The mental health of children

Brian T. Watson

The world is a disturbing place, and every year it gets more disturbing. This is a reality that you may experience whether you are young or old.

But for increasing numbers of children from first grade through high school, the world presents challenges that are becoming overwhelming. Not only do youngsters have to grow emotionally, learn social skills, and create or determine the beginnings of their personal identity — who they are — they have to do all that in the context of a world that is less and less reliable, predictable, and grounding.

In my last column (“A neurologist’s hope for us,” May 26), I described that the interplay of nature and nurture creates the mental health of individuals. For a person to attain a solid set of social capabilities and a balanced emotional maturity, usually that individual requires the time, space, and conditions to develop those attributes.

Today, however, in too many cases, young people are facing a chaotic, disorienting, and overstimulated world. In many ways — especially for young people — the world is actually reckless and frightening.

Doctors, psychiatrists, therapists, teachers, and school counselors across America are testifying to the crises among children and adolescents.

Kids are having unprecedented difficulties developing social and emotional skills. They are acting up in school. They have difficulty focusing on schoolwork, and they skip classes or entire days.

From elementary school students to high schoolers, they show signs of anxiety, depression, hostility, stress, and anger. Fights in school, bullying, online harassment of peers, and vandalizing school property are common problems.

Longtime teachers and counselors are reporting that students of all ages are having more trouble than they’ve had in the past regulating their emotions.

They “trigger” easily. Children are more apt to have conflicts with friends and schoolmates. They have difficulty with teamwork. They disobey the rules limiting smartphone use and inappropriate internet content in the classroom.

There are rising amounts of self-harm — such as cutting oneself — or attempting suicide.

In general, teachers and counselors report that students are exhibiting less resilience, stamina, motivation, and engagement. They are displaying frustration, a sort of desperation, and escape and avoidance behaviors.

Why is this occurring? At the outset, two things are important and must be kept in mind.

First, and most important, there are many factors that contribute to good mental health and many factors that can degrade it. So no one reason is going to explain what is going on with the youth of America. On top of that, different children can suffer for different reasons.

Second, although the pandemic has been terrible for the emotional health of children, it is important to note that young people were already struggling unusually before the pandemic’s onset. From 2007 to 2019, there was a 60% increase in the number of adolescents reporting having a major depressive episode. In the same time period, suicide rates among young people ages 10 to 24 also increased 60%.

Significantly, this deterioration in mental health spanned youth across the board, whether they were Black, white, wealthy, poor, rural, suburban, or urban.

The pandemic has obviously been bad for children and teenagers. At a time when they need to learn and socialize, they had to isolate, limit contact with friends, and study from home.

But researchers point to factors that were already in play before the pandemic. Youth loneliness, pressure to use the internet and its infinite social media apps, and the overwhelming stimulation of a 24/7 world — combined with an awareness that the existence of the future itself is in question — all merged to produce a societal context that has deeply unsettled young people.

Children and teens may not yet fully understand the world, but today they can recognize that their parents and other adults do not have the operations and affairs of the world under control. With regard to the environment, economics, and politics — never mind the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and repeated school shootings — young people can see and sense the deteriorating realities. This is debilitating to the sense of security and safety that youth especially need.

Perhaps the greatest disservice that we adults have been inflicting on our young people — from ages 2 or 3 onward — is the internet itself, and the tyranny of essentially “requiring” its use. If they go to school, and if they hope to “fit in,” kids cannot opt out of internet and social media use. But the consequences of that use — which is essentially during all waking hours — are many, and one of them is a toll on the many aspects of their mental health and the development of psyche, mind, and identity.

Most adults have insufficient appreciation of the destructive content, addictive nature, and harsh dynamics of youth-driven social media. Adults are largely unappreciative of the power of the constant posting, gaming, sexting, bragging, bullying, influencer, video, and violent content as consumed by youth. But we’ve blithely given them the smartphones and apps that are tap dancing on their minds.

To repeat, there isn’t just one cause of childhood mental distress. We adults have created a world of causes. But we just can’t face the magnitude of the needed corrections. We can’t wean ourselves off fossil fuels, abandon our infinite-growth economy, or get control of an internet that is unraveling our society and — most especially — our youth.

Brian T. Watson, of Swampscott, is author of “Headed Into the Abyss: The Story of Our Time, and the Future We’ll Face.” Contact him at btwatson20@gmail. com.