Teenage Anxiety: From the Inside Out
Anxiety takes over the teen mind in Inside Out 2. Here are some research-backed ways to support teens experiencing anxiety IRL.
Inside Out 2, Pixar’s sequel to the animated movie about personified emotions managing the mind of a young girl, hit the box office with a bang over Father’s Day weekend. Moviegoers who enjoyed meeting the emotions of the first film — Joy, Anger, Sadness, Disgust, and Fear — were introduced to 13-year-old Riley’s new puberty-induced emotions: Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy, and Ennui in the sequel.
The movie captures the often uncomfortable transition into adolescence. Riley gets braces, pushes away from her parents, and struggles to navigate new social dynamics all while the new emotions in her “head-quarters” vie to control her every move. In a desperate attempt to protect Riley from social isolation and failure, Anxiety bottles up Riley’s core emotions and takes over the control panel. While Joy and crew devise a plan to cross the “sar-chasm,” back to the control panel, Anxiety destroys Riley’s core beliefs about herself until all that is left is the belief that she’s “not good enough.”
Anxiety and feelings of inadequacy are familiar to many teenagers today. Recent research covering 80,000 youths globally found that depressive and anxiety symptoms doubled during the pandemic with 20% of youth reporting that they are experiencing significant anxiety symptoms. A 2021 report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that 42% of U.S. high school students felt persistently sad or hopeless over a two-week period, often to the point where it prevented them from engaging in their usual activities.
This decline in mental health among young people has led to a variety of serious consequences. These range from social and risky behavioral problems, such as substance abuse, suicide, and relationship issues, to academic struggles like increased absenteeism and lower grades.
At foundry10, we take a holistic approach to promoting the physical, mental, social, and emotional health of young people through a unique blend of research, programming and philanthropy. Here are some research-backed ways to help teens manage emotions and keep anxiety at bay.
When Teens Get Stranded on Social Media Personality Island
Offering insights from a research review conducted across a range of disciplines, foundry10’s white paper “Understanding Social Media’s Influence on Teen Well-Being” suggests that social media isn’t necessarily good or bad for teens. Instead, its impact on young people largely depends on individual characteristics like gender, age, and race, as well as how and why teens use social media. Here are a few ways to help teens learn healthy online habits, based on foundry10’s review of recent research.
Take an active role in your teen’s media use. Caregivers who take adolescents’ perspectives seriously and provide active support can help youth think more critically about the media they produce and consume so that they can make more responsible and meaningful choices online.
Open up and show you care. Open communication with caregivers can help ensure youth feel understood and cared for, which is critical for buffering potential negative effects of social media use, including feelings of body dissatisfaction and “fear of missing out” (FOMO).
Recognize the opportunity for peer connection. Social media can provide young people with ample opportunities to both give and receive social support, explore their identities, and share their creativity with others. Through these activities, social media has the potential to strengthen bonds with peers, which can indirectly improve mental health by decreasing loneliness and making young people feel connected.
Learn more about how to support positive youth engagement on social media.
Making Space for Joy in the Tornado of Anxiety
Anxiety can overpower all other emotions if not managed wisely. In Inside Out 2, Joy can’t access the control panel of Riley’s mind while Anxiety is on a caffeine-fueled bender running the show. Research by foundry10 and others suggests that there are several things teens can try to experience less anxiety and more joy.
Go Outside
Many teens think of nature as the gateway to adventure: a place where they are free to climb trees, swim in lakes, see wild animals, and escape from the structure of everyday life. Other teens associate nature with disgust and fear: creepy bugs, sweaty armpits, and dangerous predators lurking in the dark. No matter how youth think about nature, one thing is for sure: nature is good for you.
Read: Youth Perceptions and Experience of Nature
Practice Mindfulness With (or Without) Fiber Arts
A simple definition of mindfulness is noticing the present moment with compassion and curiosity and without judgment. Research shows that a consistent mindfulness practice can increase happiness.
“Think about a person who walks into a room and is in a bad mood. Think about a person who exudes calm. You can see it on their face and in their body language. The more mindful we are, the more we are aware of how we impact others, and also how others impact us,” shared Tai Mattox and Kara-Lee Ruotolo, at Space Between, an organization that brings research-based mindfulness practices to schools, youth, educators, and families across Washington state.
- Space Between Tip: Rather than doing a mindfulness practice once a week for 30 minutes, Space Between recommends that families try doing a mindfulness practice four times a week for 2–5 minutes per day. Consistency over duration is key to building and maintaining a mindfulness practice.
Read: How to Make Mindfulness Part of Your Family Routine
The foundry10 “Mindful Fibers” program blends fiber arts learning activities with mindfulness practices including guided meditations, body scans, and breathing exercises.This program engages youth in age-appropriate fiber arts learning activities, which can include looming, weaving, needle knitting, crocheting, and more. The program blends those fiber arts learning activities with mindfulness practices based on Space Between’s “Teens: Their Brains on Mindfulness” course.
Read: 5 Tips for Teaching Mindfulness Through Fiber Arts
Spend Time with Animals
Animals bring us boundless joy, unconditional love, and hours of mindless entertainment. But that’s not all. Research shows that human-animal bonds can also promote a wide range of physical and mental health benefits.
A lesser known approach to supporting youth well-being is through animal-assisted interventions. Animal-assisted interventions incorporate animals, such as horses, dogs, cats, and birds, into the treatment plan.The intervention can take many forms, based on the patient, the animal, and the goals for treatment.
Read: How Animals Make a Pawsitive Impact on Youth Mental Health
Embrace a Shifting Sense of Self
A sense of belonging is a core human need that can shape our psychological and physical well-being. For young people, not feeling connected to others is a significant risk factor for the development of emotional and behavioral challenges, while feeling connected protects against negative health behaviors and enhances well-being.
Read: “Here I Can Just Be Myself”
Although supportive communities benefit young people from a variety of backgrounds, underrepresented youth in particular need affirmative spaces where they can develop a sense of belonging. A substantial body of research suggests that adolescent girls, youth of color, and LGBTQ+ youth often experience threats to their self‐worth and confidence due to the social invalidation of their gender, race, and sexual orientation status. These experiences are compounded for adolescent girls with multiple marginalized identities due to interlocking structures of inequity.
- An identity-safe community is a social context where all participants are valued, included, and can engage without fear of stigmatization. Identity‐safe environments can promote connection for underrepresented youth and adults in the face of the isolation that arises from constant exposure to alienating sociocultural stereotypes.
In one foundry10 research study, we explored the ways in which youth and adults collaboratively developed an identity-safe camp community. We conducted daily interviews with three youth of color and two mentors of color ranging in age from 13–28 (32 interviews in total). Data analysis found that youth and adults at Camp Y-WE Create collaboratively developed identity‐safety in the following ways:
- Practicing authenticity in daily interactions.
- Engaging in programmatic activities that sought to understand youth’s identities.
- Facilitating dynamic communication across intergenerational friendships.
To learn more about adolescent Health and Well-Being research, education programs, and philanthropic projects at foundry10, visit our website.
