Abigail Shrier's Bad Therapy: Surveys

Surveys matter!

[content note: brief discussion of child sexual abuse]

One of the most terrible chapters in Abigail Shrier’s terrible book Bad Therapy expresses her bizarre hatred of anonymous school surveys.

The 2021 and 2023 Youth Risk Behavior surveys, authored by the CDC, asks middle school children: “How old were you when you had sexual intercourse for the first time?”
A. I have never had sexual intercourse
B. 8 years old or younger
C. 9 years old
D. 10 years old
E. 11 years old
F. 12 years old
G. 13 years old or older

There’s a word for “sexual intercourse” had by children at any of the ages listed above. It’s “rape.”

But our public health officials carry on, apparently unconcerned, as if it’s utterly natural for adults to ask prepubescent children about their sexual adventures. The obvious implication—sure to be caught by the kids themselves—is that adults expect kids as young as eight to have interesting sex lives.

Several other surveys ask middle school students for detailed admissions about their drug use and how easy it might be for them to obtain illegal drugs—methadone, fentanyl, and marijuana, or prescription painkillers not prescribed to you. (“Hydros,” “Oxy,” “Gabbies,” or “Trammies” lists the Georgia Student Health Survey, apparently authored by the marketing department of MS-13.)

The Florida surveys inquire about precisely what measures high school students have taken to lose weight—options that range from fasting to abusing laxatives. Surely no high school girl will overlook this concise list of weight-loss tips.

You might be wondering: What sadist put this in front of middle school children? “Have you ever seriously thought about killing yourself?” is typically the sort of taunt one teen texts to another, or a troll writes on social media. Any seventh grader who isn’t already au fait with “the Fainting Game” or “Black Out” surely will want to educate herself. Mental health experts who would slide this list of questions onto the desks of eleven-year-olds—to satisfy the state’s or school’s curiosity—really ought to be kept away from children.