in grades 9–12.
According to APA, the percentage of students going for college mental health counselling has been rising in recent years, which by report for anxiety as the most common factor, depression as the second, stress as the third, family issues as the fourth, and academic performance and relationship problems as the fifth and sixth most.

## Juvenile delinquency

Juvenile delinquency in the United States refers to crimes committed by children or young people, particularly those under the age of eighteen (or seventeen in some states).

## Child support

In the United States, child support is the ongoing obligation for a periodic payment made directly or indirectly by an "obligor" (or paying parent or payer) to an "obligee" (or receiving party or recipient) for the financial care and support of children of a relationship or a (possibly terminated) marriage. The laws governing this kind of obligation vary dramatically state-by-state and tribe-by-tribe among Native Americans. Each individual state and federally recognized tribe is responsible for developing its own guidelines for determining child support.
Typically the obligor is a non-custodial parent. Typically the obligee is a custodial parent, caregiver or guardian, or a government agency, and does not have to spend the money on the child. In the U.S., there is no gender requirement for child support; for example, a father may pay a mother or a mother may pay a father. In addition, where there is joint custody, in which the child has two custodial parents and no non-custodial parents, a custodial parent may be required to pay the other custodial parent.

## Youth unemployment

In 2007, before a recession began in the United States, youth unemployment was already at 13%. By 2008, this rate had jumped to 18% and in 2010 it had climbed to just under 21%. The length of time the youth were unemployed expanded compared to prior recessions. Many youth in the United States remained unemployed after more than 12 months of searching for a job. This has caused the emergence of a scarred generation. An estimated 9.4 million young people aged 16 to 24 in the United States, that is 12.3%, were neither working nor in school.