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Study: Youth now have more mental health issues

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Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« on: January 12, 2010, 10:05:07 AM »
KINJO NOTE: EMO's

HAHA, they are called Generation Me, thats hilarious.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_stressed_out_students

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.

Pulling together the data for the study was no small task. 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:

• "hypomania," a measure of anxiety and unrealistic optimism (from 5 percent of students in 1938 to 31 percent in 2007)
• and depression (from 1 percent to 6 percent).

Twenge said the most current numbers may even be low given all the students taking antidepressants and other psychotropic medications, which help alleviate symptoms the survey asks about.

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.

Twenge previously documented the influence of pop culture pressures on young people's mental health in her 2006 book "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled — and More Miserable Than Ever Before." Several studies also have captured the growing interest in being rich, with 77 percent of those questioned for UCLA's 2008 national survey of college freshmen saying it was "essential" or "very important" to be financially well off.

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.
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.

Sarah Ann Slater, a 21-year-old junior at the University of Miami, says she feels pressure to be financially successful, even when she doesn't want to.

"The unrealistic feelings that are ingrained in us from a young age — that we need to have massive amounts of money to be considered a success — not only lead us to a higher likelihood of feeling inadequate, anxious or depressed, but also make us think that the only value in getting an education is to make a lot of money, which is the wrong way to look at it," says Slater, an international studies major who plans to go to graduate school overseas.

The study is not without its skeptics, among them Richard Shaflower power, a psychologist who directs the counseling center at Pace University in New York. He says, for instance, that the sample data weren't necessarily representative of all college students. (Many who answered the MMPI questionnaire were students in introductory psychology courses at four-year institutions.)

Shaflower power says his own experience leaves little doubt more students are seeking mental health services. But he and others think that may be due in part to heightened awareness of such services. Twenge notes the MMPI isn't given only to those who seek services.

Others, meanwhile, say the research helps advance the conversation with hard numbers.

"It actually provides some support to the observations," says Scott Hunter, director of pediatric neuropsychology at the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital. Before his current post, Hunter was at the University of Virginia, where his work included counseling a growing number of students with mental health concerns.
While even Twenge concedes more research is needed to pinpoint a cause, Hunter says the study "also helps us understand what some of the reasons behind it might be." He notes Twenge's inclusion of data showing that factors such as materialism among young people have had a similar upswing. She also noted that divorce rates for their parents have gone up, which may lead to less stability.

Amid it all, Hunter says this 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.
It's also meant heartache for parents.

"I don't remember it being this hard," says a mother from northern New Jersey, whose 15-year-old daughter is being treated for depression. She asked not to be identified to respect her daughter's privacy.

"We all wanted to be popular, but there wasn't this emphasis on being perfect and being super skinny," she says. "In addition, it's 'How much do your parents make?'
"I'd like to think that's not relevant, but I can't imagine that doesn't play a role."

KennyYi

Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2010, 05:57:48 PM »
.

Offline kinjo

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Offline Flashwerewolf

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2010, 08:59:22 PM »
YAY Generation ME! Thats what I've been seeing, and I admit I am caught up in it a good deal.

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Offline Adelaide

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2010, 03:49:08 PM »
    Well I don't expect most of you to read this but......



Addy’s Response:
 
 Welcome to the world created by both the media and the generation before us. All emotions and ideals are rooted back to young age. During the first 2-5 years of age, a child is learns its most. Children undergo five stages of development: physical, mental, moral, social, and emotional. Since those years are when the brain is most active, those are also the years most of a child’s beliefs and foundations form. It is up to the adults in that child’s life to influence them positively, and expose them to things that will hold their foundation strong all through life.
 
Now take these young and innocent children, and expose them to the world. Models on TV, shows and the relatively new advances in plastic surgery creating picture perfect celebrities that become these children’s idols. Even a look at the toys these kids are playing with, shows that from a young age children are being taught materialism. For example, Barbie, who became a huge fascination among young girls and was incredibly popular in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, has proportions, that if given to real life girls, would cause extreme health problems and inability to walk, among other things. This becomes a child’s idea of what a girl is supposed to look like. For boys, they have GI Joe, an action figure that from first created to more recent years has gotten increasingly more muscular and masculine. This has the same effect on boys as Barbie has on girls. These are only examples, but there is so much that people and children are exposed to throughout their whole lives, which say 10, 20, 30 years ago weren’t as emphasized.
 
Furthermore, as I have said each and every time you have posted your age discrimination-related posts, and keep in mind the article also states this, the divorce rate has increased dramatically and this creates an environment different and with less support. It can shake the lives of children who experience divorce, as they are exposed to arguments, fighting, and extreme hostility. Furthermore, a lot of parents out of anger, blame their children for the separation. I speak from experience in this field, because my dad is constantly screaming that if he never had kids he’d be happy and his wife would still want to be with him and life would be beautiful, he would be happy and wealthy, with no interference in his life from children. My mom certainly isn’t leaving him because of us, and I can’t imagine how my younger brother feels about himself and his family when he hears this, being at such a young influential age himself. Having a stable family life is just as important in the emotional and mental health of a child as all other things.
 
