Slashdot Mirror
US Youth Have Serious Mental Health Issues
Ant writes "Google News carries a Canadian Press report that 'a new study has found that five times as many high school and college students in the United States are dealing with anxiety and other mental health issues than youth of the same age who were studied in the Great Depression era. ... Pulling together the data for the study was no small task. Led by [San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge], researchers at five universities analyzed the responses of 77,576 high school or college students who, from 1938 through 2007, took the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, or MMPI. The results will be published in a future issue of the Clinical Psychology Review. Overall, an average of five times as many students in 2007 surpassed thresholds in one or more mental health categories, compared with those who did so in 1938. A few individual categories increased at an even greater rate — with six times as many scoring high in two areas: 'hypomania,' a measure of anxiety and unrealistic optimism (from 5 per cent of students in 1938 to 31 per cent in 2007), and depression (from 1 per cent to 6 per cent).'"
Bike helmets can also increase your chance of injury. They make your head bigger, so you're more likely to twist your neck if your head hits something. They can also make you more confident ("it's OK, I'm wearing a helmet") and make other people take greater risks ("I can overtake him, he's wearing a helmet").
Note that your are more likely to get a head injury while in a car, or while walking. Do you wear a helmet in those situations? My place of work is near a park popular with families, and occasionally I see children wearing helmets for walking (generally, they also have a high-visibility jacket in the completely traffic-free, fenced, policed area).
The only thing more boring than hearing about someone else's dreams is hearing anecdotes about someone else's upbringing or parenting style.