Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, a podcast from the American Psychological Association.
I'm your host, Kaitlin Luna.
I'm joined by APA CEO Dr. Arthur C. Evans Jr., who's here to talk about our Stress in
America report that was released at the end of October and the findings are quite stark
-- 69 percent of American adults report significant stress about our nation's future and it's
not just them.
Teens and young adults in Generation Z are also reporting significant stress about issues
like mass shootings, school shootings, sexual assault and news headline issues, like immigration.
Welcome, Dr. Evans.
Thank you.
Glad to be here.
There's a lot happening in the country in the world right now and it's clearly
affecting the health for young people.
What is the state of the mental health of our young people today in Generation Z.
Well, what our survey found is that young people are experiencing a significant
amount of stress and it's related to a number of things that are happening in our society.
While young people are not, and we refer to them as Generation Z, that's the age group
between 15 and 21, while they're not experiencing different stressors, they are experiencing
those stressors at a greater intensity than the rest of the population.
So, we're concerned about that.
And we're also concerned that when we ask about their mental health and the state of
their mental health, young people, that age group, actually say that their mental health
is fair or poor at a greater rate than other generations.
And so, what are some of the unique stressors that this generation faces
today?
One of the things that we're concerned about is that while Generation Z
is experiencing the same things as older generations, they are not as equipped to deal with that.
First of all, from a developmental standpoint, you know our executive functioning, the part
of the brain that is controls that, isn't fully developed until age 25.
And so, on the one hand, you have this generation that is experiencing the same stressors as
everyone else, but developmentally they haven't developed.
They haven't fully maturated and don't have all of those skills that they, they need from
that standpoint.
So, for example, the issue of mass shootings.
Generation Z reports that as a stressor at a greater rate than the rest of the population
significantly.
They're concerned about school shootings, which is something that is going to affect
them more than other groups.
They're also concerned about things like social media.
One of the interesting things in the survey is that half of the people, about half of
that generation, sees social media as a support and something that's positive and the other
half see it as something that can be a stressor.
So, we know social media, a lot of the concerns that they have about what's happening in the
news, issues like immigration, issues like suicide, those kinds of issues are also stressors
for them.
In social media, as you said does play a role because that's something
that wasn't around as much for Millennials or it was around at all for Generation X or
previous generations.
That's correct.
So, social media and school shootings, that was something that people in my generation
didn't worry about but is clearly a stressor for young people today.
So, about seven out of ten Generation Z respondents reported lying awake at night
because of stress, but what are some of the other physiological signs of stress that manifests
in teens and young adults?
Not only are teens lying awake at night, but they are also experiencing physical
and mental symptoms.
In fact, 90 percent reported at least one symptom in the past month.
That is a very high number.
So, you know, we're concerned about the level of symptoms that young people are experiencing
this generation.
The other kinds of symptoms that they might be experiencing are disturbances in eating,
disturbances in sleep, reporting headaches.
Those are the kinds of physical symptoms that often are an indication that people are experiencing
stress.
And so, what can parents and other people do to help these young people
to not be so stressed and to make their lives a little bit easier?
You can do a lot of things.
So, one of the things to do is to really be clear about what are the things that are creating
stress -- and I think the survey is actually one of the things that's helpful in that because
we sort of lay out these are the things that young people are most concerned about and
ours causing stress for people.
But, it's also important for people to understand that things like social support -- we have
literally decades of research that shows that the more people that we have in our lives
that support us, generally the better our health is.
Generally, generally, the better our mental health is and frankly the better we do in
life.
And so, we can be much more intentional about making sure that we are including people in
our lives when we are going through very stressful periods.
Social media -- we talked about social media.
Social media, again, can be a help or it can be something that causes stress, particularly
when people are bullied through social media.
So, being able to limit that and to control that is an important way of managing stress.
And then, there are things that we can all do to just take care of ourselves -- getting
enough sleep, eating right, exercising, those kinds of physical activities actually help
us manage the level of stress that we're experiencing.
And one bright spot the study found is that Generation Z is more likely
to go see a therapist than the Millennials.
So, is that a sign that the mental health stigma is going away?
Wouldn't go there yet.
In terms of is mental health stigma going away, we know that mental health stigma is
very powerful.
It is universal.
I was at a recent international conference and the same kind of stigma that we have in
the U.S. is really reflected around the world.
So, this is much bigger than even the United States.
I do believe though that this younger generation is much more open to receiving services, and
in fact, our survey says that.
It says that they're more likely to be open to receiving mental health services.
