Speaking of Psychology - Stress in America: Generation Z (SOP68)

Episode Date: November 21, 2018

Headline issues, from immigration to sexual assault, are causing significant stress for teens and young adults in Generation Z with mass shootings topping the list of stressful current events and more than two-thirds of adults reported feeling major stress about the nation’s future, according to the 2018 APA Stress in America™ report. APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, explains the findings and shares coping strategies to combat stress. APA is currently seeking proposals for APA 2020, click here to learn more https://convention.apa.org/proposals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, a podcast from the American Psychological Association. I'm your host, Caitlin Luna. I'm joined by APA CEO 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% 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 and 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 groups 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 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 the skills that 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, see 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. And social media, as you said, does play a role because that's something that wasn't around as much for millennials or it wasn't around at all for Generation X or previous generations too. 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 7 out of 10 Generation Z respondents reported laying awake at night because of stress. But what are some of the other physiological signs of stress that manifest in teens and young adults? Not only are teens laying awake at night, but they are also experiencing physical and mental symptoms. And in fact, 90% 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 children. 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 are 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 level, we have lives that support us, generally the better our health is, 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. 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, 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

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 they're not

voting is not a typical 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 are 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, compared to last year, the overall stress for adults went up significantly. So what does that tell us? Well, what it says is that people are really filling the effects of the environment, the political environment, the social environment. We were surprised last year when we saw 63% of Americans saying that they were stressed when it came to thinking about the future of the country. That number went from 63% last year to 69% and 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 experience 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, 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 noted in the survey are political in nature, it's important then for people to be 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, 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 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 than 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 psychologists around the country? What role do they play in helping ease people 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, 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 is very helpful, but we also have information on how you can reach a site. 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. If you want to learn more, please visit

Stress in America.org. If you've been a long-time listener or viewer or are new to our show, please consider giving us a rating or write a review. We'd really appreciate it. We also like to hear from you directly, so if you have any questions or comments, please email me at K-Luna at APA.org.

That's K-L-U-N-A-A-A-P-A-D-org. Speaking of Psychology is part of the APA Podcast Network, which includes other great podcasts like APA Journal's Dialogue and Progress Notes. You can find our podcasts on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also visit Speakingof Psychology.org to view more episodes and to see resources on the topics we discuss. I'm Caitlin Luna for the American Psychological Association.