People born in the 90s have worse mental health than any other generation, new study reveals
- Researchers analyzed data from more than 27,500 adults between the ages of 24 and 83
- Technology and social media are largely responsible for the suffering of young people
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Research shows that people born in the 1990s have worse mental health than any generation.
Researchers from the University of Sydney in Australia used surveys to track the mental health of nearly 30,000 adults over a decade.
They found that not only were the youngest generation the worst off, but their emotional problems showed little sign of improvement over the course of the study – unlike older generations.
Social media, which made participants feel like they weren’t good enough, was primarily to blame, researchers said.
Social media, which leads to social comparisons and makes people feel like they are not good enough, is mainly to blame for why young people are more likely to suffer from mental illness, researchers say
Researchers analyzed survey responses between 2010 and 2020 to examine how the mental health of those born in each decade between the 1940s and 1990s changed as they grew older.
They then compared the mental health of each birth cohort at the same age.
Lead author of the study, Dr Richard Morris, a senior research fellow at the Faculty of Medicine and Health, said it has long been suspected that people in their 30s are more likely to suffer from mental illness than those in their 50s.
But he adds that this is the first time scientists have shown the difference in birth cohorts.
“The mental health of younger generations of people born in the 1990s – and to some extent in the 1980s – is worse from age to age than that of older generations,” he said.
“And they’re not showing the upswing that we typically see in those older generations.”
Dr. Peter Baldwin, a senior research fellow at the Black Dog Institute, said technology is largely to blame.
People born in the 80s had the internet, but those in the 90s had social media, which brought a “tidal wave” of social comparisons that are very damaging to mental health, Dr Baldwin said.
‘What young brains really want to know is: “Do I belong?” and “Am I good enough?” And when you open Instagram and see a hundred supermodels, athletes and entrepreneurs, that becomes a very difficult benchmark to measure against,” he added.
Meta, the operator of Instagram and Facebook, has been sued by 33 states for “contributing to the youth mental health crisis” by exposing children and teens to social media addiction.
Another study found that just 90 seconds of looking at thin bodies on social media can worsen the mental health of young women.
An earlier report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that up to a third of Americans suffer from depression in some parts of the country.
The Australian study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.