You may have heard that money can't always buy happiness.

Well, that's especially true for children from affluent families who may feel pressure

to succeed, get good grades, and be model children.

In this episode, we talk with one psychologist who is teaching her own children how to be happy without relying on money.

I'm Audrey Hamilton, and this is speaking of psychology. I'm Audrey Hamilton, and this is speaking of psychology. Sunilla Luther is a psychology professor at Arizona State University. She has studied the

vulnerability and resilience of youth in poverty and children

and families affected by mental illness. Her most recent work has focused on children in

affluent communities. Welcome, Dr. Luther. Thank you for having me. Is depression very common

among children from affluent families? You know, how do these depression rates compare to children

from lower income families? What we found how do these depression rates compare to children from lower

income families? What we found, or Ray, is rates of about one and a half to two and a half times

as high as national normative samples of problems like depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms,

and even higher rates of problems of substance use, that would be alcohol, marijuana, and even heart drugs.

Wow. So when you were studying this, was it a surprising finding to you?

Oh, it was awfully surprising. Actually, I stumbled upon these findings quite by accident.

My first study on upper middle class youth was conducted essentially to look for a comparison group for inner city kids.

And in this, while doing this comparison, we found, much to my surprise, that the so-called

privileged or rich kids were doing much more poorly, again, mostly on substance use, but also

in depression and anxiety. So that was way back in the late

90s, and since then we followed that trail and replicated these findings over and over again.

What have you found to be the reason behind these high numbers? Can you describe the research

a little bit more in detail on this area? Yes. People have a tendency to say, oh, it's the parents.

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