Teenagers and young adults are more depressed than in the mid-2000s

Teenagers and young adults face a unique mental health crisis, a new study suggests Thursday. It has been found that rates of depressive episodes and severe psychological distress have increased significantly among these age groups in recent years, while remaining substantially the same for older age groups.

Lead author Jean Twenge, a 47-year-old psychology professor at San Diego State University, has spent much of his career studying the attitudes and beliefs of younger generations. More recently, in 2017, Twenge published a popular science book outlining its main argument that teenagers and young adults of childbearing age are particularly isolated and disconnected, in part due to the increasing abundance of social media and social media. devices such as smartphones. His book is titled iGen: Why are today's super-connected kids growing less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy, and fully prepared for adulthood?

Twenge's book and work have had their critics argue that his theory is supported by irrefutable and insufficient evidence, or that other factors besides smart phones could be the real culprit behind a legitimate rise in depression. teenage girls. A new study, published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology and written by Twenge and others, seems ready to refute at least some of these criticisms.

Twenge and his team looked at data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health, a nationally representative survey of Americans' lifestyle habits. In total, they examined more than 600,000 Americans from different age groups who participated in the 2005 to 2017 survey.

In those years, they followed the rate of episodes of major depression and severe psychological distress reported, measured by how well people answered questions, for example, if they felt "if sad or depressed that nothing could cheer them up. " suicide-related outcomes, such as how often people think of suicide, develop plans to carry it out and actually try it.

For almost all age groups, the last month's distress rate increased between 2008 and 2017 (2008 was the first year that adult distress rates were followed in the same way as adolescents and young people, said the authors). But this increase was much more dramatic among young adults.

In 2008, for example, about 5% of adults aged 30 to 34 years experienced severe distress, while 6.5% of the same group reported the same in 2017, an increase of 33%. At the same time, slightly more than 8% of 20- and 21-year-olds experienced distress in 2008, compared to 14.4% in 2017, which represents a relative increase of 78%.

A similar pattern is maintained for major depressive episodes and suicide-related outcomes: adolescents and young adults had higher rates of depression in 2017 than in 2005, while the rate of depression for most age groups over 30 was actually lower in 2017 compared to until 2009 (the elderly were the exception).

Younger people tend to suffer more from depression and other mood problems than older people. But the results suggest that young people today are facing more depression and distress than they were ten years ago. And even if some of this melancholy could be due to cultural factors that affect everyone to a certain extent, it hits younger people harder.

The study can not provide any direct evidence of the origin of this disparity, a common criticism of Twenge's work. But according to Twenge, it seems to exclude that factors such as the Great Recession are particularly relevant.

"If economic causes were to blame, it would not make much sense that the depression peaks in 2017 when the unemployment rate is at a historic low and that it is lower during the years of recession. where unemployment is high, "she told Gizmodo. "Moreover, if economic factors were responsible, you would expect the increase to be the largest among working-age adults, who are directly affected by changes in the labor market. On the contrary, it is the youngest country with the greatest increase in depression, including 12-17 year olds, who are spared the direct consequences of worrying about meeting the needs of a family in times of crisis. economic. "

Twenge and his co-authors argue that since the onset of this surge in depression in 2012, around the time that smartphones began to become a universal accessory, their role and that of similar devices must play an important role. They could make sleep even more difficult for teens and youth – lack of sleep being a well-known factor of poor mental health – or limit the number of face-to-face social interactions that people have with their friends and family. And while these same effects may also occur among the millennials and older generations, the authors say they would have as much influence on people in their formative years.

Whatever the exact causes, it is known that depressed and suicidal teenagers are more likely to suffer as adults, so this big wave of depression among young people could cause ripples in the coming years or even decades to come up. And since there does not seem to be an end to the rise, at least for the moment, the situation could get worse.

Twenge does not neglect the value of technology, even to help people stay mentally healthy, but she said more work needs to be done to understand how these devices could harm young people and how to better prevent them. In the immediate future, she said, all of us, but especially teenagers, could probably leave our phones in the room, switch off our devices an hour before we go to bed and limit our projection time in front of the office or school at two o'clock. a day or less.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Life Line for Suicide Prevention at 800-273-8255 or send a text message to the crisis hotline at 741-741.