Fifty-five percent of adults feel that kids’ mental and emotional health is worse today than when they were growing up according to a national poll completed by C.S. Mott’s Children’s hospital.
I think these folks are wrong. In most ways, these are the best of times for America’s children. I suspect these misperceptions are due more to heightened sensitivity rather than objective reality.
Since 1991, the percentage of kids who have thought about killing themselves has decreased from 29 percent to 17 percent. The number of teens who actually attempted to end their lives hasn’t changed much since that time, generally staying around 7 percent. That’s not good news, but things today are not worse than years ago.
The number of cases of substantiated sexual abuse has declined by 40 percent since the 1990s. However, that’s little comfort when lifetime prevalence rates for sexual abuse and assault are still around 30-40 percent for girls and 13 percent for boys.
Many other metrics that impact a child’s mental health have shown dramatic improvements during our generation. Rates of violence in schools, fighting on school property, and thefts at school have all declined dramatically. Births to teen moms have decreased by around 50 percent since 1990, an incredibly positive trend.
If most of these metrics show improvement, why do adults perceive otherwise?
One reason may be that we are more sensitive, appropriately so, to issues that were dismissed years ago. Bullying behavior that was tolerated or encouraged in the childhood of many adults is taken more seriously today. We’ve recognized that the humiliation, taunting and physical threats that were commonplace can resonate for many years with our kids. However, let’s keep this in perspective. There is no evidence that bullying has increased, and I suspect it has substantially decreased given our lower tolerance for this type of abusive behavior.
The biggest ways to positively impact children’s mental health are to focus on positive family relationships and helping kids learn better skills for dealing with life.
Programs aimed at strengthening family life will have the greatest effect on our kids’ emotional health. This means access to good jobs for all adults, family-friendly policies at work, and timely support for parents who are having problems themselves or in their family relationships.
Schools have a big impact on our kids’ mental health. Beginning in kindergarten, I’d require coursework and experiences on the skills that we know lead to improved mental health — the skills of self-control, resilience, communication and problem solving.
Let’s not get complacent when it comes to the issues of youth suicide, child abuse, or other problems affecting our children’s emotional health. Pride in our progress shouldn’t lead to complacency.
Next Week: Do your kids have a right to internet privacy?
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