Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?

> Young adults are struggling with their mental health. Is more childhood independence the answer?

Prospects in life is the answer.

The article goes over how independence in adolescence could help reduce people's anxieties, and closes with the following which sums up the article rather nicely

> “When we are controlling a young adult’s experiences, and they go without that full range of emotional experience, we’re actually curbing people’s opportunities to live full lives, and have the full range of human experience.”

Observe then, that absence of prospects means lack of independence. There is no reasonable form of independence when you need to work 9-5 just to cover your most basic living experiences.

> “It’s about being proactive and not feeling like you’re a victim, how you can control some things, but you can’t control everything,”

But as a person, you are living in our society, and you are bound by the rules and the situation you are born into, not everyone has the opportunity to explore and put themselves in relatively difficult situations without significant consequences because that is often very taxing, especially for the destitute. It is not possible to circumvent one's economic background, or remove it from the equation. Getting your clothes dirty, putting yourself in harm's way (even minor) can be very expensive, and thus taxing.

It is absurd to expect people to go out of their comfort zone when doing so has so many tangible negatives for them.

I come from a very poor family, and all of my young adulthood was spent clawing out of poverty through education. Sure, I have overcome the anxiety described in the article, but it wasn't because I had independence.

I didn't have a car to go to university, my family left me there in the morning, I didn't have a job for a non trivial portion of my studies, I just didn't eat until it was time to eat at home and only if we had something. I didn't go to trips because I spent my summers working in internships trying to escape poverty. I didn't explore the area I did my master's in because even taking the metro meant that I'd have to choose between a meal and a trip.

I am by all means fearless and bold because I have marketable skills and a hunger for better. By all means, I was lucky to be born in a time when my skills are useful to the system.

It’s such a strange blend of wanting to let your kids roam while being more aware of dangers that exist, both online and off.

It’s tough. For my son, Scouts have been wonderful for his independence. Can’t recommend it highly enough.

I'm not sure you are really using "independence" in the same way as the article if you saying that you are not "independent" when you are not living with your parents and working 9-5? Maybe you are thinking more about financial independence but that's not really the issue the article is talking about, which is more abut children learning to be independent from their parents.

It seems like the kind of independence being discussed is probably orthogonal from career prospects except in the sense that kids who can't go to college and get jobs that pay enough may not be able to become independent from their parents for longer.

I mean, no shit, when it costs $2000/month for a jail cell of a bedroom in the only handful of places that actually have jobs, and your workplace doesn't have an office yet they don't pay for the rent to create a proper home office that isn't your bedroom, AND you don't have much money left over for your medical bills that insurance doesn't pay, and you're expected to work evenings and weekends and put on-call so you can never actually go hiking or get exercise or get vitamin D, you get only a couple weeks of vacation that you have to spend on family so you have none left to travel, dating is another nightmare in this day and age, ...

(Most of this isn't me, but descriptions of many people around me)

My generation (early GenX) may be the last one to grow up in an environment that didn't systematically screw young people at every possible turn.

We didn't have a constant presence of adults and had space to work out issues on our own.

We were able to travel for miles in most directions without being barraged by No Trespassing signs - each of them backed up by disproportionate penalties and an ever present risk of life-changing criminal records.

We didn't have to navigate today's massively complex world that is growing more complex at exponential rates.

In contrast, my sons grew up in a world that is senselessly unforgiving and penalistic, with few breaks from adults and little chance to explore life on their own terms.

We have sabotaged our rising generations and to drown out the consequences of that we noisily protect them from risks that largely exists in our own heads.

We couldn't scarcely have designed a worse outcome if we tried.