Image graphic created by Brennea Atchley
Mental health illnesses are rising among U.S. youth as one in six children aged 6-17 years old experience a mental disorder annually. Where half of all natural mental health conditions begin by age 14, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Only half of which receive treatment in their lifetime, delaying independence in new adults
Illnesses in Children
Youth commonly develop Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, (ADHD), behavior problems, anxiety and depression. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 9.4% of children had an anxiety disorder in 2019. This is approximately 5.8 million people. Undiagnosed, untreated or improperly treated mental illnesses can interfere with a child’s ability to grow and learn. It can lead to high dropout rates, unemployment, substance use, prison time and early death. This makes it harder for new adults to get back on their feet and learn about themselves. Experiencing substance use, prison time and unemployment can make them feel worthless and continue to follow these habits. They will cling onto the life they used to know, even though it may not be what is best for them.
Hypervigilant Parenting
As the U.S. embraces a new modern and technologically advanced era, parents and schools have started to raise more dependent children. Hypervigilance parenting has become the new normal as parents assume their children are more delicate. What they assume is protecting them from any dangers, is creating internal dangers to their child. Children can develop anxiety and depression because they do not feel free, but they also fear that the outside world will also harm them. Parents have created their own anxiety around the possibility of crime or death and spread it to their children. This prevents children from creating their own experiences and they tend to become more dependent on their parents. Child independence has been decreasing since the 1950s, and continues to.
“Our culture is telling parents, ‘You can not trust your kids, they are going to be in danger, they are going to fall behind.’ We are treating children as fragile, and ironically, doing that is making them fragile,” said Lenore Skenazy, co-founder of Let Grow, a non-profit child independence organization.
Growing Our Mental Behavior
Children grow up assuming that the outside world is harmful because of the way their parents conceal them. This means children spend most of their time at school or school based activities. This does not seem like a bad thing, yet nearly one in five students report being bullied in school in 2024, according to the American Psychological Association. Home seems like the only safe place to children because there is not any harm. They are more likely to develop social anxiety for public events and suppress themselves to make themselves feel safe.
“Just as anxiety becomes generalized and everything becomes too dangerous and too scary and too much for you to think about doing on your own, competence and confidence also generalize. Children’s competence gives them confidence,” Skenazy said.
Children developing mental illnesses at a young age can prevent them from trusting themselves and others when living on their own. Young adulthood becomes harder, as suicide is the second leading cause of death for ages 10-34. Growing children become mentally isolated, which also makes them physically and socially as well. This delays the growth of their independence, even though they are no longer with their parents.
