The Kids Are Not Alright
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2023
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
But it's not just loneliness. Across the country, kids are struggling with challenges to their mental health - from social isolation to poor grades at school.
NPR's Sarah McCammon speaks to Lisa Damour, a psychologist, and author of the book "The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents", about what's going on with kids and how they can be helped.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you're a parent or a caregiver or someone with kids in your life, you've probably been |
| 0:11.2 | hearing some concerning news about the state of young people today. |
| 0:15.1 | And a warning for our listeners, this conversation includes a discussion of serious mental health |
| 0:19.3 | issues. |
| 0:20.3 | The US Surgeon General has called it an urgent public health crisis, a devastating decline |
| 0:25.8 | in the mental health of kids across the country. |
| 0:28.7 | Children's and adolescents are struggling with depression and anxiety. |
| 0:32.8 | According to the CDC, the rates of suicide, self-harm, anxiety and depression are up among |
| 0:38.8 | adolescents. |
| 0:39.9 | With their schoolwork, report cards are in and they show student test scores drop to alarmingly |
| 0:46.0 | low levels with social connections. |
| 0:48.4 | Tonight's health watch, when it comes to socializing, many children are having a hard |
| 0:52.1 | time. |
| 0:53.1 | And with loneliness, a new advisory out this week from the US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek |
| 0:57.8 | Murthy has deemed loneliness a public health challenge that needs immediate attention. |
| 1:03.4 | And it may surprise some to learn that loneliness is a big problem with young people. |
| 1:07.8 | He spoke with NPR. |
| 1:09.4 | It turns out that one in two adults report measurable levels of loneliness and the group that's |
| 1:14.8 | actually most lonely in our population are actually young people, despite how connected |
| 1:20.1 | they may be by technology. |
| 1:22.2 | And I'm worried about this from a public health perspective because it turns out that being |
| 1:26.8 | socially disconnected has real consequences for our health. |
... |
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