The results of Marblehead High School’s latest Substance Use and Risk Factors, or SURF, survey show several encouraging trends, including declines in anxiety, depression and substance use among students. However, anxiety and depression levels remain “above the risk threshold,” according to MHS counselor Gina Hart.
“What’s good is we’re trending downward,” she added.
Asked what might be contributing to those trends, Hart answered, “It’s a generational response to substance use right now. Kids are not as interested in it. That has to do with the education and awareness of substance use as a public health issue.”
Hart presented data from the 2025-26 survey, which was administered to MHS students in the fall. This is the fourth year students have taken the anonymous survey.
Nineteen percent of students reported experiencing anxiety, down from 21% last year and 31% in 2022. Ten percent reported depression, down from 13% last year and 19% in 2022.
Nearly 12% of students reported having suicidal thoughts, while 8.6% said they had made a plan to end their lives. One percent reported attempting suicide.
Body image and disordered eating
Thirty-two percent of students reported struggling with body image, down from 37.5% the previous year.
Vulnerable populations
Among students who identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, asexual or pansexual, 64% were above the risk threshold for anxiety and depression. Forty-four percent of those students reported suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
Hart noted that it is important to recognize when particular student populations are disproportionately affected and to respond with prevention and support efforts.
Experiences of discrimination
Thirty percent of students reported being called racially insulting names.
Four percent said they had experienced discrimination because of their sexual orientation, while 4.7% said their religion had made them targets for discrimination.
Substance use
Fewer students reported using alcohol, nicotine and cannabis than in previous years.
Thirty-two percent of students reported using alcohol, 28% reported using nicotine and 16% reported using cannabis.
More than 16% reported using alcohol for the first time at ages 12 or 13. That figure was 22% for nicotine and 9.4% for cannabis.
There was a slight uptick in the number of students who reported driving after drinking, rising to 2.4% from 2.1%.
Sixty percent of students reported texting while driving.
Social media impacts
The survey also asked students about their social media use with 50% reporting “negative effects,” including:
— Cyberbullying, 13%
— Negative mental health effects, 26.8%
— Peer pressure, 17.9%
— Phone addition, 64.6%
— Misinformation, 56%.
Using the data
Hart said the survey results are shared directly with students and used to spark conversations about health and decision-making.
“When I go into health classes, I talk to them, and we have discussions,” she said.
Health classes focusing on alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention begin at Village School and continue through Marblehead High School.
The district also offers a social-emotional learning curriculum in grades K-12.
