According to The American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,"if the average child of today were placed in a time machine and flashed back to the year 1957, he might be institutionalized as emotionally disturbed due to his high level of anxiety."According to a study by Jean Twenge, PhD, an average child of today experiences the same amount of anxiety that a childhood psychiatric patient experienced in the 1950's.
Think, a minute, what this study tells us. It took quite a lot for a child to become a psychiatric patient in the 1950's. Yet, our stress levels for average children now match that level. Obviously, our levels of stress have gone way up. Also, everyone is experiencing these increased levels of stress, not just a few. Our society must have begun to assume that this constant level of stress is normal to be seeing this level of stress in most average children. And, finally, if our children were to be transported back to the 1950's, our high level of stress would probably get most of them a psychiatric diagnosis.
And yet, we are more medicated than ever. And yet, there is less stigma for many psychiatric conditions than there was in the 1950's.
What is happening? I would love to get readers' input on this. What things have changed since the 1950's that would negatively affect the psychological health of an entire population? What can be done about it on a societal level? What about an individual level? What changes must take place?
5 comments:
You and I have talked about this in depth. It is sad, isn't it? I think some of it is the constant bombardment of "being on," never off. Gone are the days of jumping rope and staring at the clouds trying to find shapes. I also think schools are pushing kids too hard. They are carrying BINDERS at younger and younger grades! And, maybe most pivotal, is the trauma our kids are exposed too. (9-11, snipers, school shootings) These things get televised over and over and over again. It's a scary world, especially for children who have no say in it.
I think some things like school shootings, which are becoming more and more common, are a result, in part, of the increased stress level our children are seeing.
I agree totally about the constant "being on". I heard about this study on The Catholic Channel today, and they hypothosized that generations past were able to leave school at school. Now, not only do our kids have more homework, more long term projects, and more extra curricular activities, they have less time spent with either parent than in times past, and they are always hooked up to their peer group--imagine bringing the school bully home with you after school!!
The modern information society is also becoming less and less conscious of its affect on children. There is no such thing as a safe time for kids to be watching tv. Being a kid today is like being in an emotional and moral war zone--they must be "debriefed" constantly by their parents--and most parents are too stressed to do it.
I think, the only way to lower *some* of the childhood stress level in children would be to live in a slightly more rural area (or an area where the parents would feel comfortable themselves) to have a large(r) family than is common today, and to home school. Obviously, this would not work for everyone, but for those who could do it, "unplugging" from the constant pressure to measure up to massive groups of peers, both for children and adults, would go a long way towards normalizing life a bit.
I actually don't think school shootings are all that common, but your point is not lost in that such shootings are national news when at one time they would have been local news only. So it definitely fits the overstimulation aspect. Welcome to the 24-7 news cycle.
I rue the day Bill Watterson stopped drawing Calvin and Hobbes. That's the day childlike imagination died.
You are right Cyg: school shootings are thankfully not "common", but they are (or seem to be) *more* common than in the 50's or even the turbulent 60's (were there any then at all?) which I think is a byproduct (rather than just a cause) of the massive amounts of constant stress that children are under. Especially now, in the 24 hour world news cycle, these children are crying for help from society.
The idea of the news *cycle* which never ends now, as contributing to over stimulation is a good one too. Somehow, seeing the Vietnam war on tv every night doesn't seem as overwhelming...(wow, never thought I'd say *that*).
And, Calvin and Hobbes--I loved that cartoon. I wonder if there is a correlation...it really does seem that the demise of that cartoon was just about the same time as the demise of childhood itself.
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