US Youth Have Serious Mental Health Issues 818
Ant writes "Google News carries a Canadian Press report that 'a new study has found that five times as many high school and college students in the United States are dealing with anxiety and other mental health issues than youth of the same age who were studied in the Great Depression era. ... Pulling together the data for the study was no small task. Led by [San Diego State University psychology professor Jean 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: 'hypomania,' a measure of anxiety and unrealistic optimism (from 5 per cent of students in 1938 to 31 per cent in 2007), and depression (from 1 per cent to 6 per cent).'"
And? (Score:5, Informative)
A lot of people spend their entire lives without ever understanding the idea of being intentional, instead of a victim to what appears to be a random array of emotions.
Children haven't changed much in Thirty Years! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:In the words of the great Ken Titus... (Score:4, Informative)
This
But I'll take it one step further, and then these kids hit college and are out on their own and they don't have anyone to fall back on for support. That's when the problems start to set in.
What about Europe and Asia? (Score:5, Informative)
Does anybody have the numbers for EU and Asia? For some reason I'm not seeing the same stories here in the EU. Personally I think that in the US there is a real drive to get everybody who shows a bit of a problem directly on heavy medication instead of dealing with it while they grow up.
Re:unrealistic optimism? (Score:4, Informative)
How about 1959 when I started grade school. We were two itchy trigger fingers away from nuclear anhaillation. Terrorists? Pshaw, those of us who had "duck and cover" drills don't worry about terrorists. Nuclear war with thousands upon thousands of warheads going off is REAL terror.
Re:In the words of the great Ken Titus... (Score:5, Informative)
This would have been in the '70s, so I have no clue how common bike helmets were then, but the point still remains.
No one wore bike helmets in the 70's. In my experience, bike helmets really came into favor in the 90's.
Just maybe... (Score:2, Informative)
No shit they have unrealistic optimism! In a world where you can't fail, where it's everyone else's responsibility to prop you up and deal with your shit, you are probably the most optimistic motherfucker on the planet! The problem is once it becomes everyone else's responsibility, it becomes nobody's responsibility, and we're left with a bunch of dysfunctional retards sitting there whining because mommy and daddy can't give them their lattes and tell them it's going to be OK.
These kids don't have anxiety, they have a lack of understanding of life. They're freaked out over what is quite honestly stupid, piddly things because they're not allowed to experience failure anymore. The answer, according to a bunch of "experts", is to drug them up so they stop caring about it and go back to being irrelevant little twats.
Re:In the words of the great Ken Titus... (Score:3, Informative)
The teachers wanted to drug me up.
I'd like to know where these teachers are. My wife teaches first grade in a Massachusetts suburb, and, following school policy, none of the teachers in her acquaintance would dream of suggesting a diagnosis, let alone a treatment. If asked by a parent (and she occasionally is), she suggests that the question be directed to her family doctor.
Re:In the words of the great Ken Titus... (Score:4, Informative)
For the record - is ADHD a brand new ailment in the history of mankind? Or, do you think maybe some really famous people had it, and were never diagnosed? I propose that ADHD was common throughout man's history, and that it has served man well. ADHD is not the problem, the problem are the parents and teaches who can't cope with an active child.
For starters, you might examine the lives of some military heroes. Start with Stephen Decatur. There was an ADHD if ever one existed!
Why conform, when the conformists are so fucked up?
skewed measure; biased sample (Score:2, Informative)
As a recently licensed psychologist, I have this to offer:
First, the study primarily used the MMPI (and presumably the MMPI-2) as its basis for symptom measurement. Any reasonable clinical psychologist would not use a single measure to outline a person's psychological profile. To do so would be unethical at best. Secondly, the MMPI-2 (and its precursor) has its share of validity questions. So the MMPI(-2) does not exactly provide the most accurate representation of symptom measurement. Another nitpicky detail: the MMPI-2 has not been validated for use with individuals under the age of 18. Thus the people represented are not exactly children any more.
Second, the study used a sample that consisted primarily of college students. Now if it had used a wider sample, including those from families who cannot afford to send their children to college, I would expect that the range and severity of psychological problems would be more pronounced. I work in a clinic that works primarily with children and families in an urban area where there are chronic concerns of unemployment, community violence, and child maltreatment (i.e., sexual abuse, physical abuse, exposure to domestic violence, neglect). Granted, this is an entirely different population than what the study addressed, but the notion of telling kids that they don't have problems and should stop being wussies shows a notion of that speaker being trapped inside his/her own bubble and not realizing a much broader world where someone can have a completely different life than him/herself.
Re:In the words of the great Ken Titus... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:American youth have it easy. (Score:4, Informative)
He said he ate glass, ergo it was a joke.
