Crime, parental divorce and lack of emotional and social connection to other people clearly have taken a toll on American youth, says social psychologist Jean Twenge, of Case Western Reserve University. Fears and nervousness increased nearly 50 percent in college students from the 1950s to the 1980s, and the fears and misgivings of younger children also skyrocketed during that time, Twenge says. Those conclusions stem from her examination of anxiety levels reported by 40,192 college students during those decades and anxiety reports from 12,056 children from 1952 to 1993. When crime rates rise, Twenge says, so do children's anxieties. Even though kids themselves may not have been victims of violence, she says, growing up in a culture in which images of violence are readily available makes kids feel more vulnerable.
Money seems to matter less here than other factors.
Whether the kids grow up in financially secure homes is less important, for instance, than whether they feel safe, Twenge says. Her findings appear in a recent issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology . The 1950s weren't perfect, but people felt more connected to one another then. Now we have more freedom, more choices, more crime and more anxiety. And we'll likely pay the price for it.