Teenagers are having more issues with stress today than ever before.
While it may be difficult to argue that teenagers in 2016 have more (or less) stress than those of previous generations, there definitely seems to be a problem with how they handle it. There’s a fascinating series of longitudinal research out of Ontario, Canada in relation to teenagers and their handle on stress in their lives: These are some of the most poignant discussion points:
- 14% met the bar for serious psychological distress, up from 10% in 2013
- Girls are more likely to have problems
- Suicidal thoughts are unchanged at 12% since 2001
- Lack of sleep and exercise, and a lot of screen time (all which have links to mental stress) are admitted as common issues
- 1/5 reported bullying in the past year.
- Older teens are worried about the job market, student debt, demands of social media, diminished sense of safety*
- Substance abuse has fallen significantly over last 20 years
- Push for mental health literacy. “We’ve created a generation of kids who wrongly think life has to be stress-free, and instead should be teaching them how to solve the problems causing stress”**
*I could be convinced that these economic concerns are greatest with contemporary teenagers than of past eras. There does seem to be greater competitive pressure, at least economically, and with that fears of financial success and stability than there may have been in the past.
**There are many interesting questions here; Are expectations and living standards become so high that young people are growing up with “rose coloured glasses” meaning they aren’t ready to deal with the challenges of the real world? If you’re 17 right now, You’re parents are probably in and around their 40s which means, that other than the GFC, they may have experienced pretty much nothing but constant growth economically their whole lives.
Unlike baby boomers which survived droughts, wars recessions and fuel crises, children of the 70s and 80s at least on global scales, were teens and young adults in the 90s during a fantastic time economically up until 2007 when all those bubbles finally burst. Could it be that there’s a specific generation of parents, that have had to deal first had with mass economic stress and therefore their children have a harder time relating to how bad things can get if they’re ill prepared, or just unlucky?
Youth unemployment, under employment, and the whole “gig economy” are just now becoming household issues. My generation (I’m 31) entered the workforce as the first group which likely wouldn’t find a workplace we’d call home for decades. But not all of us were aware or respected the gravity of that shift. Those 10–15 years younger, on the other hand have no delusions about how hard they’ll have it and how unstable their working life may be. But, their parents, could keep in the same factory or farm for 40 years and watch their property triple in value over that span. They also could survive as a family on a single income — something that is fantasy these days.
Teens today are therefore having to come to grips with needing multiple degrees and trades, a willingness to travel for work — possibly to different countries, and a working life of constant upskilling and movements across professions, well into their 70s and beyond due to an erosion of public pensions.
Where for my class, we were ahead of the game if we were aware of all of this at 17, today it’s just assumed which means the pressure is much higher and persevering is a much more important.
It’s the definition of irony. On the one hand, life is so much easier now and there’s a seemingly infinite landscape for opportunity. Yet at the same time, because it’s this way for everyone, there’s much more competition, and the bar is way higher.
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