Horrific statistics about the mental health of teenage girls in USA \ Globally

[chriscase]

This guy isn’t a woman and this guy isn’t a wolf. Getting rid of God won’t get rid of make-believe fanaticism, and it has yet to usher in a rationalist utopia either. The Romans did OK for a long time without God. I suppose if leftists had re-introduced a culture of Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus instead of one where no one can define the word “woman” and calling a mother “mother” instead of “birthing person” is considered tone deaf/out of touch, the next generation might be a little less nihilistic.

OK but aren't you simply arguing from consequences here?

To paraphrase Russell, just because something would make us feel better, or make our lives easier, isn't a legitimate reason to believe it's true.

[Lord Thesaurian]

OK but aren't you simply arguing from consequences here?

This thread is about the consequences of the destruction of the nuclear family, consequences that have been observed and confirmed for decades. It’s not a fallacy, because it’s true. Surely you don’t mean to suggest it’s biased to operate from the premise that mental health crisis is bad?

To paraphrase Russell, just because something would make us feel better, or make our lives easier, isn't a legitimate reason to believe it's true.

If teens are having a mental health crisis as alleged in the OP, then surely the point is to feel better? And that reference doesn’t necessarily apply here as the causation is flipped. It’s not about determining truth by whatever makes us feel better. That’s clown world and that’s what I’m condemning (consequences). It’s about finding truth in order to feel better.

Stoic philosophy was the original philosophical inspiration for modern cognitive psychotherapy, particularly as mediated by Dr. Albert Ellis' Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), the major precursor of CBT. The original cognitive therapy treatment manual for depression by Aaron T. Beck et al. states, "The philosophical origins of cognitive therapy can be traced back to the Stoic philosophers".

[chriscase]

This thread is about the consequences of the destruction of the nuclear family, consequences that have been observed and confirmed for decades. It’s not a fallacy, because it’s true. Surely you don’t mean to suggest it’s biased to operate from the premise that mental health crisis is bad?

If teens are having a mental health crisis as alleged in the OP, then surely the point is to feel better? And that reference doesn’t necessarily apply here as the causation is flipped. It’s not about determining truth by whatever makes us feel better. That’s clown world and that’s what I’m condemning (consequences). It’s about finding truth in order to feel better.

And sometimes the truth doesn't make us feel much better, but it's still the truth. It appears the choice you have given us is to believe in a God regardless of whether the belief is justified, or to suffer. I think this is a false choice.

As for what may be missing, I'd point to Stanislav Grof's extensive work on LSD psychotherapy and corollary ritual practices seen across the world. It may indeed be the case that we suffer from a lack of rites of passage that have for millennia played a role in the psychological development of people. In any case I don't see going back to medieval Christendom as a viable therapeutic option.

[fkizz]

Believing in fairies might make me the life of the cocktail party, but that won’t make fairies any more real.

You know, in such grim context kinda giving priority to Richard Dawkins/Russel's Teapot takes etc. makes one seem to not really care or be bothered with the growing suffering and suicides of younger people, kinda not the best impression and timing. Gives a bad message where you may be misunderstood. Makes even less sense to use those takes to question an ever more Secular establishment.

Why not take Dawkins to EMM again where such discussions belong? Then such issues could be re-challenged again, as they have already been before. Surely it would be more dignified.

"Teen girls across the United States are “engulfed in a growing wave of violence and trauma,” according to federal researchers who released data Monday showing increases in rape and sexual violence, as well as record levels of feeling sad or hopeless.
Nearly 1 in 3 high school girls reported in 2021 that they seriously considered suicide — up nearly 60 percent from a decade ago — according to new findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost 15 percent of teen girls said they were forced to have sex, an increase of 27 percent over two years and the first increase since the CDC began tracking it.
[...]
Almost 3 in 5 teenage girls reported feeling so persistently sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row during the previous year that they stopped regular activities — a figure that was double the share of boys and the highest in a decade, CDC data showed.
[...]
13% had attempted suicide during the past year, compared with 7% of boys."
[...]
And then, the worse statistic of them all: 1/3 girls considering suicide and 1/8 attempting suicide in the past year + 1/14 boys.
[...]
What can society do to reverse the trend?

