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Why American Teens Are So Sad

Teen depression is at an all-time high. A new CDC study reported that from 2009 to 2021, the “share of American high-school students who say they feel ‘persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness’ rose from 26 to 44 percent.”

The author of a new article in The Atlantic attempts to make sense of the rise, first quashing several fallacies. The crisis in teen mental health is not due to “teens behaving badly.” On multiple metrics, negative teen behaviors are actually moving in a positive direction (e.g. drinking and driving, school bullying, sex before age 13 are all down). Nor can the crisis in mental health be written off as an illusion, merely a case of teens being more willing to talk about their troubles. The rise in cases is backed by hard evidence such as trips to the ER for mental health emergencies.

Drawing from the work of experts and researchers, he lays out four probable causes:

Social media – A rise in mental distress rose steadily since 2012, the year “when the share of Americans who owned a smartphone surpassed 50 percent and social media use spiked.” Quoting Jeff Hancock, a Stanford behavioral scientist, he explains that social media may be less like rat poison (toxic to everyone) and more like alcohol (which can lead to dependence and depression among some).

Sociality is down – The average teenager spends more than 5 hours a day on social media, and it’s replacing more “beneficial activities” such as sleep, going out with friends, getting their driver’s license, or playing youth sports.

The world is stressful––and there is more news about the world’s stressors” – In addition to fears about social approval, today’s teens are bombarded with messages and news about the economy, the pandemic, climate change, and war. The “bad-news bias” in journalism exposes young people to a profoundly negative view of the world.

Modern parenting strategies – Parents, especially higher-income ones, are more involved than ever in their children’s lives, especially in the competitive race to get children into college. It creates a pressure-cooker environment for teens, as “anxious parents, in an attempt to insulate their children from risk and danger, are unintentionally transferring anxiety to their kids.”

While none of these is solely responsible, he posits that they mix to create a toxic stew of negativity and doom, an inhospitable environment for young people to make healthy choices, develop resilience, and thrive.

You can read the full article here.

 

Thompson, Derek. “Why American Teens Are So Sad.” The Atlantic, 11 Apr 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/04/american-teens-sadness-depression-anxiety/629524/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash