A study confirms that the younger generations have poorer mental health

This Monday, the scientific journal PNAS published a study analyzing data from 27,572 people in Australia that shows a decline in mental health among younger population groups. Although the deterioration was detected in an analysis of the entire population, the authors of this work, led by Richard Morris from the University of Sydney, noticed that poor mental health was more common among those born in the 1990s and, to a lesser extent, in the late 1980s.

The trend observed by the Australian team coincides with results from other countries that also show poorer mental health among the younger generations. In the United States, in data ranging from 2010 to 2017, those born in the 1990s and 1980s showed higher levels of anxiety and suicide rates, a tendency that remained when the subjects were segregated by gender or socioeconomic group. In the U.K., depressive symptoms are also more common among teenagers born in the 2000s than among people born in the previous decade.

Although the phenomenon may appear to be recent, a study that made an intergenerational comparison in Germans born after World War II and up to 1975 also revealed an increase in depressive symptoms among the younger generations. “These differences may have begun to emerge much earlier than previously thought,” write the authors of the article published by PNAS.

Neither finances nor substances

Something that stands out is how the association between the circumstances in which the studied groups grew up and their current mental health can sometimes be counterintuitive. In many countries, more people who were raised in prosper environments had poor mental health; the same was the case when there was less alcohol, tobacco or drug use. “Our results support observations that indicate that the population’s deterioration in mental health may not reflect the effect of economic indicators such as unemployment or substance abuse,” the authors explain.

Australia’s National Health Survey shows an increase in mental and behavioral disorders from 9.6% in 2001 for those over 15 years of age, to 20.1% in 2018 and 21.4% in 2021. Similar data is found in most OECD countries, although there are exceptions, such as Canada.

“The mental health of people born in the 1990s is worse compared to older generations, and they’re not showing that upswing that we typically see in those older generations,” explains Morris. According to the researcher, this decline becomes noticeable after 2010 and also impacted those born in the 1980s as well as, to a lesser extent, those born in the 1970s. “There are many things that happened around 2010, such as the great financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent austerity, the prevalent use of social networks, the increase in climate change-related disasters or the awareness of the stigma of mental health, although all of this is speculation,” says Morris.

Greater vulnerability

José Luis Ayuso Mateos, a teacher of psychiatry at the Autonomous University of Madrid who did not participate in the study, points out that this analysis, like other previous ones, “shows a greater vulnerability factor of some cohorts before the same risk factors.” “In clinical practice we have noticed a very marked increase in mental health problems and the need for assistance,” he adds. For Ayuso Mateos, in addition to the risk factors, such as “the negative effect that overexposure on social media can have, which is more frequent among younger cohorts,” there are also protective factors, such as social cohesion. To prevent these mental health problems from continuing in the future, Ayuso Mateos believes it is important to pay attention, from an early age, “to problems like bullying, which have a significant impact on later mental health.”

The results of these types of studies, obtained from surveys, can produce conclusions that are not easy to interpret. Morris emphasizes the contrast between the results of surveys that measure subjective well-being, taking into account financial or employment factors, with others that assess mental health. In the first, no intergenerational differences are seen: “This is a bit of a paradox, because financial concerns should align with mental health outcomes.” However, differences have long been found between the evaluation of a person’s own expectations and achievements and the emotional response to current circumstances. “Our mental health outcomes tend to reflect the latter more than the former, and we may need to look to our immediate environment, our family or our social relationships, to improve our sense of happiness.”

Regarding the possible causes of the trends they observe, Morris mentions the impact of social networks, particularly among teenagers, but points out that this impact on mental health is less than 5% in all age groups. “Although the evidence on social networks is still maturing, we are also analyzing other factors to explain the observed differences,” he adds.

One of those factors may be the awareness of mental illness itself, particularly among younger people. This greater knowledge can lead to a better recognition of mental health problems and more frequent mentions in surveys. “It is still unclear whether increased knowledge results in an overinterpretation of daily stress as an illness and implications for its treatment,” Morris concludes.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition