Increase in mental illness in adolescents

According to a study in the US, more and more students and students suffer from mental illness

According to a US study, more and more adolescents and young adults are suffering from mental illness. By comparison, in the US today, statistically speaking, five times more young people suffer from mental illness than they did 70 years ago. Most adolescents suffered from depression. The main reason for the rapid rise is called the increased expectations of "material wealth" and supposed "beauty". The adult adults feel more and more stressed, suffer from anxiety and experience an ever increasing pressure to succeed, which they are subject to.

The results of the survey are based on psychological testing of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). The type of survey is the most common across the world. In the late 1930s, the MMPI survey was developed in the US. The analysis of the survey was conducted by Prof. Jean Twenge of San Diego State University.

A total of 77,576 students and students from 1938 to 2007 were interviewed. The scientists evaluated the MMPI surveys at 5 universities. In 1938, 5 times fewer students and students suffered from depression than in 2007. In addition, an increase in hypomania (mild form of mania) from 5 to 31 percent was found.

The researchers even assume that the number of unreported cases will be even higher, because young people are already taking numerous medications that, for example, help with depression and raise the mood. Another factor is that there are more teenagers reporting depression today than they were in the late 1930s.

Scientist Prof. Jean Twenge sees as a reason a change in social values. Today prosperity, embossed beauty ideals and status symbols would play a bigger role than they did 70 years ago. The young people are subject to constant competitive pressure, which they have to deal with on a daily basis. It would come to that many parents would educate to "overprotective". The children would no longer learn to face certain everyday problems. (sb, 17.01.2010)