School pressure, social media stress, body image anxiety Teen Scotland in meltdown
With Scotland’s children now back at school, reports of an epidemic of anxiety among teenagers are causing panic among parents. Vicky Allan investigates just how bad mental health problems are for our young people today
STRESS. Anxiety. Worry over schoolwork. Depression. Self harm. Sleep difficulties. With our children just returned to school after the summer holidays, studies suggest there is something going awry in the mental health of Scotland’s teenagers. Though on most measures they start secondary school seeming reasonably content, research shows that by the time they reach 15 years old, they, particularly the girls, are showing worrying indicators of mental health issues. The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study by St Andrews University has found Scottish teens also feel more burdened by schoolwork than teens in most other countries in Europe.
Back to school week has just passed. When we talked to young people, parents and experts in this transition period, what was revealed was a portrait of Scotland’s teens in crisis beset by worries, unsure of where to turn for mental health help, troubled by exam stress, unable to switch off from social media, anxious about their own futures, distressed by the steady flow of terror on the news, and by, what one parent called, “the globalisation of awfulness”. Anxiety is rife. As a mother of a 14-year-old girl said: “It’s a feeding frenzy of anxiety among these girls. My daughter is struggling. It’s as if there is a positive bidding war going on among them over who is the most anxious. Who has got a diagnosis? Who doesn’t have a diagnosis? Are you a fraud, are you not a fraud? It seems to me that more than ever it’s like Lord of the Flies out there.”
MPerhaps it was ever thus. The fact that young people are reporting more issues could be interpreted as a sign of increased mental health awareness. But, as Ross Whitehead, researcher on the University of St Andrews HBSC report notes, his findings suggest that there is more to it than that. Of 33 countries studied in the report he notes Scotland was not the worst, but what stood out was that among our 15-year-old girls “the slope of deterioration is steeper in Scotland than anywhere else”.
He suggests that, particularly for Scottish girls, a “perfect storm” has come together of rising body image concern, public health messages about weight and soaring use of social nipulated. If your perception is that But it is not only girls who are media. In his recent research, still yet this is how everyone else looks and suffering. Ewan McCall, one of the to be peer reviewed, he found links you don’t match, you may feel infericompilers of the Scottish Youth Parbetween body image and the shockor about it.” liament report, believes that one of ing increase there has been in mental Other researchers have revealed the problems, particularly for boys, health indicators in 15-year-old girls. complementary findings. One study is that they still feel a great deal of
“The impact of body image on by Dr Heather Cleland Woods of stigma around talking about mental especially girls’ mental wellbeing is Glasgow University investigated health. “There’s a far higher male sustrong,” he says. “That’s something students at one Scottish school who icide rate among young people. Guys we’ve known for a while. But that were using social media during the struggle more to have an emotional relationship is strengthening. Body night and linked this with sleep diffioutlet in the way girls have because image is becoming more important culties, anxiety and depression. of the whole culture of being macho for somebody’s mental health. Andmasculine.”Manyyoungpeopleacknowledgeand there’s especially a steep increase in the impact of social media on menthat relationship over the last five to tal health, though they say they find 10 years, particularly for girls.” it hard to stay away from. As Cait
This he partially links with the rise lin-Jay Wyllie-Quinn, a 19-year-old of social media – since the effect on mental health campaigner observes: mental health seems to rise in line “I feel social media is a big part of the with its increased use. “Also,” he problem. Everything’s based around notes, “logically it makes sense, since the amount of likes and comments social media facilitates the comparyou get on posts. If you’re constantly ison of physical attributes between comparing yourself with other peopeers. The kind of images people put ple online, with filtered pictures that up are not particularly representaother people have posted, pictures tive of what is real. They are very that aren’t even real, there’s a presheavily self-selected, sometimes ma- sure and expectation.” EANWHILE, young people also clearly identify school workload and pressure as a contr ibutory factor. Perceived schoolwork pressure, says Dr Ross Whitehead, has increased significantly since 2006. Currently 80 per cent of 15-year-old girls and 59 per cent of 15-year-old boys say they feel pressured by schoolwork.
I feel social media is a big part of the problem. Everything is based around the amount of likes and comments you get on posts
It is also possible that this spike in mental health issues is not even entirely to do with what is happening in their teens. Does the problem in fact start many years beforehand when Scotland’s children seem, on most measures, to be doing relatively fine? One of the buzz terms around how we prepare children for life’s problems is emotional resilience. Sue Palmer, literacy expert and founder of Upstart, a campaign to replace our current system with formal schooling that starts at seven years old, believes resilience is what we need to cultivate. Research, she notes, is revealing that one of the ways we can do this is through ensuring children get enough independent play.
Given all this, how are Scottish young people being helped to cope? Mental wellbeing is at the heart of the curriculum for excellence, yet funding is scant.
Like the SYP, Caitlin-Jay Wyllie-Quinn, wants to see change. She recalls struggling to gain help when she was at school and is calling for a review of mental health services for young people. “The support’s not there with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS),” she says. “People aren’t serious enough. There’s so much talk about how children are vulnerable – you would think they would be given more support.”
Minister for Mental Health, Maureen Watt said: “Mental health is an absolute priority for this government, as demonstrated by our additional £150m investment over five years. CAMHS waiting times improved by eight percentage points in the first quarter of 2016 and the total CAMHS workforce is at a record level.
“Last month we launched a consultation seeking views on our 10year plan to transform mental health services, which will be published later this year. I would urge the SYP, Caitlyn-Jay and any other individual or organisation with an interest in mental health, or with an experience of services to take part.”