CINCINNATI — A new survey shows encouraging signs for teen mental health and substance use across the Tri-State, with fewer students reporting anxiety, depression and drug use compared to previous years.
Prevention First's student survey found that most students are not using alcohol, tobacco or prescription drugs, and that marijuana use has dropped since the pandemic.
In the fall of 2025, 23,982 students in 7th through 12th grade completed the local version of the International Survey Associates (ISA) questionnaire, formerly known as the Pride Survey.
Sarah Sawmiller, senior director at Prevention First, said the survey gives students a voice they might not otherwise use.
"The students might not necessarily take the time out of their day to share that concern with an administrator or teacher, but this gives them the opportunity," Sawmiller said. "That gives our administrators the place to kind of see where there might be emerging issues that they're unaware of."
Key Substance Use Results & Trends Show:
- Most kids are not using alcohol, tobacco or other drugs.
- In the past 30 days of the survey, only 4.3% reported the use of marijuana, a decrease from 6.3% in 2024.
- In the past 30 days of the survey, 6.1% reported vaping, the lowest level ever recorded.
WATCH: A Prevention First survey of 23,000 students found vaping at its lowest level ever recorded
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of alcohol, vaping and marijuana continues to see a downward shift.
Sawmiller said 50% of students are reporting substance use before reaching 12-years-old.
Students were asked how much they think people risk harming themselves physically or in other ways if they used these substances (alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, prescription drugs, vaping). Sawmiller said the responses showed that students see tobacco and prescription drugs causing the most harm, followed by alcohol, vaping and marijuana.
The survey also showed a significant improvement in teens' mental health. Students were asked how often they felt depressed, sad, or hopeless.
Key Mental Health Results & Trends Show:
- In the past 30 days of the survey, when asked how often they felt depressed, sad or hopeless, 17.6% reponded "all/most" of the time.
- 31% responded "all/most" of the time when asked the same question regarding feeling nervous and anxious.
- 41.7% of students identified stress as a factor in their mental health "often/a lot" of the time, and 48.7% identified screen time.
- When asked how often they pull themselves out of a bad mood, 47% responded "often/a lot".
Prevention First's president and CEO, Nicole Schiesler, said the numbers are moving in the right direction.
Do you have an education story for De'Jah? You can contact her here:
"Reported is the combined percentage of students who said all or most of the time. We saw decreases for each of these numbers, which is really great news," said
Data is collected from 45 public and private schools across Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, Highland and Warren counties. The next steps are to take the data back to the participating schools and stakeholders to expand resources for students in and outside of the classroom.
"When we collaborate and share resources, this is what happens," Schielser said.
You can find the results of the survey here:
