2024-04-09 16:46:49
However, recent research shows that childhood anxiety is on the rise, with more children experiencing anxiety today than just a few years ago. As scientists begin to investigate why, a complex picture is emerging that includes everything from the coronavirus pandemic to social media.
Evidence that anxiety in children is increasing comes from an analysis of the 2020-2021 published 29 studies involving 80,000 children from around the world. It was determined that 20.5 percent children had clinically significant symptoms of anxiety – especially many of them occurred in girls and older teenagers.
Of course, in 2020 and 2021 it was a pandemic year where many people of all ages felt heightened anxiety. But before the pandemic the generally accepted rate of anxiety prevalence among young people was 11.6 percent. – according to 2015 of the research conducted, in which 37 percent were interviewed. Finnish teenagers aged 14-18data.
Signs of an even earlier increase in anxiety-related diagnoses among young people come from a survey of about 60,000 household parents conducted by the US National Survey of Children’s Health, which found that the proportion of children who had ever been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder between 2007 and in 2012 increased from 5.5 percent up to 6.4 percent.
Causes of anxiety in children
It seems that one of the reasons for the increase in anxiety in children is climate change. Another possible reason is that today’s kids are the first generation to grow up with social media and smartphones. Oxford University’s Jennifer Wild says that the constant exposure to bad news provided by such measures may play a role. “If you get a lot of messages, you’re being exposed to threatening situations, which can increase anxiety,” she says.
Results may vary depending on how these platforms are used. When Rebecca Anthony of Cardiff University in the United Kingdom and her colleagues analyzed survey responses from 38,700 11- to 16-year-olds in Wales, they found that for most of them, the time they spent interacting with close friends online was associated with improved well-being. “However, interacting with strangers was associated with poorer well-being,” says Anthony. “This is especially true for girls.”
Anxiety and social media
Mr Wild says more research is needed to draw firm conclusions about the effects of social media and smartphones on young people. For example, it may be that anxiety leads to excessive use of social media – and not the other way around.
The school and the way it communicates can also play a role. “When you analyze studies where children are asked what they worry about, the most common things they talk about are experiences and environments at school,” says Cathy Creswell, also at the University of Oxford.
But when Anthony and colleagues investigated whether bullying could explain the observed increase in emotional problems – such as nervousness – among 11-16-year-old pupils in Wales between 2013 and 2019, they found that no. Neither could the quality of friendships. Instead, the biggest risk factor was socioeconomic status. “When we looked at trends over time, symptoms increased in poorer families,” says Anthony.
Scientists note that early intervention is key in this case. “The average age of those treated is around 35-40, but the average age of onset is around 13,” says Wild. “We want interventions to be available to young people because it’s much better to intervene before it becomes a way of life.”
Let’s call it “New Scientist”.
2024-04-09 16:46:49