Kathleen Couillard – Agence Science-Presse (www.sciencepresse.qc.ca)
The pandemic, pressure to perform at school, social media… Sources of anxiety for children and teens have multiplied over the last decades. Should we worry?
In a special report devoted to anxiety, the magazine The New Scientist examined the topic as it pertains to children and teens. Several studies carried out all over the world demonstrate that children in fact are feeling increasingly anxious.
Indeed, between 2007 and 2012, the proportion of children between the ages of 6 and 17 diagnosed as suffering from anxiety disorders jumped from 5.5% to 6.4%, according to a study carried out in the United States. In 2015, those with anxiety reached 11.6%, says a Finnish study examining Finns from 14 to 18 years of age.
As well, even if emotional problems affect children from all social classes in Wales between 2013 and 2019, the biggest increase is among families with low revenue, concludes a study published in 2023.
And the pandemic accelerated the trend. A meta-analysis of 29 studies conducted in 2020-2021 among 81,000 youths under the age of 18 shows that 21% of them experienced symptoms of anxiety.
Complex Causes
Many reasons may explain this increase, The New Scientist says. For example, climate change produces anxiety for a large number of youths. Social tensions in the world, from the war in Ukraine to school massacres as well as political polarization, are also sources of anxiety, says the author of a study published on the American Psychological Association (APA) website in 2022.
Nonetheless, many experts point to social media for their harmful effects on young people’s mental health. A 2021 study of American adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 noted a link between frequent use of these platforms and an increase in anxiety levels. The authors underscored that their results couldn’t determine if social media generated anxiety or the opposite – that once a youth gets anxious, they spend more time on social media.
The effect of these new communication tools on anxiety may be more complex than we think. The Welsh study published in 2023 looking at kids 11 to 16 years of age shows that the identity of the person with whom the youth is communicating with on social media has an importance. In effect, communicating with a real world friend may be associated with increased self-esteem, whereas exchanges with a purely virtual friend can be harmful to one’s emotional well-being.
Treatments
Whatever the reasons, there are a lot of anxious youths who do not get the treatment they need. Treatment could make a big difference in their lives, argues the author of a piece published on the APA website. A 2008 study concluded that 60% of children who had followed cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) reported an improvement in their symptoms. This type of treatment is the best way documented to treat anxiety.
In an interview with The New Scientist in September 2023, British psychologist Lucy Foulkes worried that some schools “psychologize” the lives of students too closely. According to her, in encouraging youths to interpret the merest negative feeling, like a symptom of a problem, that alone can increase their anxiety. What is even more remarkable is that teachers are often not equipped to detect or manage their students’ mental health issues.
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