The amount of pressure to succeed parents place on their children, in the academic world, along with the social world, creates a rift in the parent-child relationship, and sets both parent and child up for disappointment, when the child does one of two things: 1) Feels so much pressure and that they will never meet their parents’ expectations that they just give up, or 2) Cause the child to feel constantly overwhelmed and work constantly to meet those expectations, but give up an ever important to have social life.
 
Children are also more often exposed to drugs and alcohol, which causes impairment in the immune system. Drinking kills cells and dehydrates the body, making the immune system work twice as hard to repair the damages done. It also causes children to embarrass themselves, or feel guilty for doing something they know their parents wouldn’t approve of, or can cause a feeling of being pressured by peers. All cause anxiety. Drugs work in a similar way, as they cause the body to work harder, and wreak havoc on the young developing body. Even pot, whether is be medical or just for fun, causes the body to be overwhelmed and work harder than usual. Every drug, emphasis on every, causes side effects. The only reason we use drugs in the medical world is because the positives outweigh the negatives. Recreational drugs are doing nothing but providing an escape, therefore they do nothing to improve the body. Even medical pot isn’t healing in the least; it’s used as a pain reliever.
 
Another cause of stress is finances, as children watch their parents struggle to make ends meet, and some even feel the need to work to support their parents and families. Especially as we head straight into a recession, that is being predicted to become a depression. Times are more like the Great Depression now then they have been in any of the years since the Great Depression, so it’s only fitting that it be compared to the situation. Think about it; war, loss of jobs, lack of trust in banks and the government, increased poverty, increased foreclosures, people are pretty much living on the edge.
 
As far as the results from this test, you have to realize that mental health wasn’t studied as a serious medical condition until recent years and there have been incredible strives forward. Some people with mental instability in the past may not have been identified as having such because we didn’t have the knowledge to link them to it, like we do now. This past generation has made strives in mental studies, so it only makes sense that more people would be indentified as having a disorder, and for this reason, it can easily be stated that your generation and past generations have or have had just as much mental instability as this generation, we just didn’t have knowledge of it, as we do today.
 
I’m sure you are familiar with the phrase “That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” no? Well all these stresses are just a test to weed out the weak, and I’ll admit, that this generation is definitely stressed, but in the end we will have more experiences and understandings of things that you can’t relate to. Just the fact that you constantly discriminate against this generation proves your lack of experience that is needed for you to truly emphasize and relate to us on a field that would make you understand from our perspective what we feel and what is occurring. Depression doesn’t last forever, so everyone depressed now, will pull out of it just fine. What will you have left then? A whole generation of those who understand on a deeper level the emotional processes and feelings, and a stronger ability to empathize. For these reasons, I can say with confidence that I think in this generation’s older years, we will be much stronger and stable than your generation ever was or will be.





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Offline Flashwerewolf

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2010, 10:39:01 PM »
its good kids learn to brush their teeth at such an early age! GO HYGIENE!

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Offline Adelaide

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2010, 11:52:15 PM »
=P totally knew that censorship would make everyone take my response less seriously.. xD
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Offline Flashwerewolf

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2010, 12:21:59 AM »
I read it all, the word filter didn't ruin your take on things at all =P

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Offline Adelaide

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #8 on: January 14, 2010, 01:37:44 AM »
=P haha... well i figured you would read it... Not many others though..

I'm waiting for the TL;DR replies
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Offline Flashwerewolf

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #9 on: January 14, 2010, 02:10:27 AM »
maybe its too much for them to scroll thru to make a TL;DR reply

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Offline Adelaide

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #10 on: January 14, 2010, 02:23:45 AM »
xD its actually a few words longer than the article
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Offline wurm breeder

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #11 on: January 14, 2010, 02:30:26 PM »
What was censored?
60 Awesome points. huzzah!

Offline Adelaide

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #12 on: January 14, 2010, 04:00:08 PM »
m0ral; when you type to word 0ral you get oral
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Offline Wesker

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #13 on: January 14, 2010, 06:09:34 PM »
Oh, Kinjo. You should be head of the FCC. [marvwave]
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Offline Adelaide

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #14 on: January 14, 2010, 06:35:50 PM »
Why?
o.o
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Offline Wesker

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #15 on: January 14, 2010, 07:03:41 PM »
Because his censorship is the best ever.
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Offline Adelaide

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #16 on: January 14, 2010, 07:33:49 PM »
eheheh type b0ssy
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Offline Adelaide

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Re: Study: Youth now have more mental health issues
« Reply #18 on: January 14, 2010, 08:07:47 PM »
xD I totally knew he wouldnt read my LONG response
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Offline kinjo

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