According to reports, since the popularity of smartphones in the 2010s, depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide rates among young people around the world have continued to rise. A similar situation also occurs in Europe. Some foreign media conducted a survey on young people living in Europe on trends in psychological distress such as gender, per capita GDP, individualism, and religious belief.
is a survey of the physical and mental health of thousands of young people aged 11, 13 and 15 years living in 51 European countries. Includes four questions related to psychological distress:
- "I feel depressed sometimes",
- "I feel nervous sometimes",
- "I sometimes feel irritable" and
- "I sometimes have trouble falling asleep."
Respondents answered these questions by selecting one of the following five categories:
- "every day",
- "Multiple times a week",
- "once a week",
- "Once a month" and
- "Rarely/Never".
Status over the past 6 months. People who answered 3 or more of the 4 questions "every day" or "at least once a week" in the past 6 months were defined as having "high levels of psychological distress."
This scale was used to calculate mean scores of psychological distress among young people in Europe by gender in 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018. The findings show that while the average score of psychological distress among young people in Europe remained stable between 2002 and 2010, it has been on an upward trend since 2010. The study also found that girls were more likely to report psychological distress.
Past research has shown that the higher the GDP per capita, the higher the level of happiness, but most of the previous research focused on adults, and there were few studies on adolescents. Therefore, the average psychological distress scores of young people living in 11 "high-income" and 11 "low-income" countries in Europe as of 2014 were examined. The results show that young people in high-income countries have consistently lower rates of psychological distress than young people in low-income countries. Furthermore, the proportion of young people experiencing psychological distress has been reported to have increased rapidly in high-income countries since 2010, with this trend being particularly pronounced among girls.
A survey on "income disparity", which can be seen as a factor in economic disparity. The survey uses the Gini coefficient , which is an indicator of income inequality. It is said that the higher the Gini coefficient, the stronger the tendency of economic inequality. Research reports that young people living in countries with a high Gini coefficient are more likely to report psychological distress than those living in countries with a low Gini coefficient. On the other hand, it was revealed that girls in the Nordic countries, Slovenia, Belgium and the Netherlands, which have lower Gini coefficients and stronger trends in economic equality, have reported the highest rates of mental distress since 2010.
The findings suggest that in Europe, girls living in wealthy and economically egalitarian societies have experienced the fastest declines in mental health since 2010. However, there is little evidence that increases in wealth or decreases in inequality lead to worsening mental health.
According to what follows, in less affluent countries, individuals tend to strive for group cohesion and downplay their own aspirations and personal projects, making them less individualistic. On the other hand, in wealthy countries, as economic security increases, people's daily needs are more easily met and they have more time to enjoy leisure. It is also believed that because the government provides so much support to individuals, it becomes easier for them to separate themselves from the larger group or community into which they were born, and as a result, they become more individualistic.
Until now, individualism has been considered to "enjoy freedom and increase happiness," but it is said that since 2010, this trend has begun to change among young people. The rapid development of technology has led to an increase in the time young people spend alone, while significantly reducing the time young people spend face-to-face interaction with others. Therefore, it has been suggested that this may contribute to poor mental health among today's youth.
To examine the relationship between individualism and adolescent mental health, the study analyzed trends in psychological distress among adolescents in countries with high and low individualism scores. The results showed that before 2010, young people in countries with more individualistic tendencies had better mental health than those with lower individualistic tendencies, but this trend no longer held true between 2010 and 2018.
Studies have also examined "religiosity," which is expected to maintain good mental health in adolescents. Here are the results of a survey on trends in psychological distress associated with high and low religiosity. Similar to previous comparisons of GDP and individualism, the mental health of young people, which was stable before 2010, has deteriorated rapidly since 2010.
Likewise, the study examined differences between Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christians and found that mental health among young people among strongly religious Protestants has deteriorated most rapidly since 2010.
In addition, the research report also analyzed data on suicide among young people in Europe since 2011 published by Eurostat. The analysis found that the suicide rate among boys in Europe has dropped since 2011, while the suicide rate among girls has increased slightly.
Furthermore, when looking at suicide trends among young people and dividing them into Eastern and Western Europe, it was found that while suicide rates among boys in Eastern Europe were declining, rates among boys in Western Europe were essentially flat. It turns out. Additionally, suicide rates among girls in Eastern and Western Europe were reportedly about the same in the 2010s, but have increased slightly in both countries since 2011 to 2013.
Furthermore, while suicide rates among girls are rising in countries with high individualism, they are falling in countries with low individualism.
Suicide trends in Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox countries since 2011. Suicide rates among young people rose in the 2010s in Protestant countries.
Based on these findings, the research report concluded that since 2010, with the proliferation of smartphones, the society around young people has shifted from real-world communities to online networks, causing their sense of self and community to collapse. On the other hand, some people speculate that young people who live a rooted life in a real society where multiple generations are mixed in families, neighborhoods, religions, etc., are protected by social changes to a certain extent.
With the ubiquity of smartphones, we are undoubtedly in the midst of the largest and fastest social change in human history. There is clearly a strong tendency for children to be protected by society.
