Children should be more resilient, say experts

Jane Graham has been a school nurse for nearly 20 years, but in that time the nature of her job has completely changed. “When I started, the majority of the support we provided was around physical health, such as asthma, allergic reactions, and injuries,” she says. “Now it’s mental health.”

She saw a sharp increase in the number of school children suffering. “It has a big impact on secondary school students, some as young as seven years old,” she explains.

“We have children who are suffering from depression, anxiety and stress, which leads to panic attacks, self-harm and eating disorders. They are either not attending school or are too anxious to attend class. ”

GPs, youth workers and social workers I spoke to had similar stories, with many pointing out that the number of mental health cases among young people is at an all-time high.

One in five children and young people aged between eight and 25 in the UK are now thought to have a mental health disorder, according to official figures. Understandably, the NHS is struggling to cope.

In 2024, Children’s Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Sousa described the situation as “shocking” and said the system was in “crisis”.

What is less clear is why this is happening now.

The pandemic, the cost of living, and The advent of social media All of this puts added pressure on the generation that is just starting out.

But some experts in the mental health field are raising other questions. The question is: is there really a mental health crisis, or are young people simply not resilient enough?

In other words, do they lack the ability to endure and quickly recover from the daily challenges that generations before them also faced?

This question is polarizing. The term resilience can be interpreted by some as pejorative or even harmful, similar to the term “snowflake generation.”

But Professor Andrea Danese, one of the country’s leading experts in child and adolescent psychiatry, believes resilience needs to be taken seriously.

Professor Danese, Director-General of the European Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, says that while increased awareness of mental health is “generally a good thing”, it is also causing “an unintentional increase in mental health “I am concerned that this may have led to damage,” he said. – Pathological suffering in young people. ”

Distress should not automatically be considered a sign of poor mental health, he continues.

“Facing challenges and struggles is normal and important in terms of personal growth,” he says. “That’s how young people develop emotional resilience. They learn coping skills and build confidence in their ability to cope in the face of many small challenges. The stories we build is important.”

Graham, a school nurse, agrees that many children she sees, particularly those with lower-level mental health issues, benefit from being more resilient. I think it will be accepted.

She believes that if young people have better coping skills, they will be better able to deal with the challenges they may face before they develop into a full-blown crisis, which in turn will help health services I believe it will help alleviate the pressure on Focus on people at high risk of harm.

“We need to do a better job of teaching children how to be resilient and maintain their mental health in school,” she says. “But the way we treat children, such as elementary school sports days where everyone is declared a winner, is not helpful.”

In popular culture, the concept of resilience was popularized in the 1970s. This was prompted by research by psychologist Emmy Warner, who studied children from low-income environments in Hawaii.

Recently, this has been the subject of several best-selling books. Among them: Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy; Co-authored with Sheryl Sandbergpreviously Chief Operating Officer of Meta.

A study by academics conducted in Poland suggests that high levels of resilience improve life satisfaction and act as a buffer against mental health problems in young people.

Two studies of young people between the ages of 13 and 18 found that the more resilient people were, the more likely they were to Develop your own coping strategies I was less likely to get caught up in negative emotions and thoughts when dealing with stress, including seeking support and advice from others. resort to drugs, alcohol, or smoking.

But not everyone agrees on questions about resilience issues or the potential downsides of raising mental health awareness.

Dr Shari McDaid, head of policy and evidence (Scotland and Northern Ireland) at the Mental Health Foundation, argued that suggestions that increased awareness was responsible for rising rates of mental health problems were “misleading”. are.

She points out that to be eligible for treatment for mental illness, a person must meet clinical criteria and the support they receive must be judged to be beneficial.

Rather, she believes that increased awareness has led to increased “mental health literacy,” which has given people the tools to recognize and manage their everyday emotions.

“What we must do is work harder to prevent young people’s mental distress from escalating to disability, and we must work hard to create mentally healthy communities, schools and workplaces. We can do this through a holistic approach and by cultivating young people’s “personal resilience,” she says.

“The two approaches go hand in hand.”

Dr McDade argued that the current generation of children and young people faced a unique set of challenges, saying they were the infants and toddlers of the 2008 financial crisis and had also survived Brexit and the divisions over Brexit. He pointed out that he had come. The COVID-19 pandemic in its formative stages.

