On August 12, a co-authored article discussing the emotional health and well-being among Americans of all generations from teenagers to post-65-year-olds written by Magali Rheault and Kyley McGeeney, revealed a wide disparity of emotional satisfaction and well-being among various age groups. The study revealed that older Americans, those 60 and above, demonstrated significantly better emotional health than their younger counterparts. In fact, the study showed that septuagenarians (people between the ages of 70-79) were far more likely to be emotionally content than their 20- and 30-something counterparts. The result hailed true even when they were broken down by gander, race, education, martial status, employment, class and geographic region. The study was based on more than 500,000 interviews conducted between January 2010 and June 2011 as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
What was notable about the study was the fact that the younger people were, the less likely they were to be content. In fact, statistics showed that less than 1 in 3 Americans between the ages of 18-24 has high emotional health. This is the generation of people who are most likely to be college students. This fact alone is alarming.
For those of us who have attended college at some point in our lives, we know that it is a time of continual transformation. You are constantly dealing with new (and in some cases) unexpected situations. You have finally reached official adulthood and all the freedoms, challenges and unpredictability associated with such a transition. While college can be a very liberating time in a person’s life, it also can be an overwhelming and potentially problematic experience for many. A recent study conducted by the organization National Health Ministries entitled “Stress and The College Student” produced the following:
Suicide is the second leading cause of death in college populations
The reasons for such riveting statistics can vary. Among such reasons are:
A person’s psychological make-up can also play a role. People with low self esteem who view themselves and the larger world as hostile are more inclined to suffer from some degree of dysfunction and mental illness. Being in such a constant state of distress can only contribute to other more premature aliments which can often lead to shorter life expectancies.
