Privileged Teens and Increased Depression Rates
There's an epidemic among the affluent -- a 200 percent increase in depression among children in the upper classes, according to psychologist Madeline Levine.
Levine is the author of the recently published "The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids" (Harper Collins), and she recently spoke at the New Canaan Library and at Just Books Too in Greenwich.
"Affluent kids have three times the rate of depression, three times the rate of anxiety disorders and substantial rates of substance abuse and psychological disorders such as eating disorders and cutting than other socio-economic groups in the U.S.," she told the group of approximately 20 women who had come to hear her speak at the New Canaan Library. Later that evening, she spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at Just Books Too.
The book grew out of Levine's 25-year practice treating children and adolescents. About eight years ago Levine started seeing a change in her clients. In the past, young people in distress had an outward air of being frazzled, she said. Now the kids she was seeing looked good from the outside.
These children are overwhelmed by pressures that they and their family place on them. Depression effects all of us and as we can see it can be even more prevalent for those who push themselves and find their identity thorough performance instead of the finding an identity in being.
Levine is the author of the recently published "The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids" (Harper Collins), and she recently spoke at the New Canaan Library and at Just Books Too in Greenwich.
"Affluent kids have three times the rate of depression, three times the rate of anxiety disorders and substantial rates of substance abuse and psychological disorders such as eating disorders and cutting than other socio-economic groups in the U.S.," she told the group of approximately 20 women who had come to hear her speak at the New Canaan Library. Later that evening, she spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at Just Books Too.
The book grew out of Levine's 25-year practice treating children and adolescents. About eight years ago Levine started seeing a change in her clients. In the past, young people in distress had an outward air of being frazzled, she said. Now the kids she was seeing looked good from the outside.
These children are overwhelmed by pressures that they and their family place on them. Depression effects all of us and as we can see it can be even more prevalent for those who push themselves and find their identity thorough performance instead of the finding an identity in being.
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