[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-576453-105":59,"doc-detail-576453-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","the-kids-are-not-ok-but-education-innovations-provide-hope","The Kids Are Not OK, But Education Innovations Provide Hope","","Youth mental health is deteriorating amid deep uncertainties about jobs and college affordability, worsening climate change, declining communities, and toxic civic discourse. The crisis, first evident around 2011, reflects a decline in hope and shows signs of becoming intergenerational as anxiety, depression, and suicide rise. Policy focus on social media regulation and mental health care is insufficient without addressing underlying economic, climate, and civil-society drivers that damage well-being and future life prospects.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":35,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-kids-are-not-ok-but-education-innovations-provide-hope/576453/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-kids-are-not-ok-but-education-innovations-provide-hope/576453.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Logic","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":14},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"When did the decline in youth mental health first become evident?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It first became evident in 2011, with later research describing worsening trends for young adults.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Why are social media and mental health access not enough to solve the crisis?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Suggested policies focus on regulation and treatment access, but they do not address deeper economic, climate, and civic discourse challenges that precipitated the decline in well-being.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does the document connect youth distress to future societal outcomes?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The costs include harm to earnings and productivity, reduced health and life expectancy, and a broader pattern of “deaths of despair” that increasingly involves young people.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},576453,1792661952,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":34,"category_name":35,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":14,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":19,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":52},1099513958762,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/1000023916a998db790?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1784791008015729253","The Kids Are Not OK, But Education Innovations Provide Hope  \nBy Carol Graham  \nW  \ne have an increasingly divided country, polity, and society. While this strains our family dinnersand creates anxiety on the left and right, one of the most notable results is the stark decline in the  \nwell-being and mental health of our youth. They are facing deep uncertainties about the future of jobs and labor markets, being able to afford college and the consequences of not having a degree, worsening climate change, declining communities, and toxic civic discourse.1 The youth mental health crisis in large part reflects a decline in hope that has resulted from these trends.  \nThe deterioration in youth mental health first became evident in 2011.2 Today, our young adults ages 18 to 25 are the least happy demographic group, departing from a long-established U-shaped relationship between life satisfaction and age in  \nCarol Graham is a senior fellow in the Economic Studies program at Brookings, a College Park Professor at the University of Maryland, and a senior scientist at Gallup. She received Pioneer Awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2017 and 2021 and a Lifetime Distinguished Scholar award from the International Society for Qualityof-Life Studies in 2018. The author of numerous articles and books, her most recent book is The Power of Hope: How the Science of Well-Being Can Save Us from Despair.  \nmany countries worldwide.3 The longstanding U-curve reflects the unhappiness and stress that most people experience in the midlife years as they juggle financial and family constraints (such as caring for both their children and their aging parents), while both the young and the old exhibit higher life satisfaction and lower stress, anxiety, and depression.4 But now, youth in the United States are faring worse than their stressed-out parents.  \nOur young are also unhappy compared to the young in many other countries, including those that are far less wealthy than the United States. These include Bulgaria, Ecuador, and Honduras.5 In 2024, US youth ranked 62nd in the world happiness rankings. Even more concerning, they also are experiencing an increase in anxiety, depression, and suicide.6  \nThere is no magic solution for this crisis. Most suggested policies focus on better regulation of social media and increased access to mental health care. While both of these things are important, they will not address the deeper economic, climate, and civil discourse challenges that precipitated the well-being crisis. Social media and misinformation surely exacerbate the trends, but the root causes are deeper and broader.  \nThe costs of not solving this crisis are high, not only for the youth who are suffering during what should be avery happy time in life, but also in terms of future earnings and productivity and  \nILLUSTRAT IONS BY TAYLOR CALLERY/ THEISPOT  \nAMERICAN EDUCATOR | WINTER 2024–25 3  \nThe youth mental health crisis in large part reflects a decline in hope.  \nour society’s health and life expectancy. In 2021, life expectancy for college-educated adults in the United States (who make up just one-third of our population) was eight and a half years longer than for adults without a bachelor’s degree—more than triple the gap in 1992.7 And today, many of the jobs available to those without a bachelor’s do not offer health insurance.  \nIn addition, we have a more general crisis of “deaths of despair,”8 primarily driven by premature deaths due to suicide, drug overdoses, and alcohol and other poisonings. Initially, these deaths were concentrated among middle-aged, bluecollar white people in communities suffering from declines in manufacturing, mining, and related industries; these industries typically anchored their communities, often serving as the main source of employment and supporting related civic organizations and local resources such as grocery stores, restaurants, and newspapers. Now, these deaths are spreading to a wider range of r","cbCaiv7qASU6vN0R","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiv7qASU6vN0R","pdf",152817,"English","# Restoring Hope\n## Youth mental health deterioration\n## Causes beyond mental health access\n## Intergenerational despair","[{\"question\":\"When did the decline in youth mental health first become evident?\",\"answer\":\"It first became evident in 2011, with later research describing worsening trends for young adults.\"},{\"question\":\"Why are social media and mental health access not enough to solve the crisis?\",\"answer\":\"Suggested policies focus on regulation and treatment access, but they do not address deeper economic, climate, and civic discourse challenges that precipitated the decline in well-being.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the document connect youth distress to future societal outcomes?\",\"answer\":\"The costs include harm to earnings and productivity, reduced health and life expectancy, and a broader pattern of “deaths of despair” that increasingly involves young people.\"}]","The Kids Are Not OK, But Education Innovations Provide Hope | PDF",1792029784]