"during tough times he would eat grass , paper and sawdust."
grass will provide some vitamins and fill you up, but you can't digest it very well at all, so I bet it was cooked or stewed. Paper and sawdust (and mud) are often eaten as filling, and the mud can provide needed nutrients like iron. Your ID isn't very new; you should know these things.
Re:In the words of the great Ken Titus... (Score:2, Informative)
Granted, he didn't die in a cycling accident, but getting your safety advice from what a professional cyclist in a race wears is just plain stupid.
What a useless comparison (Score:4, Informative)
You can't compare "polls" or "studies" from the 1930's to 2010 because definitions and attitudes have changed so dramatically during that timeframe. For Christ's sake... LABATOMIES [wikipedia.org] were still a standard and mainstream mental health practice at that time! Today pretty much anyone who's down in the dumps would say they feel "depressed", and anyone who is high-strung would say they experience "anxiety". Eighty years ago, however, they would simply say they feel "sad", or "nervous". It would be far less likely for them to REPORT such common feelings, and far less likely for the medical butchers of the time to label it as mental illness unless it were truly asylum-worthy.
It's preposterous to say that depression and anxiety are more prevalent today than during the Great Depression, and the worst war the planet has ever known. The only thing more prevalent today is our willingness to label those states of mind as such.
Re:In the words of the great Ken Titus... (Score:3, Informative)
Eh? I went to a large state university and lecture attendance was not required nor was there much tutorial time. IIRC the only class where attendance mattered were the discussion sessions for a philosophy class, which makes some sense because you were supposed to be learning how to discuss...
Re:Yeah, right... (Score:1, Informative)
No wonder then that this http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8410489.stm [bbc.co.uk].
Re:TFA backs up parent.... (Score:2, Informative)
I freaking hated getting sent to my room. It didn't matter if I had toys in there, I was bored.
You didn't read a book?
The only punishment that was worse than being bored was the genuine disappointment of a parent.
Not me. Too defiant. The desire for non-pain motivated me...
If you spank a kid as a regular punishment, it quickly loses it's meaning
How "regular" is regular? Daily, hourly?
just tells the kid that physical aggression is how you tell people off.
As opposed to "I'm very disappointed in you!"? Oh puh-leeze. Water off a duck's back.
Re:In the words of the great Ken Titus... (Score:1, Informative)
It's sad that this passes for insight. ADHD is an actual learning disability. Even if it is currently over diagnosed and over treated, that doesn't mean it's not real. I have it, my son has it, and if he doesn't get treatment he can't do basic math. If he takes his meds, he's top of the class. I don't know why you bother posting this sort of poorly thought out crap. Is it because you don't believe is science? Or are you a numerological researcher? No? Then why do you think you are informed enough to make these kinds of statements? Why is it that everyone thinks they are an expert on this? To take ADHD as an example, there are decades of studies that show that the kids the get the medications are more likely to go to college and generally have better outcomes that the kids who don't. Maybe next time you should think a while before you post something that ignorant.
Re:In the words of the great Ken Titus... (Score:4, Informative)
Yet for some odd reason we rode our bikes and are still alive.
Not all of you; only those who lived to brag about it. GGP told his anecdote of someone who did not.
I would expect that vast majority didn't have any problems, naturally (I rode my bike without a helmet since I was... 5 I think?.. for as long as I was still living in my country, where it's legal; everyone else did, too, and I don't recall anyone hurt in a way that a helmet would prevent).
But there's always a chance, and it might just be you who draws the unlucky ticket next... and if a helmet helps with that, then why not?
Re:In the words of the great Ken Titus... (Score:3, Informative)
There is a difference between corporal punishment, and childhood abuse/neglect!!
They are not the same. I got spanked growing up, most everyone I know did. Everyone of them is well adjusted, and successful in life and in family.
Sure, different kids respond to different things...not everyone needs to be spanked, some not as often, some not at all....some until they get the message that it is wrong to do certain things and that there are consequences for actions.
I got spanked. I was NEVER beat or abused though. I know now even from speaking with my parents...my spankings were sometimes held off for a short time from my infraction till punishment was given. I found out later, it was to give my parents time to cool off, and not be angry when spanking me...so that it was punishment, and not anything more with emotion behind it. There is a difference.
Re:In the words of the great Ken Titus... (Score:3, Informative)
I'm not a big fan of corporal punishment, though I can see its uses. My dad, from time to time reddened my butt when I was being a little terror, and while these aren't among my fondest childhood memories, I don't see then rising up in a couple years and causing me neurosis either. Sure, my childhood wasn't as rod ridden as my dad's, who managed to wear out a couple of his dad's belts, but then again my dad is also doing rather well mental health wise (a bit of a workaholic, but I attribute that to growing up very poor, and very Irish).
