Snapshot · TED Talks Daily
A study published in JAMA found that between 2011 and 2021, deaths among parents due to firearms and drug overdoses more than doubled, illustrating the depth of the adult mental health crisis.
Where this was said
At 32:10 · chapter starts 30:30
Manoush presses for a direct answer: is there a teen mental health crisis? Odgers resists the binary, noting that on virtually every behavioral metric — substance use, violence, academic attainment — teens look better than previous generations and better than adults give them credit for. But she does not minimize the concerning signals: teens are reporting increased anxiety, sadness, and worry about safety, climate change, racism, and their futures. Youth suicide has risen since the Great Recession, which is not surprising, she argues, because adult suicide has been climbing since 1999. The critical contextual fact is a JAMA study showing parental deaths from firearms and drug overdoses more than doubled between 2011 and 2021 [1] — Candice Odgers "Parental overdose deaths doubled 2011–2021: A study published in JAMA found that between 2011 and 2021, deaths among parents due to firearm…" 32:10 — the tip of an iceberg of adult distress that surrounds and shapes children's mental health. 'What else could possibly be happening?' she asks rhetorically about the post-2011 period, before answering: adults were in distress and parents were dying.
Adult suicide in the United States has been increasing since 1999, predating the rise of social media, and the youth suicide uptick since 2008 closely mirrors this adult trend.
In California and Texas, approximately 70% of high school students now identify with a group that has been traditionally minoritized or discriminated against, a demographic shift relevant to understanding teen mental health.
Haidt's Anxious Generation maps rising teen depression against rising smartphone use in compelling graphs. Odgers says this kind of statistical storytelling is misleading — axes get cherry-picked, lines get manipulated, and people are being scared with cooked data.
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