“Privileged youth”:

Well-educated and well-to-do, but what of well-being?

Study 1: Suburban vs. Inner-city teens (mid 1990’s)

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Substance use Anxiety Depression

Suburban girlsSuburban boysInner city girlsInner-city boys

Proportion of youth above clinical cutoffs _____________________________________________

GIRLS BOYS

Norm Suburb Norm Suburb Depression 7% 22% 7% 5% Anxiety 17% 22% 17% 26% _________________________________________________Substance use

Alcohol 61% 72% 61% 63% Illicit drugs 38% 46% 38% 59% ____________________________________________

Correlates of substance use

Suburban youth: • substance use linked with depression, anxiety: ‘self-medication’• ‘negative affect’ subtype shows high continuity

Suburban boys: • substance use linked with peer popularity• links robust with controls for internalizing, externalizing & academic indices

         Questions:

• do problems generalize to pre-teens? • causes of such problems in ‘privileged’ groups?

• Study 2: Sixth & seventh graders in suburban school • n = 302, 92% Caucasian, median family income $102,000

Findings

• problems low among 6th graders

• 7th grade girls: 14% above clinical cutoff for depression: twice as high as normative rates

• 7th grade boys: 7% drinking to intoxication once / month, 7% marijuana use once / month

• Correlates of substance use as in Luthar & D’Avanzo (1999)• internalizing symptoms among boys & girls• peer popularity among 7th grade boys

Luthar & Becker (2002), Child Development

Roots of adjustment problems?

1. Achievement pressures • maladaptive perfectionism (self-report)• parents’ emphasis on achievements (ranking: personal success versus personal integrity / decency)

2. Isolation from adults • children often alone at home (supervision after school)• little relaxed “family time” (closeness to mother, father)

Results showed multiple links for both achievement pressures and isolation from adults

Generalization of Problems:

The New England Study of Suburban Youth (NESSY)

• all sixth graders from both middle schools in a town • parallel with study of inner-city middle schoolers Demographics:

• 93% Caucasian• median family income > $125,000• one third adults with graduate/ professional degrees

Family dimensions: NESSY vs inner-city 6th graders on seven dimensions

Comparable mean values onMom closeness Dad closeness Dinner with parents Emphasis on integrity (vs own success)

Suburban youth fared better onAfter school supervision Perceived criticism

Suburban youth fared more poorly on:Parent expectations

Material wealth does not imply “superior” family functioning

ContainmentParents differ in how seriously they react when they discover

types of rule-breaking behaviors among their teenage children. Reactions can range from simply talking about the incident or giving warnings for the future, to revoking privileges that are very important to the person. For each of the following items, please indicate how serious the consequences from your parents would be, if they found out you’d done the behavior in question.

Substance use

Delinquent behavior

Rudeness / unkindness

Academic indolence

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

Substance Use Delinquency Rudeness AcademicDisengagement

Perceived parent containment

Female Male

Luthar & Goldstein (2008), Development & Psychopathology

Psychologists & pediatricians warn that youth in affluent communities are highly stressed due to over-scheduling, with far too many after-school activities.

Hours spent in extra curricular activities

Suburban youth higher on Sports activities Academic activitiesArts activities

Suburban youth lower onCivic activities (e.g., volunteering, church, temple)

Sports hours

Arts hours

Academic hours

Civic hours

Parent criticism

After school supervision

Parent expectations

Mom achievement emphasis

Dad achievement emphasis

Dinner with parents

PREDICTORS OF PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC ADJUSTMENT: Activity / family indices *

Girls &boys

Boys

* Luthar, Shoum, & Brown (2006). Developmental Psychology.

GENERALIZABILITY OF HIGH DISTRESS AMONG AFFLUENT YOUTH

Is this just a suburban phenomenon?

-data on private school students

-60% parents with graduate degrees

-74% Caucasian, 8% Asian, 2% Hispanic 4% African-American, 11% other

0.0%

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25.0%

30.0%

Anxious/ Depressed Withdrawn/Depressed

Somatic Complaints Rule Breaking

Normative samples Pvt school girls Pvt school boys

Private High School Juniors/seniors with symptoms "Much Above Average" (T>65)

Norms: 7%

47%

75%

50%

84%

% who used alcohol in last year

US Girls Private sch. Girls US Boys Private sch. Boys

Private High School Juniors/ seniors alcohol use compared to norms

GENERALIZABILITY OF HIGH DISTRESS AMONG AFFLUENT YOUTH

Is this just a suburban phenomenon?

Is this restricted to the East coast?

-data on West coast youth

-33% parents with graduate degrees

- 84% Caucasian, 12% Asian, 2% Hispanic,

1% African-American, 1% other

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Anxious/Depressed

Withdrawn/Depressed

SomaticComplaints

Rule Breaking

% Norm % Girls Much Above Average % Boys Much Above Average

West Coast High School Juniors/seniors with symptoms “Much Above Average” (T > 65)

Norms: 7%

Non-suicidal Self-injury (NSSI)*

Two cohorts:

Cross sectional: 1,036 9-12 graders (West Coast)Longitudinal: 245 students followed annually, grades 6-12

(East Coast)

* Yates, Tracy, & Luthar (2008). Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

• Self-injurious behavior: “a prominent and recurrent phenomenon among the 1,300 children of highly educated, white-collar professionals”

• Nearly a third reported NSSI during the previous year • Three quarters of injurers endorsed recurrent episodes• Rates higher than in other school settings

Most prevalent:

Girls: self-hitting, cutting, body-picking

Boys: self-hitting, body-picking, and self-biting

Conclusions regarding symptoms:

Adolescents of highly educated, well-to-do parents clearly show some signs of elevated symptoms relative to norms

- as seen in suburban and urban samples - on East and West coast

Preliminary impressions re gender differences - boys show elevations in rule breaking and substance use - girls show elevations across multiple domains:

the “traditionally female” internalizing symptoms andthe more typically male externalizing problems

- compared to youth in harsh urban poverty, on average, - perceptions of family functioning are not necessarily “better” - peers endorse rebellious behaviors at least as much

Complex underlying causes

Family pressures? • in some instances --- as is true in all demographic groups

Peer values• reinforcing rebellious behaviors

Social comparisons• competition for few “Ivy league spots”• competing with “friends” – low intimacy & self-doubt

Schools: Advanced Placement courses • encouraged by schools and by parents

The American Dream: “More is better” • material rewards make for ultimate happiness • acquired through competitive schools and colleges

COMPETITION AND FAST-LANE LIFE

• Little leisure time…

• Youth are taking lunch hour to study

• Should schools require them to take recess?

• How many of us adults can be “forced to relax”?

CASA• Important things for parents to do:

– Set a good example

– Have dinner with your kids

– Keep open channels of communication

– Show / express love

– Know their whereabouts

– Know who their friends are

– Have real consequences for substance use

CASA• Important things for parents to do:

– DON’T SET A BAD EXAMPLE (Set a good example)

– Keep open channels of communication

– Show / express love

– Have real consequences for substance use

– Know their whereabouts

– Know who their friends are

– Have dinner with your kids

Does angst dissipate post adolescence? - no, according to preliminary data in college

- Particularly problematic: substance abuse (including prescription medications), eating problems

Women’s development in the context of “privilege”

• media suggestions of high expectations, guilt, anxiety

“…urged us to be, simultaneously, independent, achievement-oriented, successful, the equal to any man and yet appealing to men, selfless, accommodating, nurturing, the connective tissue that holds all families together, and of course, slim and beautiful. We really were supposed to become some hybrid between Mother Teresa, Donna Shalala, Martha Stewart, and Cindy Crawford”.

Douglas & Michaels, The Mommy Myth, p 325.

…there is something about motherhood that provokes a psychological crisis in privileged women's lives. They suffer from …a "choking cocktail of guilt and anxiety and resentment and regret." They lose their sense of self. They worry about whether their children will turn out okay. And they begin to feel estranged from their husbands who have stimulating professional work.. …. For the author and others, motherhood does not bring the expected joy and fulfillment. On the contrary, it is the source of painful conflict, self-doubt, and existential angst.

Review of Warner, Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety, 2005

Internet-based study of mothers

• oversampling for highly educated mothers of middle- & high schoolers

• N 360, recruiting through PTA and word-of-mouth

• measures of • personal adjustment (e.g.,well-being, depression, substance use)• relationships (e.g., marriage, role restrictions, guilt),

personal authenticity, e.g., “The self” I show to others – my “outer self” – is very much the same as my “inner self”

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High School College College + MA Doctoral

Mothers' Subjective Well-Being by Education

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High School College College + MA Doctoral

Mothers' Personal Authenticity by education

Drug Dependence - MCMI

Ph.D. / MA mothers

College degree mothers

Alcohol Dependence – MCMI

Anxiety BSI

Depression- BSI

Somatization- BSI

Personal authenticity

Mother Incompetence/guilt

Drug Dependence - MCMI

Ph.D. / MA mothers

College degree mothers

Alcohol Dependence – MCMI .38*** .09

Anxiety BSI .33*** .22**

Depression- BSI .42*** .12

Somatization- BSI .38*** .10

Personal authenticity -.31*** -.26**

Mother Incompetence/guilt .23** .16

Quality of Marriage by Education

High School College College + MA Adv. Grad

Satisfaction with being a Parent by Education

High School College College + MA Adv. Grad

Marital status / employment status?

• no difference in major outcomes

• quality of relationships much more significant

CAVEAT TO FINDINGS

• relatively small sample of mothers

• need further multivariate analyses

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

                                                                                                                   

    

For mothers: As individuals... and not just "moms"  

This national online survey explores the inner lives of mothers.

In developmental research, women are typically considered in terms of their behaviors as mothers - rarely in terms of their own personhood. This survey will explore how you feel about your different roles not only as a mother, but also as a spouse, as a friend, as an individual with various hopes and fears -- and how you cope with the challenge of balancing multiple roles.

Many of the survey questions will inquire about your relationship with your child. If you currently have more than one child in middle or high school, please consider the oldest of these children for this survey.

Your responses will be entirely anonymous. Our interest, in this project, is solely in aggregate or average trends; no one (not even I) will be able to identify any individual mother in terms of her survey responses.

If you would like a copy of the summary results on completion of this survey, please provide your email address.

From one mother to another - many thanks and best regards.

Suniya S. Luthar, Ph.D.Professor of Clinical and Developmental PsychologyTeachers College, Columbia University   

http:// www.MomsasPeople.com

momsaspeople

CollaboratorsDoctoral students: Monica Ghalian, Adam Goldstein, Mia Ihm,

Jason Karageorge, Shoshanna Must, Rebecca Prince, Aparna Sampat, Skip Teel, Dana Zelman

Faculty colleaguesBronwyn Becker, Britt Galen, Shawn Latendresse,

Chris Sexton, Tuppett Yates, Laurel Bidwell Zelazo

Yale Mother-Child StudyPamela Brown, Erica Shirley, Karen Shoum, Julie Scott

This research has been supported by theNational Institute on Drug Abuse & the William T. Grant Foundation

Heartfelt thanks to the children and families of theNew England Study of Suburban Youth