More and more teens are experiencing anxiety and depression and it may be tied to a surge in overprotective parenting, a new poll found.
The University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital conducted the survey, gathering responses from more than 1,000 parents of adolescents ages 13 to 18. The findings revealed that less than 50 percent of parents would allow their teen to stay alone in a hotel room while they went to get breakfast.
Around a third of parents polled would let their teen walk alone to a nearby coffee shop, while only 20 percent said they are comfortable with their teen visiting amusement parks or museums without them. One in five parents says they’ve never let their teen be apart from them during a trip.
The results suggest that today’s teenagers have less autonomy than previous generations who regularly walked to school, worked part-time, or visited friends without adult supervision.
Mental health experts say that this drop in independence may be contributing to the emotional struggles now seen in many young people.
“It’s absolutely no surprise to me that we are seeing these dramatic rises in anxiety, depression, even suicide among teenagers,” Boston College psychologist Peter Gray told Science News.
Adults should shift from shielding teens to teaching them real-world skills such as using public transit, handling strangers and ordering food or their own, said Sarah Clark, a public health expert and co-director of the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.
“If we reach some families and just approach this upcoming summer a little differently, I feel like that’s a big win,” Clark told Science News.
Experts recommend involving teens in vacation planning and establishing clear guidelines, which can help families set mutually comfortable boundaries.
For example, a majority of parents said they’d feel more comfortable if teens checked in by phone (64 percent), stayed with friends or siblings (62 percent) and stuck to predetermined locations (55 percent), measures that offer peace of mind while giving teens room to grow independently.
