Mental health issues among American teenagers have surged, with anxiety and depression increasing by over 50% in the past decade. Each year, one in six youth aged 6-17 face a mental health disorder, and suicide rates have risen by 62% in the last 20 years.
The mental health crisis impacts youth significantly more than the elderly.
According to the World Happiness Report, Americans aged 60 and older are among the 10 happiest groups globally, while those aged 15 to 24 rank 62nd.
This is especially true in Palo Alto, where Motoko Iwata said stress and unhappiness among teens are rising.
“The teenage mental health crisis is a huge issue across the country,” Iwata said.
While past research suggested that happiness gradually decreases until the rock bottom “midlife crisis” before increasing again, recent studies have found that teenagers today are more unhappy than adults at midlife ever were.
AP Psychology teacher Christopher Farina said one possible factor is the increased exposure to negative news.
“We tend to pay more attention to negative events than positive ones because it has helped our ancestors survive (from an) evolutionary perspective,” Farina said. “And when you guys are looking around at your world, you’re able to pay more attention to the negative things that are happening, like wars or the economy.”
Advanced Authentic Research and Early Childhood Development teacher Hilary McDaniel said preliminary research has shown that cellphones reduce student interaction and increase feelings of isolation, especially among teenage girls.
“It used to be that I would walk into a classroom and students would talk to each other, and I’d have to quiet the class down to get their attention to start class,” McDaniel said. “That doesn’t happen anymore. They’re all on their cell phones. They’re not conversing with one another. They’re not forming relationships with one another — they’re not present in the moment.”
According to Farina, this decrease in social interaction could lead to decreased levels of happiness.
“It is the quality of your relationships, if your social relationships,” Farina said. “If you have a decent number of good social relationships that you maintain, that contributes more to your happiness than anything else.”
McDaniel also said many students are pressured to excel academically from a young age to get into college, contributing to the decline in happiness.
“Some parents will be like, ‘What academic camp should I put my kid in so I can make sure they get ahead on their skills?’ and their kid is in second grade,” McDaniel said.
According to Forbes, the increasing competition for college admissions is also causing students to apply to more schools, which in turn raises competition and lowers acceptance rates.
“Paly students have a big fixation with (their college being) the most rigorous place (they) can go, and that can lead people to environments that aren’t best matched to who they are and who they want to be and can just continue to push them to the edge academically,” Farina said.
Iwata agrees and said she sees the college admissions process weighing on many of her peers and affecting their mental health.
“I’ve noticed my peers losing self-confidence with the college race and becoming more stressed, putting themselves through more in a constant effort to compete for college,” Iwata said. “We should recognize the issue and actively improve connections and community at Paly and beyond.”