To have a chance to reverse the trend, it's both more simple but harder than it seems. Modernity is too attached to our current Modernity Dogmas, no longer the Feudal type Dogmas, but societies always like to defend certain types of dogmas as "conclusions".

One of them is that Modern Society is a sort of Paradise, and anyone who isn't spontaneously happy has some sort of thing wrong with them. Mandatory hapiness, or else. If you aren't spontaneously happy, then you are a loser. If you are happy, then you are a winner. If you are unhappy, then that's a disease. Even if it's because a close family member passed away, there will be a sort of insinuation that feeling down because of such isn't normal, and normalcy is to be happy anyway, as if nothing had ocurred.

Unhapiness is a less direct way of questioning the ability of a society to generate wellbeing. Less direct, but more honest. This is a signal that the current dogmas simply do not hold for the newer generations. They may have been self serving for a few older ones, but the new generations are starting to have problems that fail to have both understanding and know-how in finding solutions to it.

Now any society does not like signals that it is generating discomfort - the ones who are comfortable prefer to hide behind the Dogma skirt and ignore the ones doing bad.

I don't know if it's even possible to question that modernity narrative isn't the horn of magically generating well being it bluffs to be. But it's becoming more and more obvious, sooner or later people will have to point that the Emperor has no clothes.

Otherwise we'll just keep doing the same thing over and over expecting different results each time.

[Lord Thesaurian]

And sometimes the truth doesn't make us feel much better, but it's still the truth. It appears the choice you have given us is to believe in a God regardless of whether the belief is justified, or to suffer. I think this is a false choice.

I believe I was responding to the false choice you presented between believing in fairies and being rational. Rather than presenting a false choice of my own, I cited a major western philosophy that informs science today. The point is the campaign against things originating in Christian norms, like the nuclear family, has resulted in negative consequences, like a mental health crisis, for example. These consequences have also eroded rather than strengthened the things you say you care about, like the importance of truth, now regarded as a white supremacist construct to be eradicated.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

As for what may be missing, I'd point to Stanislav Grof's extensive work on LSD psychotherapy and corollary ritual practices seen across the world. It may indeed be the case that we suffer from a lack of rites of passage that have for millennia played a role in the psychological development of people. In any case I don't see going back to medieval Christendom as a viable therapeutic option.

This is a false choice, and I don’t think the proliferation of psychedelics and other mood altering plants du jour has helped as much as that reference suggests, given we’re talking about a mental health crisis that has been growing for as long as the hippies have been around. Based on your premise about the importance of truth, I offered a non-religious third option that is already a medical approach to treating depression and anxiety. Its effectiveness affirms principles held in common with the eradicated Christian norms proven to have to have protected people from the very outcomes we’re now discussing.

Among the parallels between Stoicism and Christianity, both are monotheistic. Stoicism follows Heraclitus and believes in one Logos; Christianity follows Jesus, and requires followers to believe in the one true God and have no other gods before him [her]. Additionally, both Stoicism and Christianity serve the will of the Logos/God. They teach we can liberate ourselves from fear and anxiety by submitting to the will of the Divine.

Moreover, both Stoicism and Christianity pose the question, “Who or what is a person serving?” All one does is based on the answer. Rather than be a slave to others, both Stoicism and Christianity involve evolving from focusing on the self to a self rooted in serving God. In Matthew 6:24, it is written that it is impossible to worship two gods at once. Adoration for one feeds contempt for the other. So one cannot worship both God and money or God and other people’s opinions. Serving the self focuses on outer appearance; serving the God within breaks the chains of slavery to public opinion and enables the follower to seek good.

https://dailystoic.com/stoicism-and-christianity/

[Common Soldier]

13% had attempted suicide during the past year, compared with 7% of boys."

Yet more boys commit suicide than girls.

"Suicide rates among teen girls hit a 40-year high in 2015, according to previous federal data. And in the process, the disparity between male and female suicide rates has lessened considerably, Ruch says. In 1975, boys ages 10 to 14 died by suicide 3.14 times more than girls, but by 2016, they died 1.8 times more often. For boys ages 15 to 19, those numbers dropped from 4.15 to 3.31 over the same time period." https://time.com/5590344/youth-suicide-rates/

For 40 years, boys had significantly more suicides than girls, but apparently nobody cared. Only when girls started to catch up is anybody showing any interest, and they it is only in girls. Nobody is asking why boys have been committing more suicides, and it is not just body. Men too, are committing more suicides.

Yes, girls are having struggles, but so are boys and young men. I find it instructive that why the article throws out the number of attempts, it does not bother to mention the numbers the ratio of actual suicides, not merely attempts, between boys and girls.

And then, the worse statistic of them all: 1/3 girls considering suicide and 1/8 attempting suicide in the past year + 1/14 boys.

Again, this ignores the fact that boys actually commit suicides far more often than girls, 1.8 times more than girls. That clearly shows suicide is more of a problem in boys, not less, as they statistics you cited might imply.

And the trend of more males than females committing suicide continues into adulthood.

• In 2020, men died by suicide 3.88x more than women.
• On average, there are 130 suicides per day.
• White males accounted for 69.68% of suicide deaths in 2020.

• https://afsp.org/suicide-statistics/

What do you guys think? What are the reasons or some of the reasons, in your opinion for these horrific statistics? What can society do to reverse the trend? Do you think teenagers in other countries have as many issues?

My opinion is that the gradual destruction of the nuclear family and the number of divorces is certainly playing a role here. The expectations placed on girls, not just for beauty (which is real) but also academically certainly adds to that. Put in the number of school shootings making teens wondering whether their school will be the next one in the news (there's a school shooting per day in the USA nowdays) and it starts getting bleak. Then, comes the sexual assault. A girl from a divorced family, struggling with her grades while she wants to socialize with friends that is assaulted by her boyfriend that she was trusting, and then sees all the suicide statistics or hears about the girl next class that attempted suicide... she will consider it. And apparently there's no shortage of teens attempting suicide for her to hear about.

I think that both girls and boys are being affected, but the people investigating the problem simply do not care as much about boys, or even at all, as they do about girls.

Should we be surprised about this clear lack of concerns about the struggles that boys face that there are so many shootings, which are mostly committed by boys and young men? For 40 years boys have had significantly higher suicide rate than girls, and problems of all kinds, and there has been very little issue in the problem. Why is that? Because liberal feminist, who are becoming dominant, hate men, and the reports show it. If the people conducting this report cared as much about boys as they did girls, they would at least mention the fact that boys, for the last 40 years, have been committing suicides at a far higher rate than girls. Their silence proves they don't care.

Another statistic nobody cares about is that homicide of young black men is the leading cause of death of young black males.
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/n...s/15947226007/

I am not sure how to make teens more thick-skinned and able to brush off online bullies etc without being traumatized or, frankly, how to actually get in their heads that the boyfriend they trust or the gym buddy they tease may try something in that party. I have been a teenager. I was trusting my friends, whether they deserved it or not (they did in most part, thankfully).
What I know is that school councelors and teen mental health people should sit together, have funding and come up with potential tactics and solutions that the parents should read. As in have to read. No, NOT telling parents how to raise their teen! Just a few different strategies on how to do it for the parents to consider.
And telling the parents how big the problem is in school meetings. I honestly doubt that the average 40-years-old knows that 1/3 girls considered suicide. They are, as this article states, very good at hiding it.

The problem is that many in many home there are no parents, just a single parent, usually the mother. With one parent having to both provide the income and raise the children, they might not have as much time to spend with their children as parents of the past. And if girls are good at hiding considering suicide, boys are even better at hiding thoughts of suicides, which is likely why they succeed at suicide far more often.

