Many of this group of young people started their careers or enrolled in college during the pandemic and economic turmoil, and are currently facing rising home prices, lack of connection at work, global disasters, and social media. misinformation, exacerbated by epidemic of loneliness Beyond generations.
Madeline Armstrong, 22, of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, experienced suicidal depression, anorexia, and anxiety during her college years, leading to psychiatric hospitalization during her junior year. Although she has recovered with her treatment and proper medication, she is still in severe condition.
“It’s hard to be happy and focus on the positive when you’re busy living day to day and living paycheck to paycheck,” Armstrong said. Due to the $400 monthly costs on top of student loan debt, she is considering cutting back on treatment. Both put a strain on her low pay as a newspaper editorial assistant.
She and her peers have fewer resources to support them than other teens who interact with parents, caregivers, teachers, and school leaders multiple times each day. I’m working on the issue. Since the pandemic, public health and attention has focused on the mental health crisis among teenagers, but those in their 20s receive less attention and fewer resources.
“Young people have disappeared from our radar,” he said. Richard Weisbord, a psychologist and director of Harvard University’s Making Caring Common Project. “They are not and should not be at the center of our concerns about mental health.”
- Several worries affected the mental health of young people, including finance (56%). Pressure to achieve (51%); lack of direction (50%) and feeling like things are falling apart (45%).
- gender influenced. More women reported mental health problems than men (31 percent and 24 percent), 41 percent (anxiety) and 35 percent (depression).
- race influenced. White youth were most likely to report anxiety (38%), followed by Hispanic, black, and Asian American youth (37%, 35%, and 20%, respectively). For depression, blacks reported the highest rate (35%), followed by Hispanics, whites, and Asian Americans (32, 28, and 21%, respectively).
- Sexual orientation was also important.. LGBTQ+ youth were more likely to experience anxiety and depression (39% and 37%, respectively) than heterosexual youth (33% and 26%, respectively). However, lesbians had the lowest prevalence of mental illness at 28%.
- Higher incomes reduce anxiety and depression. Almost half of young adults with an annual income of less than $30,000 experience anxiety, compared to about 29% of those with an annual income of $60,000 or more. Thirty-six percent of people in the lowest income bracket experienced depression, compared to 20 percent of those earning more than $100,000.
The survey surveyed 396 teenagers, 709 young adults, and 748 parents and caregivers on approximately 50 questions about mental health pressures, social media use, relationships and sources of support, and parental views. We used responses from 1,853 people, including: and schools, and their values and behaviors.
The study, conducted in December 2022, used two widely accepted sets of questions used by health care providers to assess anxiety and depression.
High levels of mental illness reflect the current challenges of entering adulthood, whether that means college, a career, the military, or some other path. housing affordability Although home sales prices and rents have risen, personal incomes have not kept up, causing home prices to fall to their lowest level in 40 years.
On the other hand, the cost is health care, electricity And even more groceries It rose. For the first time since the Great Depression, the most common Housing arrangement People in their 20s live with one or both parents.
“The transition to independence and adulthood is very difficult for young people these days,” he said. kristin crawford, a psychiatrist and associate medical director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “There’s a lot of concerns related to finances as well as uncertainty about what their future will be.”
“For today’s youth, the transition to independence and adulthood is quite difficult,” says Christine Crawford, a psychiatrist and associate medical director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “There’s a lot of concerns related to finances as well as uncertainty about what their future will be.”
Gabriel Mitchell, 25, graduated from George Mason University with a degree in psychology during the first months of the pandemic. The next few years left him searching for direction and stability. He misses being surrounded by friends, but going out and socializing costs money.
“When I was a kid, I dreamed of the American dream: a house, a partner, a dog, kids,” said Mitchell, who lives with roommates in Gaithersburg, Maryland. “That’s not realistic for most of us. Dealing with rising prices is tough and stressful. They continue to rise rapidly.”
When career training after graduation fell through, he stumbled into a role as a home behavior technician for children with autism, and then accepted a position as a case manager in April 2022. Next month, he will begin a similar job helping seniors with disabilities in Fairfax County. More than two and a half years after graduating from college, he’s relieved to have found his sense of purpose, but at age 26 he’ll be leaving his parents’ health insurance and worried about impending expenses. I feel it.
Other peers haven’t found their way.
Eliza Braverman, 24, grew up in Bethesda, Maryland and graduated from Oberlin College in 2021. After moving to Mexico to teach, where she knew no one, she began to experience social anxiety and general sadness. This was an unfamiliar experience, even though she had a strong support network throughout her childhood and her college years.
“It was really hard to have that stability uprooted,” said Braverman, who recently quit her job and is rethinking her career. “I felt more alone than ever in my life.”
This group came of age in the midst of a pandemic, climate change warnings, and news of political infighting, violence, and war. About 35 percent of survey respondents cited friendship stressors, crime rates, relationship stressors, abortion bans, and climate change as contributing factors to their poor mental health.
Armstrong lives with her boyfriend, Jacob Lewis, 21, who also experiences anxiety and depression. “Our generation is suffering because we were born into a world that we have no control over,” Lewis said of financial insecurity, climate change, and the difficulty of meeting physical and mental health needs. He cited this as a reason.
Chris Rivas, 24, lives with his parents in Cypress, Texas, and drives for DoorDash. It’s not where he expected to be after graduating high school and trying his hand at the mortgage industry and then his music career, nor where his parents were when they were his age. He feels inadequate compared to older people and influential people of his age who advertise their wealth on social media.
“I felt more financially insecure because I found it difficult to get jobs that others could easily find,” Rivas said.
The study found that other causes of anxiety and depression include a lack of skills or talent (44%), family stressors (43%), gun violence in schools (42%), and too much choice (44%). 40%). About 30 percent of survey respondents each cited corrupt politicians, misinformation, social media, and uncivil behavior.
“The chaos, the corruption, the polarization and the inability to solve really urgent problems is disillusioning young people,” Weisbord said. “In our research, young people seem to have a fair amount of trust in each other to solve problems, but less trust in older people.”
Long waiting lists for university counseling centers are exacerbating the problem, he said. Lawrence Steinbergprofessor of psychology at Temple University and “you and your adult children”
“If you’re in a pre-existing financial situation and need treatment for depression or anxiety, but your insurance doesn’t cover it or only covers it minimally, you’re in real trouble,” Steinberg said. did. This means that more parents are financially supporting young people in their 20s than they were 20 years ago.
How to deal with mental health issues
Wisbord said community support and involvement with religious institutions have decreased, worsening feelings of isolation and lack of direction. “Religions have structures and traditions that are very important to people, that make them feel like they are part of a larger humanity and give them coordinates in space and time,” he said. To tell.
Research shows that young people who find purpose experience motivation, positivity, and drive. William Damon, professor and director of the Adolescence Center at Stanford University. “Especially in today’s world, it takes time to really develop that and commit to it,” Damon said.
Universities and professional employers need to do more to engage and support people aged 18 to 25 to find purpose, develop career skills and achieve independence. “A lot of university educators aren’t providing the kind of guidance that people need,” he said, noting a decline in trust in the world of work in general. “It affects morale, hopes and aspirations.”
He said peer support could play an important role in supplementing traditional treatments. laura hornChief Program Officer at Active Minds, a national mental health nonprofit. active mindhas partnered with MTV to release a tool to teach peer support through the ASK rubric. That means recognition, support, and communication. Other options include: share well and Peers.net.
“Communities have a lot of history of healing themselves,” Horn said. “That’s what we need more of in America.”
