Study: Youth now have more mental health issues (I'm skeptical) [View All]

[Sparkly]

By MARTHA IRVINE, AP National Writer – Mon Jan 11, 8:14 am ET

CHICAGO – 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.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100111/ap_on_re_us/us_stressed_out_students

I'm skeptical just on the face of it -- think of what children's lives were like during the depression, and even during WWII. Yet there are more stresses today? Hard to believe.

The methodology -- a questionnaire -- is a bit sketchy, too, measuring the number of "people who report anxiety and depression." It's possible that today's students are more likely to identify themselves as such than earlier generation, in which case the study is measuring something different than what it claims to measure.

But for the sake of argument, let's suppose students today are more anxious and stressed. What's changed for the worse? The main thing I think of is the rise of entertainment media, with commercials.

Your thoughts?