There are is a strong correlation between crime and single parent households headed by women. That the ill effects of single parent households can extend to more than just crime should not be surprising.

https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/ar...-crime/265860/



But shouldn't we be at equally concerned about suicide and the problems boys face? The future is far bleaker for boys than girls in many instances. If black, they are far more likely to be arrested and jailed, or murdered, and men and boys are of all races are far morely likely to be jailed and suffer violent deaths.

And given the failed suicide attempts, you wonder if the girls were really serious about suicide in the first place or whether it was a just their cry for help, even if only subconsciously

[chriscase]

You know, in such grim context kinda giving priority to Richard Dawkins/Russel's Teapot takes etc. makes one seem to not really care or be bothered with the growing suffering and suicides of younger people, kinda not the best impression and timing. Gives a bad message where you may be misunderstood. Makes even less sense to use those takes to question an ever more Secular establishment.

Why not take Dawkins to EMM again where such discussions belong? Then such issues could be re-challenged again, as they have already been before. Surely it would be more dignified.

I sacrifice my dignity on the altar of satire daily.

As the parent of two American teens I doubt many on this board have a more keen interest in this topic than I do. But since when did we restrict being right to the EMM? That's just silly.

My point is the real injustice to our youth is to waste our efforts on time travel fantasies to some imagined past where they would supposedly be happier. It's as if we'd embarked on a world voyage from a sinking continent and every time we encounter rough seas half the passengers grouse about how nice the weather was back home before we left. We can't go back, and even if we could it's not what it used to be, if it ever was.

[Lord Thesaurian]

My point is the real injustice to our youth is to waste our efforts on time travel fantasies to some imagined past where they would supposedly be happier. It's as if we'd embarked on a world voyage from a sinking continent and every time we encounter rough seas half the passengers grouse about how nice the weather was back home before we left. We can't go back, and even if we could it's not what it used to be, if it ever was.

Of course we can’t go back. The people in charge told us it was a good idea to sink the continent because it was evil, unjust and full of idiots who believe in fairies. We’ve been adrift for decades now, and the people are going mad and throwing themselves overboard. It’s not about keelhauling the people who got us into this mess or trying to turn back. It’s about the future. Kids don’t need to re-learn how to live like we did back on land. They can’t find another land like home. There isn’t one. They need to learn to survive at sea. In any case, the methods employed by the people in charge, who insist the seafarers back home were wrong and dumb/bad, clearly haven’t helped.

[Septentrionalis]

It appears the choice you have given us is to believe in a God regardless of whether the belief is justified, or to suffer. I think this is a false choice.

I believe I was responding to the false choice you presented between believing in fairies and being rational.

Perhaps the most robust truth in the scientific worldview is that you cannot conjure up something out of nothing. Nothing ever materializes out of the void, and to expect the opposite would be magical thinking. Yet here we are with millions of galaxies born out of nothing. It is clear that whatever put this material universe in motion is not subject to the laws of said material universe but operates outside of its confines. For convenience, we can call it God although we have no way of understanding what such a power could be like.

I don't want to get into human religious traditions here, but to me the metaphysical atheist point of view seems more aligned with fairies than the alternative that posits an actor outside the physical realm that we experience day to day.

[mishkin]

This^ is very well put, but it's nothing more than the old "let's call God what we still can't explain."

On topic: Has anyone already shown that youth was mentally healthier fifty years ago? that divorce is something worse for a teenager than two parents hating each other (to give a not too dramatic example) forced to live together?

[alhoon]

On topic: Has anyone already shown that youth was mentally healthier fifty years ago?

That's not on topic.

On topic: Has anyone already shown [...] that divorce is something worse for a teenager than two parents hating each other (to give a not too dramatic example) forced to live together?

That is on topic and an interesting question.
Any such reliable studies? I was having this discussion with a friend of mine that ... kinda remains in an unhappy marriage for the kid.

[Morticia Iunia Bruti]

Unhappily Married: What's Best for the Kids - Together or Apart? - Hey Sigmund

The autor sounds well informed and has some researchs under "research". Perfect for a quick introduction for layman.

[alhoon]

Unhappily Married: What's Best for the Kids - Together or Apart? - Hey Sigmund

The autor sounds well informed and has some researchs under "research". Perfect for a quick introduction for layman.

