Resume: The increase in children’s mental health disorders, such as anxiety and depression, may be related to the decline in opportunities to play, explore, and participate in activities independent of parental supervision and supervision.
Source: FAU
Anxiety and depression among school-aged children and teens in the United States are at an all-time high. Unfortunately, the mental health of children and adolescents was declared a national emergency in 2021.
While several causes are thought to contribute to this mental health decline, a new study by three leading researchers specializing in child development points to independent “child’s play.”
Findings, published in the Journal of Pediatricssuggest that the increase in mental disorders is attributed to a decline over decades in opportunities for children and teens to play, roam, and engage in activities independent of direct adult supervision and control.
While well-intentioned, adults’ drive to guide and protect children and teens has stripped them of the independence they need for mental health, contributing to record levels of anxiety, depression and suicide among young people.
“Parents today regularly receive messages about the dangers that can befall unsupervised children and the value of good performance in school. But they hear little of the opposing reports that if children are to grow up well-adjusted, they need increasing opportunities for independent activity, including self-directed play and meaningful contributions to family and community life, which is a sign that they are being trusted. , responsible and capable.
“They need to feel they can effectively interact with the real world, not just the world of school,” says David F. Bjorklund, Ph.D., coauthor and professor in the Department of Psychology at the Charles E. Schmidt University of Science.
The study also found that children’s freedom to participate in activities that involve a degree of risk and personal responsibility away from adults has also declined over the decades. Risky play, such as climbing high in a tree, helps protect children from developing phobias and reduces future anxiety by boosting confidence to handle emergencies.
Among the many limitations affecting independent activity in children today identified in the study include more time spent at school and at home on schoolwork. Between 1950 and 2010, the average length of the school year in the US increased by five weeks. Homework, once rare or non-existent in elementary school, is now even common in kindergarten.
In addition, the average time spent at recess (including any breaks related to the lunch period) for primary schools was only 26.9 minutes per day in 2014, with some schools having no recess at all.
“An important category of independent activity, especially for young children, is play,” says Bjorklund. “Research, as well as daily observation, indicates that play is a direct source of children’s happiness.”
The researchers suggest that the increase in school time and pressure to achieve over decades may have impacted mental health, not only by decreasing time and opportunity for independent activities, but also because fear of academic failure, or fear of inadequate performance, is a direct source of anxiety. .
“Unlike other crises, such as the COVID epidemic, this decline in independent activity, and with it the mental well-being of children, has come to us gradually over decades, so many have barely noticed,” said Bjorklund .
“Moreover, unlike other health crises, this one is not the result of a highly contagious virus, but rather the result of good intentions taken too far — intentions to protect children and provide what many believe is better (interpreted as more) education is, both inside and outside real schools.”
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For the study, Bjorklund and co-authors Peter Gray, Ph.D., lead author and research professor in the Department of Psychology at Boston College; and David F. Lancy, Ph.D., professor emeritus in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Utah State University, summarize the major decline in recent decades in children’s opportunities for independent activity; a major decline in the same decades in youth mental health; effects of independent activity on children’s happiness; and effects of independent activity in building long-term psychological resilience.
The article concludes by noting that concern for child safety and the value of adult guidance should be tempered by acknowledging that as children grow, they need more and more opportunities to independently manage their own activities. The article suggests ways in which this can be achieved in today’s world and ways in which paediatricians, general practitioners and public policy makers can help promote such change.
About this news about neurodevelopment and mental health research
Author: Gisele Galoustian
Source: FAU
Contact: Gisele Galoustian – FAU
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original research: Closed access.
“Decrease in independent activity as a cause of decline in children’s mental well-being: summary of the evidence” by David F. Bjorklund et al. Journal of Pediatrics
Abstract
Decline in independent activity as a cause of decline in children’s mental well-being: summary of the evidence
It’s no secret that anxiety and depression rates among school-aged children and teens in the United States are at an all-time high. Recognizing this, in 2021 the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Children’s Hospital Association issued a joint statement to the Biden administration that the mental health of children and adolescents should be declared a “national emergency.”