FAMILY MATTERS
Whether by consequence or design, parents can make the biggest impact on teens’ mental health
AMERICAN teenagers are having a tough time. Teenage girls are having a particularly tough time. According to a recent CDC report, nearly 60% of US teen girls experience persistent sadness or hopelessness, double the rate of boys. In 2021, said the report, 30% of teen girls seriously considered committing suicide— up nearly 60% from a decade ago. What is going on? Why have young people suddenly become so disillusioned?
Social media, we’re constantly told, is to blame. And TikTok may soon be banned or restricted by the Biden administration. However, social media cannot be entirely held responsible. Children do not raise themselves — and the attitudes and ideologies of their primary caregivers have a profound impact on their mental wellbeing. This includes political ideologies, which experts now conclude can directly shape how a child sees the world. And liberal parents appear to be creating a generation of left-leaning and deeply disaffected children.
Consider a recent study out of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology. Released in December, the research — which focused on the intersections of gender and politics — revealed that teens who identify as liberal are much more likely to be unhappy than teens with more conservative views.
According to the report, female adolescents are more likely to be liberal than male adolescents. And liberal girls are the most prone to depression. How prone? Between 2010 and 2018, they noted, symptoms of depression rose by more than 50% for “female liberals.” Liberal boys saw lower increases in depressive behaviors, but reported numbers notably higher than conservative girls.
Conservative boys, however, had the lowest increase in depressive symptoms — about half those of lefty girls. All teenagers are getting worse, it seems, but liberal teens are getting worse at a much faster rate.
Although the authors were unable to pinpoint an exact root cause of these teen troubles, they suggest that variations in “worldview” may be a culprit. Progressives today are more likely to see the US as an inherently racist, unjust place. It’s harder to feel positive about the world if you fundamentally believe it sucks.
Of course teens do not develop ideologies in a vacuum — again, social media is hard at work here. But even though nearly all US teenagers — of nearly all beliefs — are now on social media, most manage to remain relatively mentally fit. Which is where parents come in.
Because, more often than not, teens adhere to the political beliefs of their parents — particularly mothers, according to research from political scientist Grant Michael Armstrong. That’s bad news for children whose parents lean left. “People with conservative political attitudes tend to have better health than their liberal counterparts, largely because the former place greater value on personal responsibility,” writes Scott McGreal in Psychology Today.
A recent Pew survey has also shown a clear correlation between progressive beliefs and compromised mental wellness — particularly among Caucasians. According to Pew, over 60% of white respondents who described themselves as “liberal” or “very liberal” have been told they suffer from mental health conditions, more than twice the level of conservatives and three times the levels of moderates. A study by academics affiliated with Harvard and Cornell also revealed Democrats are more likely than conservatives to be mentally unwell.
While the differences can be explained by left-leaning types more likely to seek out health care, research also suggests behavioral factors. The most compelling is religious affiliation and practices, which are more common among conservatives and can act as a sort of buffer against depression — particularly among religious teens.
And of all the mental health problems plaguing American teens, depression appears to be one of the more severe. Rates of depression were rising long before the pandemic. And again, social media is certainly playing a role. But so too are parents. According to a report by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), parents with mental health issues — particularly mothers — are more likely to have children with higher levels of mental health issues. And as that Pew study revealed, in the US, liberal women are the most likely to be dealing with mental health issues.
There’s also evidence that all those neurotic “helicopter” parents are, unsurprisingly, creating neurotic children. Indeed, like height and intelligence, neuroticism is simply a trait that can be inherited.
There are both genetic and environmental components to depression. And teens seem to be most impacted by this intersection of nature vs. nurture. True, left-leaning families appear to be producing more depressed teens. But allowing young people of all political persuasions to affirm their own ideologies isn’t just a necessary right of passage, but a path to keeping them mentally fit and stable.