And so, I think that there is a glimmer of hope that people are becoming more open to
receiving mental health services, that there's less stigma around those that them around
that generation and around these issues, but we do have a much bigger problem in our country
and we have to be very concerned about how do we reduce the stigma and start to view
mental health issues in the same way that we view physical health issues.
So, only slightly more than half of Generation Z respondents said they
were likely to vote in the midterm elections.
Now, we're past the elections now, but what does that say about why this generation chooses
not to be active in politics?
Well, I'm not a political scientist, but what we do know is that the older people
are the more likely they are to vote.
And so, Generation Z is not different than previous generations in that sense.
We do also know that this generation has been, is a little more likely to vote than previous
generations of that age group.
So, I think there's a little good news there that it looks like the trend is towards them
being more active, the fact that they're not voting is not atypical.
One of the things that we are, I think, that is good about this generation is that you
see a level of activism that we haven't seen in this generation in the past.
We saw that around the issue of school shootings.
We see that around other issues.
And so, one of the things that we know is that the more engaged you are around issues
that you're feeling stress about, the more likely it is that you are able to manage that
stress effectively.
And so, by voting, by being engaged in the political system, those are ways that actually
help all of us deal with stress more effectively.
And moving on to adults, in this survey compared to last year, the overall
stress for adults went up significantly, so what does that tell us?
Well, it what it says is that that people are really feeling the effects
of the environment, the political environment, the social environment.
We were surprised last year when we saw 63 percent of Americans saying that they were
stressed when it came to thinking about the future of the country.
That number went from 63 percent last year to 69 percent in the current survey.
And so, it means that the current environment isn't getting better.
It also could mean that people are being more sensitive to it, but I suspect that it has
more to do with the environment changing and becoming more entrenched around some of the
incivility that we've seen as opposed to people being just more sensitive to that.
Okay and about a quarter of all people respond to the survey said discrimination
was also a source of stress and that was close to half of African-American adults and one-third
of Hispanic adults and which was surprising is that this rate is the highest since the
question was first added to the survey in 2015.
So, can you speak to the challenges facing minority communities and people of color?
Well, minority communities, people of color have historically rated and
experienced more stress than other parts of the population.
So that's pretty consistent.
The results of this survey are showing that, and I think reinforcing this idea that the
current political environment, the current social environment is having an effect in
terms of people's stress levels.
So, not unexpected, but I think we have to be concerned then again about the current
political environment, the current tone that we're in, because that is having an impact
on Americans in general, but also on minority groups in particular.
And so, overall you advise people to seek out social supports to get sleep,
exercise, take care of themselves.
Are there other coping strategies that you suggest for teens and adults?
Well, I think it's very important to be, to actively be engaged around the issues
that people have concerns about and stress about.
Since many of the things that we, we noted in the survey are political in nature, it's
important then for people being engaged in the political process, for people to vote,
for people to be active on issues that they care about -- if that's immigration, if that's
in the environment -- if you know, whatever that issue is for people to be actively involved
in those issues actually helps them to manage their stress level.
And so, why does APA do this study?
Well, we do this study because we know that there is a direct connection
between the level of stress that we experience and then a whole series of health outcomes.
And if we want the nation to be healthy, we know that stress is can be an impediment to
that, we think we're doing a public service by helping the public to understand one, what
are the things that people are stressed about, what are the levels of stress that people
are experiencing, how is that changing, but more importantly it gives us an opportunity
then to talk about strategies, coping strategies and things that people can put in place to
really manage that stress and be much more conscious about the stress that they are experiencing.
And APA always offers plenty of resources on a variety of topics, like
Stress in America or you know, postpartum depression, you know, how to talk to children
about traumatic events.
So, what does APA and what does APA and psychologists around the country, what role they play in
helping ease people's stress?
Well, a variety of things.
So, one of the things is that when our stress gets to the point that it manifests in mental
health challenges, seeing a psychologist can be very helpful.
We also know that because we have psychologists all over the country who are aware of some
of these issues, they can be very important resources to schools, to communities, giving
lectures about ways that people can manage stress.
You know, we really don't want people to need clinical intervention.
So, the more we can do to educate people about ways that they can manage stress, ways that
they can mitigate stressors that are happening in their lives, the less likely it is that
people are going to run into challenges that really require clinical intervention.
Clinical intervention is okay.
That's why we train because we want to be able to do that, but we also want to be proactive
and be preventative and do early intervention, as well.
And the APA website is a great tool for that.
The APA website is a great tool for that.
It has a lot of resources there.
Our Stress in America section can be very helpful, but we also have information on how
you can reach a psychologist if you're looking for one and need one.
Wonderful.
Thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Evans.
Thank you.
I've enjoyed being here.
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I'm Kaitlin Luna for the American Psychological Association.