The Teen Mental Health Crisis, Part 1

The Ezra Klein Show

New York Times Opinion

Society & Culture, Government, News

4.6 • 11K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2023

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re in the midst of a serious teen mental health crisis. The number of teenagers and young adults with clinical depression more than doubled between 2011 and 2021. The suicide rate for teenagers nearly doubled from 2007 to 2019, and tripled for 10- to 14-year- olds in particular. According to the C.D.C., nearly 25 percent of teenage girls made a suicide plan in 2021. What’s going on in the lives of teenagers that has produced such a startling uptick? Jean Twenge, a research psychologist and author of the books “iGen” and “Generations,” has spent years poring over mental health statistics and survey data trying to answer this question. In her view, the story in the data is clear: Our teenage mental health crisis is the direct product of the rise of smartphones and social media. So I wanted to have Twenge on the show to elicit and interrogate her argument. What is the actual evidence for the smartphone thesis? How do we account for the fact that teenage girls and liberals are having far worse outcomes than boys and conservatives? What about alternate explanations for this crisis, like meritocratic pressure, the economy, school shootings and climate change? And if Twenge is right that the culprit is smartphones, then what can we do to address that problem? If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources. Listen to this podcast in New York Times Audio, our new iOS app for news subscribers. Download now at nytimes.com/audioapp Mentioned: “We’re Missing a Key Driver of Teen Anxiety” by Derek Thompson “The Paradox of Wealthy Nations’ Low Adolescent Life Satisfaction” by Robert Rudolf and Dirk Bethmann “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation” by the U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory Book Recommendations: The Problem With Everything by Meghan Daum What’s Our Problem? by Tim Urban Nine Ladies by Heather Moll Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Annie Galvin. Fact checking by Michelle Harris and Mary Marge Locker. Mixing by Jeff Geld. Our production team is Emefa Agawu, Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld, Roge Karma and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. And special thanks to Efim Shapiro and Kristina Samulewski.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So before we jump in today, I want to tell you about something that New York Times has
0:26.1	been working on for a while. And I'm going to level with you that when they started telling
0:30.9	me about this project, I was very skeptical of it, which made for a couple of awkward
0:36.3	internal conversations. Because what I understood them to be working on was a podcast app.
0:41.6	And I thought to myself, who needs another podcast app? They're planning them on the market
0:46.9	already. None of them are great, but they're fine. And then they gave me the new app as a
0:53.1	beta tester. And I realized that I was wrong about what they're building, at least partly wrong.
0:57.6	Because what they actually built is something nobody has created yet, which is a portal to the
1:02.1	world of audio journalism. They're podcasts, including this one, but also stories, essays,
1:07.5	profiles. You can listen to digests of the news and to full news stories and to full magazine
1:12.4	stories. You don't have to choose anymore between listening to a podcast and actually getting the
1:18.1	news. You can get the news you used to read, but done in a really, really strong, really professional
1:23.9	audio format. And not just from the New York Times or stories that are from other publishers too.
1:28.9	So the app again is called New York Times Audio. It's an iOS app. You get it from the app store.
1:33.8	And it is for New York Times news subscribers, which come on. If you're listening to this show,
1:38.9	I hope you're a subscriber for that by now. So check it out. It really is something new. It really
1:43.6	is something worth trying. I'm going to start today's show with some numbers. Between 2011 and 2021,
1:56.9	the number of teens and young adults with clinical depression, it more than doubled, more than doubled.
2:02.9	Between 2007 and 2019, the suicide rate for those in their early 20s rose by 41% and the suicide
2:10.5	rate for 10 to 14 year olds, 10 to 14 year olds, think about how young that is. It tripled.
2:17.1	And it nearly quadrupled for girls. A CDC survey found that in 2021, almost 60% of high school
2:24.4	girls experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness during the past year. And nearly 25%.
	...

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