“We know that adverse events are cumulative; the more experiences you have, the more likely you are to face challenges,” she says.

Social media also plays a role. Although there are benefits, Dr. McDade points out: cyber bullying Body image pressures, which can be exacerbated on social media, cause further stress.

“There has always been an unrealistic image…but social media has made things even more complicated,” she added.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that the advent of the digital world has caused a “great rewiring of childhood”, with children spending less time meeting and interacting in person. More time glued to the screen. In his book, An Anxious Generation, he suggests that this affects self-esteem and personal connections, which are essential for good mental health.

But Professor Danese said social media use alone did not “fully explain” why mental health problems were so prevalent.

That, he argues, is likely to “amplify” the problem rather than cause it. “The cause is [of the rise in mental health problems] They are complex and I’m not sure we fully understand them. ”

And it is the cumulative effect of so many challenges, rather than any single challenge, that creates the perfect storm.

One young man said: “From social media platforms that make us more isolated and anxious, to underfunded mental health services that are on the brink of collapse, to a global climate crisis that puts our future at risk. No wonder young people are feeling anxious and struggling to stay positive.

Adele Zeynep Walton is 25 years old and has written extensively about the negative effects of the online age on the mental health of her generation, including her book Logging Off: The Human Cost of Our Digital World.

“Personal resilience is a great tool that protects us from the serious challenges we face and helps us recover from the hardships of everyday life, but it cannot solve the problems facing young people today. “It’s like putting a bandaid on a gaping wound,” she claims.

Instead, she believes the answer lies in addressing the addictive and harmful nature of social media platforms, investing in community spaces, and listening to young people themselves.

“What young people need is a recognition that the world we live in today makes it difficult for young people to thrive, and a real effort from those in power to confront the fundamental barriers to happiness.”

Adam Jones, policy and communications manager at mental health charity Young Minds, is also wary of the word resilience, saying it can be used in a judgmental way.

But he shares concerns that current approaches are “overly medicalized.”

More than 600,000 young people aged 15 to 25 will be prescribed antidepressants in the UK in 2023-2024. According to NHS Englandthousands more are believed to be prescribed other drugs to treat symptoms such as anxiety.

“While drug therapy can be helpful for some people, clinical guidelines are clear that it should not be the first-line treatment for most people,” Jones says.

Hamza Dar, a 26-year-old wellness influencer from Manchester who shares mental health advice with her followers on TikTok and Instagram under the name Humz D, realized she needed to change the way she provided support. I agree. He suggests, among other things, that children in school be taught strategies such as meditation starting in first grade.

Nevertheless, he argues that young people are already well aware of the importance of resilience.

”[It] This has become an important characteristic that all young people must embody in order to survive in such a world. ”

Professor Danese was quick to stress that he was not arguing that young people do not need support. Rather, he said, they may simply need a different kind of support than is currently on offer, along with early identification of those at risk of developing the most serious mental health problems. suggests.

For Professor Danese, the true meaning of resilience is not what it seems at first glance. She said emotional resilience is not just about individuals coping on their own, but also about the support they receive from their community, including through friends, family, community centres, sporting opportunities and social events.

But some of these opportunities have been lost, he says, nodding to past funding withdrawals and closures of some networks that could provide support to young people.

Jones agreed, arguing that young people should have more access to activities that connect them with their communities and build friendships. He also said there is a need for non-clinical support for issues such as housing and employment, as well as more individualized treatment.

Examples of projects that provide this type of collaborative support are often undertaken in partnership with councils, charities and, in some cases, the NHS.

Mr Jones singled out The Nest in south London and the Youth Advice Service in Merseyside as two schemes that take a flexible approach and offer a range of support including employment training, advice on budgets and benefits.

The problem, more generally, is that the currently popular approaches are built into most systems. NHS does not help integrate networks In this way.

“We need to rethink the entire mental health system for young people,” Jones argues.

Perhaps the question at the heart of the mental health crisis, then, is not whether young people are sufficiently resilient, but whether young people have access to sufficient support to become resilient.

Additional reporting by Tara Mewawalla

Top image credit: Getty

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