From what I saw, the author in your article mentions the problems from fights between the parents before the divorce and poses the question whether it is better to stay together or apart. The sources of that article also explain that fighting parents are not good for the children... but neither answers the quite interesting question of whether it is better for the kid if the parents remain together in an unhappy marriage or divorce.
What both articles (your source and the source of your source) clear is that neither is healthy and that parents should not fight in front of the kid.

[Morticia Iunia Bruti]

Naturally she says not, its better to divorce. Thats a high personal decision. But she gives quite a lot reasons, why you should, if the marriage is permanently unhappy.

Kids are no idiots. They feel and see if mom or dad is sad/unhappy. Unhappiness leads to frustation, which may be subdued some time, but will break is way out one day.

If you have work in the legal business like me, you would know, that most divorcing couples are fighting each other all the time till the divorce is fulfilled. Then after this there is a good chance that both can find a modus vivendi for their kids.

[alhoon]

Naturally she says not, its better to divorce. Thats a high personal decision. But she gives quite a lot reasons, why you should, if the marriage is permanently unhappy.

Kids are no idiots. They feel and see if mom or dad is sad/unhappy. Unhappiness leads to frustation, which may be subdued some time, but will break is way out one day.

If you have work in the legal business like me, you would know, that most divorcing couples are fighting each other all the time till the divorce is fulfilled. Then after this there is a good chance that both can find a modus vivendi for their kids.

I don't disagree that there are fights before the divorce. Out of intution I can put a few things together that are IMO obvious, like that a benign divorce is often better than an unhappy and occasionally violent cohabitation. A cohabitation where both parents are stepping around each other but do not outright fight in front of the kids and are still there to support them and greet them when they return from school etc is better than divorce.
But for the middle ground... I don't know and your study points out that this also varies from kid to kid. It is a complex issue and ... and I think we need more studies.

[Lord Thesaurian]

On topic: Has anyone already shown that youth was mentally healthier fifty years ago?

Yes

that divorce is something worse for a teenager than two parents hating each other (to give a not too dramatic example) forced to live together?

Yes, since we already know the divorce rate is highly correlated with youth mental health, and thus your hypothetical is moot. But I’ll humor your speculation that divorce makes people happier, considering it’s not hypothetical and people have already known for years:

A long tradition of research demonstrates that being married is positively related to health and longevity.

Married adults show better health outcomes than the unmarried across a variety of acute and chronic conditions, including colds, cancer, and heart attacks

Married men and women also appear to have better mental health than their unmarried counterparts

However, remarriages seem to enhance mental health less than first marriages

Men who become unmarried show large increases in the chances of dying, net of other characteristics, regardless of how their marriage ended. For women, the end of a marriage through divorce or separation increases the risk of death, but the death of the husband does not

We found that, on all the dimensions we examined, currently married persons who have never been divorced or widowed show better health than currently married persons who have ever experienced a marital loss. Previously married persons show poorer health than the continuously married on all dimensions, and poorer health than the remarried on all dimensions but mobility limitations.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art.../#!po=0.806452

If only there were a ready-made value system that emphasizes the importance of a healthy, faithful and committed marriage to a happy and successful life.

3 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
7 They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?
8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
10 His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.
11 But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.
12 For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Proper marriage is the best antidote to the personal problems facing the youth today, from mental health to economics, which is why the data has confirmed for decades the connection between the destruction of the family unit and the decline in those variables.

Since the start of the 21st century, the U.S. marriage rate has declined from more than eight marriages per 1,000 down to six marriages per 1,000 population in 2019. That marriage rate is the lowest level since the U.S. government began keeping marriage records for the country in 1867.

Also, 70 years ago a large majority of U.S. households, approximately 80 percent, were made up of married couples. In 2020, the proportion of households consisting of married couples fell to 49 percent.

American attitudes about childbearing and marriage have also changed markedly. For example, whereas in 2006 about half of U.S. adults said it was very important for couples having children together to legally marry, by 2020 that proportion had fallen to 29 percent. Today, the proportion of U.S. births to unmarried mothers is about 40 percent, double the percentage in 1980.

