Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

kqed.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 489 posts

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

#401

Post by 2devnull »

rychco wrote: post #221
jasonhansel wrote: post #9

> Chentsova Dutton said America has an international reputation for prizing autonomy, but her study opened her eyes to a more complicated picture. American parents tend to be overprotective when children are young, acting as if kids are going to live at home for a long time, like parents do in Italy. Yet they also expect children to live away from home fairly early for college, like families do in Germany. The result…

The stereotypical American helicopter-parent/soccer-mom can be viewed as a direct result of poor zoning practices & the resulting suburban sprawl. A typical child is completely incapable of going anywhere without the guidance of a car-driving parent. It is unlikely, either on foot or bike, that they are able to get to school, get to/from sports practice, meet with friends, shop at local stores, run errands, have a pa…

There is public transit, bikes and skateboards in the suburbs. That is not the case in rural areas. There was a time when more people lived in rural areas, and kids roamed about. I’d say living in the city, where there is more crime, would be a reason kids were sheltered.

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

#402

Post by daxvena »

cpsns wrote: post #393
dopeboy wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an excellent summary of the current state of affairs from the ground level. Do you see your peers growing out of social media? Or do you think it will be a permanent fixture in their lives?

I'm not him, but the older I get the worse I see interactions with social media getting, so I don't think anyone is going to outgrow it. When people start ignoring their children in favour of social media (something I've witnessed many times with people I know) I don't think there's much hope coming back from that point.

> I'm not him, but the older I get the worse I see interactions with social media getting, so I don't think anyone is going to outgrow it.

*her (i wonder if that changes your perception of my comment :P)

> Do you see your peers growing out of social media? Or do you think it will be a permanent fixture in their lives?

Kind of, but not really? I see it more transforming into something else. It definitely seems like a lot of people my age and younger are more cautious about social media compared to most millennials, but that doesn't really seem to stop us from using it. I'm really happy to see more of a shift towards open platforms like Mastodon, I'm just not sure where that's going to head.

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

#403

Post by darknavi »

another_story wrote: post #296
geysersam wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Biking a few miles took 15-20 minutes I imagine. Why would you not let your 11+ year old kids bike that route? Sounds okay if there's not too much traffic.

Just let kids ride slower on the sidewalks and follow pedestrian street crossing rules.

Very few sidewalks (at the time) in our area (unincorporated area of the county). Lots of should er space though.

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

#404

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #356
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. OP’s comment makes no sense in the suburb I live in now (built around 2000), and the suburb in which I grew up (built early 1970s). Both have nearby schools, supermarkets and plazas with retail businesses, working teenagers, playgrounds, parks, etc.

rychco’s comment makes sense in my suburb. Even I have anxiety crossing 5 lane roads with 40mph speed limits. There is usually a huge pickup truck or SUV going at least 50mph, who may likely be distracted by their phone. This was not as much of an issue a few decades ago. And that is just the 40mph ~30ft to 40ft wide crossings. The 7 to 9 lane wide, 80ft crossings on 40mph roads are incredibly scary to cross, and tha…

You have 7-9 lane roads in a suburb? That’s called a highway. Where I live, people cross highways on overpasses dedicated to pedestrians. Sorry you have to cross 9 lanes regularly. Sounds like you live next to a highway!

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

#405

Post by standardUser »

orangecat wrote: post #260
standardUser wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the same tired stuff people said about Millennials and Gen Xers before them. The younger generations are vastly more open, honest, kind and generous than older generations. They just have significantly less tolerance for hateful people and "punching down". That rubs older generations the wrong way because they tend to hate (or fear) a lot of things and think it's funny/acceptable to punch down.

That rubs older generations the wrong way because they tend to hate (or fear) a lot of things Apparently this casual ageism is "punching up" and therefore fine.

I've always considered the "generations" thing to be more of a state of mind than strictly age-based. Plenty of younger people have a similar fear-based, tradition-bound outlook as actual Boomers.

Also, punching up/down is about status and older people do not automatically receive a higher status, so it's really not an example of "punching up".

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

#406

Post by daxvena »

gardenhedge wrote: post #284
moistly wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a mid-fifties older adult, every one of your points rings true.

Both of you think climate change is slowly creeping up on us? It's been banging on the door for quite some time

Yes I do, and I also know that it's been banging on the door for a long time. My point was that it's slow moving, not that it hasn't affected us yet.

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

#407

Post by brailsafe »

bigmattystyles wrote: post #314
brailsafe wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but many are, particularly modern cul-de-sacs

Cul de sac rollerblade hockey is how I spent much of my youth. So many good memories.

True, but it was on more of a crescent. I don't think it was uncommon to see it on any side street as long as you had a certain amount of people

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

#408

Post by brailsafe »

john_the_writer wrote: post #282
brailsafe wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In car-centric suburbia, there's always traffic at the same times every day, and often poor infrastructure for biking.

100% Most of the roads seem designed to prevent it. I grew up in a small town and we all took bikes to school or walked the ~2 miles. The drivers seemed more aware that they didn't dominate the road.

Yep. It would probably be fine and I'd let my hypothetical kid do it anyway, but the fact remains that the biggest risk along the way is.. car traffic. Parents stressed about getting their kid to school and then to work on time. Of course there's winter and that commute becomes even more insane by bike or car.

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

#409

Post by lotsofpulp »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #404
lotsofpulp wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

rychco’s comment makes sense in my suburb. Even I have anxiety crossing 5 lane roads with 40mph speed limits. There is usually a huge pickup truck or SUV going at least 50mph, who may likely be distracted by their phone. This was not as much of an issue a few decades ago. And that is just the 40mph ~30ft to 40ft wide crossings. The 7 to 9 lane wide, 80ft crossings on 40mph roads are incredibly scary to cross, and tha…

You have 7-9 lane roads in a suburb? That’s called a highway. Where I live, people cross highways on overpasses dedicated to pedestrians. Sorry you have to cross 9 lanes regularly. Sounds like you live next to a highway!

Lots of US suburbs have roads with 3 lanes in each direction.

Then you add one or two left turn lanes at the intersection and a shoulder/bike lane, and you get to an 80ft+ crossing easily. All the infrastructure is built for cars and cars only. All the businesses and places for kids to go will be along these huge roads.

This is an example of what is commonly built:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/wpdBbQJggYrpjeNz8?g_st=ic

That crosswalk/sidewalk is purely built for plausible deniability. You would have to be crazy to regularly walk across that to get to the grocery store/restaurants at that intersection.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/rnjYVbLweNQZYFqW9?g_st=ic

https://maps.app.goo.gl/bu4ow3HVTM3VTRct9?g_st=ic

https://maps.app.goo.gl/owb32s3zPFShPXJ48?g_st=ic

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

#410

Post by [deleted] »

watwut wrote: post #313
thanhhaimai wrote: post #214

> Chentsova Dutton and her team interviewed students from Turkey, Russia, Canada and the United States, asking them to describe a risky or dangerous experience they had in the _last month_. Both Turkish and Russian students described witnessing events that involved actual risk: violent fights on public transportation; hazardous driving conditions caused by drunk drivers; women being aggressively followed on the stree…

I personally think that American students not being engaged or treated by violent fights in public transport says something good about USA. The Russians being engaged in them says something about Russian society breaking. The "last month" thing is fairly standard through. They are looking for statistics of recent events, lifestyle "now". Not lifestyle 5 years ago.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN