GENERATION ANGST

THIS YEAR, 5,485 first-year students entered Colorado State University. Of that number, 57 percent identify as women, 26 percent as racially or ethnically diverse, and 23 percent as first-generation students. They are a bright bunch, with a median high school grade-point average of 3.71. Overall, CSU in Fort Collins is home to more than 34,000 ambitious young minds.

For nearly 20 years, I was privileged to serve CSU students as a staff psychologist in what became known as the CSU Health Network, retiring in Fall 2023 as assistant director of Counseling Services.

Initially, when I worked for Counseling Services as a doctoral student, most students I counseled were part of Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980. By the time I retired at age 72, I had also served millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, and, finally, Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012. Over the years, I noticed marked differences in the challenges faced by successive generations of students; these shifts stood in contrast to my first year of college in 1968.

Baby boomers – my generation – grew up during a time of war and social turmoil that helped define our time as young adults. The first-year class of 2024 faces its own set of unique social, political, and economic circumstances. While today’s students are sometimes dismissed as “snowflakes” – implying they are entitled, fragile, and easily offended – the issues they confront extend well beyond what previous generations were handed. The cumulative effect has contributed to mental health challenges that distinguish modern young adulthood and higher education.

Here are examples of what “kids these days” are up against.

Our post-9/11 world has created a generation of fearful parents who see their own backyards as more dangerous than they often are, leading to the near extinction of free, unsupervised outdoor play. Adventurous boomer children and Gen X latchkey kids are a thing of the past. Instead, the invention of the smartphone and proliferation of social media have filled the play gap with endless opportunities for pseudo-engagement on screens. The impact of social media on college students’ mental well-being across the country, and in all major industrialized countries, is summarized by psychologist Jonathan Haidt in his new book, The Anxious Generation.

This American culture of fear, accelerated by domestic terrorism and fueled by social media, has had differential impacts on young women and men.

Social comparison has been a part of the human experience for millennia. Yet, in the modern era, body image is the No. 1 source of shame for women and girls. Instead of comparing themselves to a relatively small group of friends and classmates, today’s young women may compare themselves to an untold number of peer “influencers,” the stars of social media, who present an ever-narrowing set of acceptable beauty standards designed to increase social anxiety and encourage the need for products, surgery, and starvation to meet the ideal. Coinciding with this trend, there has been a sharp rise in eating disorders and self-harm among girls and young women.

When I began college in the late 1960s, men (mostly white) made up about 60 percent of college students. Today, young men are less interested in attending college. Sometime in the last 50 years, the health and well-being of all boys and men began a free fall, presenting what researcher and author Richard Reeves describes as an urgent mental health crisis in his book, Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It.

Men have higher rates of “deaths of despair” caused by drug overdoses, suicide, and alcohol-related issues. If you are male-identified from a marginalized group, this decline is sharper and more dangerous given the higher likelihood of death due to gun violence, including the use of force by police.

The age-old source of shame for men is the appearance of weakness. This concern discourages emotional development, awareness, and expression – except the expression of anger. Messages revolving around the traditional image and role of men abound, from the media to politics and the pulpit. And while women and girls are pulling ahead in all stages of education, there has been a decline in college enrollment among men in recent years.

There is a fair chance that a percentage of all first-year students, regardless of identity, have experienced gun-related violence or the threat of violence in their neighborhoods, schools, or homes – and virtually all have participated in ominous lockdown drills at school. By the time they reach CSU, many are already struggling with the lingering effects of trauma.

Students who identify as LGBTQ have a much higher likelihood of a history of all forms of trauma. Now, extreme conservative legislation is making life more treacherous for this historically vulnerable group.

Financial anxiety is top of mind for most CSU students. Notably, 84 percent of first-time CSU undergraduates receive some type of financial assistance, institutional records show. This makes the average annual in-state tuition cost of about $13,000 manageable for most undergraduates.

However, our students struggle to afford housing and food – the factors that typically more than double tuition to yield a higher total cost of college attendance. Consider housing alone: Average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Fort Collins is $1,500 per month, while renting one room in a three-bedroom house costs at least $700 per month, according to Apartments.com.

Out-of-pocket expenses are a particular struggle for minority students who are less likely to benefit from intergenerational wealth. “Food insecurity” historically described the difficulty of securing an adequate amount of nutritious food during the Great Depression and in Third World countries. However, due to unprecedented income inequality in the United States, food insecurity has become a reality for a more significant percentage of the population, including college students.

An article in The Atlantic magazine, titled “When College Students Need Food Pantries More Than Textbooks,” described how universities have created food pantries and emergency-aid programs to help keep students enrolled. At Colorado State University, the food-assistance program is called Rams Against Hunger; CSU Pueblo’s program is the Pack Pantry.

The stress of our recent global pandemic, climate crisis, and geopolitical instability continue to play a significant role in the mental health of college students.

My experience at CSU Counseling Services directly parallels the data from Haidt, Reeves, and others. Around the globe, the rate of anxiety among college students has increased by 134 percent since 2010; depression has increased by 106 percent; and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder has increased by 72 percent, Haidt reports. These international data also indicate a 100 percent increase in anorexia and a 33 percent increase in substance abuse disorders since 2010.

At CSU and in college counseling centers across the country, the impact of smartphone use on child and adolescent development began to soar in 2018. That was when there was a remarkable increase in demand for counseling, signaling the need for change in how we served students. While our enrollment increased by 5 percent between fiscal year 2013 and fiscal year 2018, there was a nearly 50 percent increase in students served by Counseling Services within the CSU Health Network. In 2023, the U.S. surgeon general issued an advisory on social media and youth mental health, which warns of risks that social media pose to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.

I am proud of how CSU Counseling Services has stepped up to the plate in addressing these concerns. It has expanded targeted anxiety and depression management groups, online therapy options, specialized multicultural services, drug and alcohol treatment, and intensive therapy for students at risk of self-harm and suicide. CSU coordinates with campus and community partners to provide specialized treatment for students identified as neurodiverse, students with eating disorders, and students experiencing physical disabilities. And there has been consistent partnering over the years with CSU Athletics to meet the mental health needs of student-athletes. In short, Counseling Services tailors its mental health care for the particular needs of student subpopulations.

I am confident that CSU Counseling Services will continue to meet the treatment needs of our students, just as campus partners in health and human sciences are helping to fortify the mental well-being of our students through research in prevention and resilience.

Kids these days are neither fragile nor slackers. By contrast, they are pedaling as fast as they can to meet the crushing demands of the society we have given them.

Michele Faris, Psy.D., is a licensed psychologist who worked for Counseling Services within the CSU Health Network for more than two decades. She retired in 2023 as assistant director of Counseling Services and is now in private practice.

Illustration at top: Dave Cutler