In addition to delaying marriage, record proportions of young U.S. adults are expected to never marry. For example, the proportion never married among Americans aged 25 to 50 years quadrupled from 9 percent in 1970 to a high of 35 percent in 2018.

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/567107-the-end-of-marriage-in-america/

Even the left wing elites understand this, despite discouraging it amongst the lower classes.

I realized that luxury beliefs have become fashionable status symbols. Luxury beliefs are ideas and opinions that confer status on the rich at very little cost, while taking a toll on the lower class.

The Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam at a Senate hearing said, “Rich kids and poor kids now grow up in separate Americas…Growing up with two parents is now unusual in the working class, while two-parent families are normal and becoming more common among the upper middle class.” Upper-class people, particularly in the 1960s, championed sexual freedom. Loose sexual norms spread throughout the rest of society. The upper class, though, still have intact families. They experiment in college and then settle down later. The families of the lower class fell apart. Today, the affluent are among the most likely to display the luxury belief that sexual freedom is great, though they are the most likely to get married and least likely to get divorced.

https://quillette.com/2019/11/16/tho...status-update/

The autor sounds well informed and has some researchs under "research". Perfect for a quick introduction for layman.

I don’t see where your source says divorce makes people happier. In fact it seems to exhaustively detail the importance of choosing a good spouse so as not to up future kids.

Unhappily married adults who divorced or separated were no happier, on aver- age, than unhappily married adults who stayed married

Divorce did not reduce symptoms of depression for unhappily married adults, or raise their self-esteem, or increase their sense of mastery, on average, com- pared to unhappy spouses who stayed married.

Staying married did not typically trap unhappy spouses in violent relationships.

Two out of three unhappily married adults who avoided divorce or separation ended up happily married five years later. Many spouses said that their marriages got happier, not because they and their partner resolved problems but because they stubbornly outlasted them.

https://www.laikos.org/UnhappyMarriages.pdf

For my part, I got married at 22, been married 8 years now, and it was the best financial, personal, and health decision I ever made. I’m living proof the data isn’t just data.

[mishkin]

Who the hell has said that "divorce makes people happier". Dude, you build strawmen bigger than Jesus.

and you use as a source for your stuff a study from a site called "Institute for American Values". Again, Jesus.

[Lord Thesaurian]

Who the hell has said that "divorce makes people happier". Dude, you build strawmen bigger than Jesus.

Moriticia and you so far. Are you retracting these claims, then?

You don't have any proof about it, you don't even have any good argument. It's just your opinion that in the old days, with traditional families, families (children and adolescents) were happier.

if you want to show that the mental health of young people is worse now than twenty or sixty years ago, you should provide evidence. The mental health of young people sixty years ago was probably much worse than it is today (physical and psychological violence was much more frequent, society much more closed).

Has anyone already shown that youth was mentally healthier fifty years ago? that divorce is something worse for a teenager than two parents hating each other (to give a not too dramatic example) forced to live together?

and you use as a source for your stuff a study from a site called "Institute for American Values". Again, Jesus.

If only the National Institutes of Health, University of Chicago, University of Columbia, American Psychological Association, etc were as credible as your personal opinions.

[mishkin]

please re read my claims. and also re read the title of this thread.

Edit: Link to the APA saying that it is healthier for children for their parents to avoid divorce. Or, more in your line of argument, saying that avoiding divorce is the healthiest option for spouses. And a link to a statement from the organization, not a link to someone who belongs/belonged to the association saying something similar.

[Lord Thesaurian]

Link to the APA saying that it is healthier for children for their parents to avoid divorce. divorce. Or, more in your line of argument, saying that avoiding divorce is the healthiest option for spouses.

Already did.

And a link to a statement from the organization, not a link to someone who belongs/belonged to the association saying something similar.

I cited a peer reviewed study published by the APA establishing both of the things you mention above. Are you suggesting the APA has rejected the study they published?