Grim issues haunt youth

By REBECCA WALSH

Young people today have more to worry about than their parents did when they were kids.

From fitting in with their peers to worrying about crime or finding a job, life can be tough.

A United States study has found children today suffer more anxiety than those of previous generations.

The study, which examined surveys of 40,000 college students and 12,000 children between 1952 and 1993, found anxiety among young people had increased significantly since the 1950s.

Ohio psychologist Dr Jean Twenge, who conducted the study, said that when children lived in a society with high crime, high divorce and low levels of trust, they grew up feeling anxious.

Dr Twenge said these feelings had many implications, including an increase in the number of people with depression.

New Zealand experts agree that times are tough, and say young people have to deal with a host of issues that generations before did not have to grapple with.

Relationship consultant Suzanne Innes-Kent believed young people were under more pressure to get on their feet financially and get an education that would provide a stable job. They also had to battle with family breakups and the subsequent moving around.

On top of that, they had to cope with global issues such as war, pollution and ozone depletion.

"They are too big for us to personally take any control over. I think it's a sense of helplessness and lack of control ... "

The American study found children were most concerned about the threat of violence or marriage breakups, but it appears New Zealand teenagers have their own problems.

Sixteen-year-old Ben Smith said one of his biggest worries was fitting in with his peers.

"That's probably the main thing, really. Having to be cool and stuff."

Ben said issues like global warming did not worry him too much "because I will probably be dead."

He thought young people today had more to worry about, from "all the schoolwork" to getting a job.

Fourteen-year-old Michael Hastings said he sometimes worried about what he was going to do when he grew up.

"I worry about whether I'm going to get a qualification and get a job. I also worry if someone else is ahead of me academically."

Peer pressure could sometimes be a problem. It could just be little things like someone asking what movies people had watched.

"If you haven't watched a wide selection of movies you can't join in the conversation," he said.

But 9-year-old Zoe Bowden did not have too much to worry about.

"I worry about a test at school, if I'm going to get it all wrong."

Sarah Romans, a professor in psychological medicine at Otago University, said young people worried about relationships, employment and their financial future at a time when there were fewer jobs.

"Life has always been a challenge to be sure, but the community support seems more fragmented than in earlier times."

Professor Romans said that research suggested there were higher rates of depression now than 50 years ago.

An Otago study has found more than half the fifth formers questioned believed depression was a problem among their peers.