Social media is a ‘little piece’ of the pandemic-induced mental health crisis: Dr. Kevin Gilliland
Child and adolescent family therapist Dr. Darby Fox, clinical psychologist Dr. Kevin Gilliland, and family psychologist Dr. Jeff Gardere discuss the CDC survey that 37% of high school students experienced poor mental health during the pandemic.
Worrying about "kids these days" is a concern as old as time. And while previous generations have always worried about young people, there are real concerns with today’s youth that should be addressed.
From the dislocating effects of the pandemic that occurred during crucial years of their academic and social development to the yet-to-be fully understood effects of widespread smartphone usage, there are plenty of reasons to be concerned.
Recently, we polled a nationally representative sample of teenagers. They told us some worrying things.
Fifty-five percent of teens said most or all of their classmates use cellphones in class. (iStock)
First, there are few problems in education more pressing than the wave of chronic absenteeism sweeping across the nation. According to Nat Malkus at the American Enterprise Institute, the number of students who missed more than 10% of the school year rose from 15% to 28% of students from 2018 to 2022. A recent Pew survey of teachers showed 92% saying that chronic absenteeism was a problem among students who attend their school.
When asked as part of our survey, 13% of teens said they have already missed more than 15 days of school, putting them into the "chronically absent" category. This was higher for female students (16%), students in rural schools (17%), and LGBTQ students (18%)
Why might this be? Other survey questions point to answers.
Sixty-four percent of teens agreed with the statement that school is "boring," including 69% of Black teens. We asked a different way as well, inquiring if they thought their classmates were bored. Seventy percent of teens said that most or all of their classmates were.
Fifty-five percent of teens said most or all of their classmates use cellphones in class and 51% said few or none of their classmates want to be in school.
There were darker trends too. While 57% of teenagers said they felt safe in school, only 39% of LGBTQ students, 47% of rural students, and 49% of female students agreed with the statement.
When it comes to not attending school, 7% of teens told us that they had missed school due to a fear of safety or bullying. When asked how well their school handled bullying, 37% said their school did not handle it well, and 29% said their school did not handle violent behaviors well.
Can we be surprised that so many students are missing school when they are bored at best and afraid at worst?
Second, particularly with the publication of psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s new book "The Anxious Generation" and its searing indictment of social media’s effect on youth mental health, we wanted to know how much teens say that they use social media, and how they feel it affects them.
THE WAR TO SAVE OUR TEENS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA
We asked teens "Overall, how often would you say you spend time on social media?" A whopping 74% of teens told us that they used social media "very" or "extremely" often. When asked how they felt it affected their mental health, 40% of teens told us that it was "somewhat" or "very" negative.
If large numbers of students find school boring, if smaller but still substantial proportions of students do not feel safe in school, and if students are on their phones in class, using social media that is negatively impacting their social and academic development, chronic absenteeism might just be the tip of the iceberg.
It is also telling that different student demographic groups have different opinions. LGBTQ students do not feel as safe as their peers and are more likely to be chronically absent. Female students are more likely to say that social media is negatively affecting their mental health. Black teens are more likely to say that school is boring.
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Perhaps the best place to start is with what should be a baseline prerequisite for any school: safety. We should not have reports of students saying that they are unsafe in school, let alone 43% of teens feeling unsafe. If particular groups are targeted for their identity, schools must identify that and root it out.
If schools aren’t safe, it is next to impossible to pursue any more ambitious initiatives.
Teens are telling us that they are struggling and are pointing toward the issues that need urgent solutions. Will we listen?
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Michael Q. McShane is director of national research at EdChoice.
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