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Healthy Youth Survey: Kitsap sees encouraging 2023–25 trends in mental health, substance use and academics
Summary
Kitsap Public Health District presenters said 2025 Healthy Youth Survey results show declines in depression, suicidal ideation and anxiety among 10th graders, higher reported hope (about 75%), and lower reported marijuana and vaping; presenters cautioned about grade-level participation differences and the state's data-cleaning algorithm.
Kitsap Public Health District staff presented 2025 Healthy Youth Survey (HYS) results on June 2, saying county indicators for mental health, substance use and academic engagement showed encouraging trends compared with 2023.
"The 2025 survey was the 12th iteration," Carrie Hunter, program manager for assessment and epidemiology, told the board, noting that 129,000 students in Washington participated and that Kitsap contributed about 6,810 valid responses after state data screening. Hunter and colleagues said they focused the board's review on 2023 and 2025 because those years used identical administration methods.
Kat Alexander, an epidemiologist, reviewed mental-health indicators for 10th graders. She reported declines in the percentage of students reporting depressive feelings and in students who considered suicide in the past year since 2021; she said anxiety also fell, with Kitsap and Washington both at about 29% in 2025. "In 2025, 75 percent of students in Kitsap and in Washington overall reported feeling moderately or highly hopeful," Alexander said.
Gabe Hammond presented academic and substance-use measures for 10th graders: 78.3% reported that they often or almost always try their best in school; current 10th-grade marijuana use was about 5.7%, alcohol about 8%, and vaping about 7%. Presenters noted subgroup disparities: higher reported depressive feelings and substance use among students who identify as non-heterosexual or who identify as a gender other than male or female.
Board members asked whether the state's algorithm for removing invalid responses might bias results. Hunter and Alexander said the cleaning algorithm has been in use since 2018 and that school-district-level data ownership limits immediate public disaggregation. The presenters said lower participation among 12th graders and somewhat lower participation for 10th graders could reduce representativeness for those grades; they emphasized 6th and 8th grades had stronger participation rates.
What happens next: KPhD said it will post updated HYS indicator dashboards on its website within a week, pursue deeper district-level analysis in collaboration with school districts, and incorporate youth findings into the 2028 community health assessment.