When I breed, I probably won't whoop my children, though. Not because of any humanistic, or "inner child scaring" reason, though, but because it isn't psychologically effective as a conditioning technique. Punishment must be linked to the dead punished both in time, and in method in order to stick in the brain. Most of the time spanking don't do this ("just wait until your father gets home!"), so it isn't effective most of the time. Also, often, corporal punishment goes over-board and serves more to vent the anger of the parents, than to correct the behavior of the child. A rap on the knuckles is just as strong a negative reinforcer than a large welt on the ass, but one is much more satisfying to an angry parent.
Re:In the words of the great Ken Titus... (Score:2, Informative)
I know this will simply be ignored by all the whiners (and the sycophants who constantly mod them up) who still think ADHD doesn't exist, but as every legitimate ADHD researcher will quickly point out, there is a real difference between a rambunctious, highly active child who can sit down and be quiet after a quick smack on the ass, and an ADHD child who CAN'T sit still and pay attention for more than 10 seconds no matter how much you discipline them. There is a laboratory-measurable biological difference between normal and ADHD brains. It's not easy to actually measure it in every individual because it requires, if I remember correctly, an fMRI type test which of course is very expensive. However, I don't believe ADHD is over-diagnosed nearly as much as most of you think it is. The diagnostic procedures have been highly refined over the years and are very accurate now. Besides that, any competent doctor knows that the powerful stimulants (mostly various forms of amphetamines) used to treat ADHD are extremely dangerous for non-ADHD brains and even mildly dangerous for real ADHD brains if not dosed properly. Of course, there are incompetent doctors all over the place, so it's not unheard of for any particular medical condition to be misdiagnosed.
Be that as it may, every idiot here who is pretending to be a psychologist and claiming that ADHD doesn't exist because any child that runs around like mad and screams ALL DAY LONG every day of his life is "just being a kid" is doing a grave disservice to all the people in the world who are actually ADHD. For many people it is a very debilitating life-long neurological condition. Unfortunately people like you folks who think you know everything only change your tune once you're finally faced with a child of your own whom everyone believes is mentally retarded after he goes through grade school failing to learn anything. Throughout history the typical response to such "lazy" or "bad" children was to beat them daily and send them to bed without supper, etc. What no one ever realized until this century was that the biological differences in the brain make it nearly impossible for ADHD people to change their behavior. The sort of discipline that modifies the behavior of normal children simply has no effect in most ADHD cases due to the peculiar neurology of the ADHD brain. In fact, the ADHD brain often thrives on the excitement (adrenalin, a natural stimulant) of being surrounded by angry people who are continually trying to force them to conform in various ways, mostly involving physical and verbal abuse.
All of you who are berating the medical/educational establishment for "drugging the youth of America" need to just shut the hell up. You don't know as much as you think you do, and a good portion of you who use anecdotes from your own childhood to explain how certain behavior is normal, well, guess what? A lot of you are probably undiagnosed ADHD people who just happened to come from a strongly structured parenting environment that allowed you to compensate and survive a childhood with mild-to-medium ADHD. You still have ADHD, you just learned how to cope by compensating for your weaknesses and focusing on your strengths, and living in a structured environment that was exactly what your ADHD brain needed. Your individual success in life doesn't make you correct in thinking that ADHD is highly over-diagnosed or doesn't exist or isn't highly debilitating in other ADHD individuals. If anything, the clinical evidence based on all the established, statistically significant medical research done over the last century indicates that ADHD is still severely under-diagnosed, especially outside the U.S.
Yes, there are many possible reasons for a child to have difficulty learning or paying attention in class. Yes, there are many children who are highly active and loud without being ADHD. Yes, there is far too much coddling of children and a lack of discipline in modern society, especially in America. But even with all that being true, ADHD is a real neurological condition
Re:In the words of the great Ken Titus... (Score:3, Informative)
It never ends, kid. I'm in my mid-thirties, and mom still gets after me when she thinks I'm not dressed warmly enough. :)
There are a lot of things that we can blame it on, but parents today are just more hyperaware of potential dangers (real or imagined) that their kids face.
I once attended a lecture by Jared Diamond, where he talked about a tribe he studied. The kids there were free to make mistakes. He would often see eighteen month old babies playing with big, scary looking knives, right next to the fire. Every adult had a few burn scars to show for it, but actual deaths were astonishingly rare.
Read anything you can by Diamond, by the way.
Re:Therapies other than drugs exist (Score:3, Informative)
Yes there is.
The first time hate crime legislation was tested in the Supreme Court, the legislation was being used against a group of black men who beat up a white teenager. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_v._Mitchell [wikipedia.org]
Something I wrote elsewhere: