Study Shows Increase in Anxiety, Depression in Young People
Researchers analyzed responses from 77,576 high school and college students that took the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) from 1938 to 2007. Five times as many students in 2007 “surpassed thresholds” in one or more mental health categories compared with students in 1938. Two categories—“hypomania” (“anxiety and unrealistic optimism”) and depression—grew at an even higher rate, with six times as many students scoring high.
Twenge says that the numbers may actually be low; she believes that students on antidepressants and other medications may have skewed the results, because these drugs help to relieve the symptoms addressed in the study.
Even so, others say the research lends validity to what has been observed at counseling centers around the country. “It actually provides some support to the observations,” Scott Hunter, director of pediatric neuropsychology at the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital, told Irvine.
Study author Twenge admits that more research is required before a cause can be found. Still, Hunter believes the study “also helps us understand what some of the reasons behind it might be.” Today’s youth have been reared in a “you can do anything atmosphere,” Hunter says, which “sets up a lot of false expectation” that can lead to profound disappointment.
In December 2008, a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry found that nearly half of 19- to 25-year-olds have at least one psychiatric disorder. Even though some of the conditions reported were fairly mild, one of the coauthors of the study, Dr. Mark Olfson, believes that many young adults often don’t get the help they need: less than 25 percent of young adults get treatment.