The mental health problems of the youth in US are rising at an alarming rate. A new study has found that high school and college students are dealing with anxiety and other mental health issues like never before, more than what was the case in in the Great Depression era.
A popular culture increasingly focused on the external – from wealth to looks and status – has contributed to the uptick in mental health issues, researchers believe.
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Adolescent depression is an ailment that occurs during the teenage characterized by persistent melancholy, disappointment and loss of self-esteem.
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Led by Twenge, researchers at five universities analyzed the responses of 77,576 high school or college students who, from 1938 through 2007, took the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, or MMPI. The results will be published in a future issue of the Clinical Psychology Review.
Overall, an average of five times as many students in 2007 surpassed thresholds in one or more mental health categories, compared with those who did so in 1938. A few individual categories increased at an even greater rate – with six times as many scoring high in two areas:
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_ and depression (from 1 percent to 6 percent).
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The study also showed increases in "psychopathic deviation," which is loosely related to psychopathic behavior in a much milder form and is defined as having trouble with authority and feeling as though the rules don't apply to you. The percentage of young people who scored high in that category increased from 5 percent in 1938 to 24 percent in 2007.
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Experts say such high expectations are a recipe for disappointment. Meanwhile, they also note some well-meaning but overprotective parents have left their children with few real-world coping skills, whether that means doing their own budget or confronting professors on their own.
"If you don't have these skills, then it's very normal to become anxious," says Dr. Elizabeth Alderman, an adolescent medicine specialist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City who hopes the new study will be a wake-up call to those parents.
Scott Hunter, director of pediatric neuropsychology at the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital, points out that the latest generation has been raised in a "you can do anything atmosphere." And that, he says, "sets up a lot of false expectation" that inevitably leads to distress for some.
In our population, we can tell you about 50% of the teenagers that we see are clinically depressed," said Dr. Peggy Smith, director of one of several teen health clinics in the Houston area. He saids the epidemic must be addressed quickly.
"Depression if it's not intervened can lead to suicide." Early stress, anxiety, and depression could lead to long term behavioral and social problems, poor decision-making, and drug dependency. Some notice younger and younger children taking antidepressants. So what's triggering this unsettling trend? Students themselves point to everything from pressure to succeed – self-imposed and otherwise – to a fast-paced world that's only sped up by the technology they love so much.
"Everything is at arms reach nowadays like drugs," said 20 year-old Walter Hernandez.
"I think it's the high expectation level of my mother, school, and I just got married," said 21 year-old Crystal Hernandez. "She wants me to finish school, because I didn't finish school."
Crystal and Walter Hernandez recently had a baby together. They acknowledge their generation's struggles. They say the Internet, media, and pop culture are partly to blame.
"Back when I was going to middle school, I had friends who were bi-polar, suicidal, and they took medication," said Crystal.
Parents can enhance their children's well being by setting appropriate expectations, and providing a nurturing and stable environment and greater interaction, experts say.
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