Study: Youth now have more mental health issues (I'm skeptical)

[Sparkly]

By MARTHA IRVINE, AP National Writer – Mon Jan 11, 8:14 am ET

CHICAGO – A new study has found that five times as many high school and college students are dealing with anxiety and other mental health issues as youth of the same age who were studied in the Great Depression era.

The findings, culled from responses to a popular psychological questionnaire used as far back as 1938, confirm what counselors on campuses nationwide have long suspected as more students struggle with the stresses of school and life in general.

"It's another piece of the puzzle — that yes, this does seem to be a problem, that there are more young people who report anxiety and depression," says Jean Twenge, a San Diego State University psychology professor and the study's lead author. "The next question is: What do we do about it?"

Though the study, released Monday, does not provide a definitive correlation, Twenge and mental health professionals speculate that a popular culture increasingly focused on the external — from wealth to looks and status — has contributed to the uptick in mental health issues.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100111/ap_on_re_us/us_stressed_out_students

I'm skeptical just on the face of it -- think of what children's lives were like during the depression, and even during WWII. Yet there are more stresses today? Hard to believe.

The methodology -- a questionnaire -- is a bit sketchy, too, measuring the number of "people who report anxiety and depression." It's possible that today's students are more likely to identify themselves as such than earlier generation, in which case the study is measuring something different than what it claims to measure.

But for the sake of argument, let's suppose students today are more anxious and stressed. What's changed for the worse? The main thing I think of is the rise of entertainment media, with commercials.

Your thoughts?

[seabeyond]

1. look at the vast amount of info the kids are being fed regularly. the sickest of who we are as

a society, continually.

look at the depression era. hungry, without money. but the scheme of things, very well protected too.... (and many children are watching loss of job, no money, cant keep roof over head today too), but in those times, kids were unaware of much of the world. truly was a simpler time.

they had a whole family support system, not to mention community. many living in same less populated area all their lives.

today children are raised in a half hazard way

i can easily see....

also seemed like in the past we raised our kids to self sufficient then they stepped into the world to process. today we seem to give them the whole adult world as children, but not the tools to self sufficiency. leaving them with a great handicap

[Toucano]

11. That's the key, I think. Family and community are very different now.

The food court at the local mega mall is not a community.

We destroyed community with suburbanization.

The mass media's principal job appears to be to CREATE anxiety. Young people consume tons of media sounds and images. Many children have televisions with full cable in their bedrooms! That didn't exist in the 30's either.

There is an increasing sense of isolationism, I think.

Increased awareness and reporting could account for some of the difference, I suppose. However, I definitely see substantial reasons why this report could be valid.

[seabeyond]

12. for me, it is like one great big, huge experiment on our children. shifting

all things in raising kids and then saying lets see what the results will be.

[BeyondGeography]

2. "Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain, and all the children are insane"

We have our special brand of over-stimulation and isolation for kids today.

[GreenEyedLefty]

4. Is that from "The End?" I can't place it.

I agree with you. Kids have access to too much information and lack the maturity to process it. And of course, the way information is packaged, you would think the world is going to end every minute of every day.

[BeyondGeography]

8. Yes

Of all the great lines he wrote, that could be the best.

[Captain Hilts]

3. I also am skeptical. But I'm glad we're diagnosing them, finally. nt

[Jim__]

5. Is the MMPI really just a questionnaire?

I know the article refers to it that way; but I thought it was more like a personality test. I'm just not sure.

But, during the Depression, both of my parents were of high school age, but neither was in high school. They had to work. The surveys over the years may represent different demographic groups.

[LiberalEsto]

6. No job prospects, for one thing

Today's kids face not just incredible difficulties in finding jobs after graduation, but jobs that pay well enough to let them start paying their enormous student loans.

They also worry about finding jobs that provide health coverage, because their coverage through their parents has ended. Many of them can't afford their own coverage. If they get sick or have an accident, they're screwed.

They worry about whether they will ever be able to afford a house, given their massive student loan debts and their dim job prospects. Many of them worry about having to live with their parents and not knowing whether they'll ever be able to move out on their own.

I have daughters age 23 and 26, and believe me, I know what they and their friends are going through. They don't have a lot of hope, or faith in what the future will bring. They don't know if they will ever be able to afford to have children of their own.`

In my 20s, I had no college loan debt, and I had decent jobs in my chosen career. I was married, and we were able to save up for a down payment on our first house with no problems.

[beyurslf]

7. I think it is true that kids today are more likely to self-report, but we certainly have stressors

today that kids never had before. Media, divorce, working outside the home, not knowing neighbors, moving, internet, etc....

[The2ndWheel]

9. Faster lives

Global lives. Less power over their own lives. Everything being scheduled for them. Needing to know what you want to do with the rest of your life at an earlier age. Having to compete against billions of people around the world, the vast majority of which you will probably never meet and say hello to, let alone develop any sort of relationship with. Rapid change, be it technology, news, etc, and while younger people may be better able to adapt to that type of environment, it can't possibly come without cost. I'm sure you can find something wrong with everybody as we delve ever deeper into the human body, which probably raises the levels of stress and anxiety.

There will be something wrong with you, and it has to be diagnosed, because if it isn't, then your life won't be everything it could be, and you will have wasted all that time, which you don't have much of, so you better figure out what you're going to do with it early on, since you'll be in direct competition with everyone on the planet, but you're not really necessary in the big picture for the job to be done, as you're easily replaceable and interchangeable, because you're just like everyone else, but you're also unique, but not so much so that the system won't function without you, even though you're really here to serve it.

[msongs]

10. kids swimming in a sea of hostile and negative culture. advertising works nt

[arcadian]

13. During the Depression people didn't have a piped feed into their brains.

Today you do with television.

[hayu_lol]

14. A lot of college students today...

have been on drugs, like Ritalin, all their school lives. Now in a high-pressure world of college, perhaps they cannot cope like their parents and grandparents did.

A questionaire designed in '38 would not be appropriate today. Been a few advancements in psychology since then.

[liberal_at_heart]

15. We have had a radical shift in values

The days of excess have come to a very abrupt halt. Young people have gotten much of their identities and self-esteem from the excesses they have. When you get into that give me more state of mind nothing is never enough. You have to have more. They haven't been taught the pride of working hard, the peace that comes from a simple life, and that helping someone can feel a whole lot better than shopping for their next iPhone, Coach bag, or Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses. Young people are depressed because they lack meaning in their life.