Epidemic of Mental Health Issues in Youths of Affluent Families Paper Example

Description of the issues

The book by Madeline Levine attempts to show the epidemic of mental health issues which are happening to many youths of affluent families and it shed lights on why this is happening. It is shocking that many youths are showing more signs of hopelessness, angst, and feeling of emptiness. The pressure has made kids who have a material advantage to feel baseless. They tend to lack enthusiasm, spontaneity, creativity, and cannot handle pleasure. As a result, the children lack time for psychologically to involve in internal exploration. Dr. Levine firmly states that kids who grow up in families with a lot of material wealth normally experience challenges similar to those felt by children who grow in poor families.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The psychological development is disturbed when teens are pressured to appreciate the point of view of other. Ultimately, the motivation for venture should come from inside. As a back up to the artwork, this paper aims at reminding parents of the importance of their relationship with the children through guiding them to find themselves instead of pushing them to fulfill their narcissistic needs. Moreover, the writing tries to make parent firm about their expectations, help children to see and maximize their strength instead of pushing them through criticism.

A synopsis of the solutions

From this literature, it is true that authenticity is not achieved if kids battle against parents who force unrealistic selves into teenagers who already have stressing psychological life. As a solution, parents need to change parenting approach. The study shows that 22% of adolescent girls from rich some have clinical depression and by the time they complete high schools, majority show symptoms of anxiety. The emotional health is, therefore, affected by isolation and achievement pressure from parents. The achievement pressure comes from caregivers who are overinvolved in children life.

The writer suggests that kids need to be motivated to think of themselves and form their own point of view. In addition, children are supposed to be motivated to speak this is because children who feel helpless to change anything are easily depressed. A better solution presented in this artwork is parental involvement in developing teen's self-management skills. Caregivers can help them model their self-control, set limits, achieve delayed gratification and control impulses. By letting the children get bruised in childhood, parents helps them to get over adolescence and by allowing them to a fault, parent helps teenagers to lay the ground for success in adulthood.

Summary of important information

According to the writer, a well-adjusted student needs to have experience of loss and failure. Although these are painful life events, they help develop humility, illumination and understating what ought to be done. Narcissist parents use children as vessels for their own gain. These desires take the form of social, academic and political success achieved by the children. In the end, parents take credit and simultaneously, the learners do not possess their achievement. Unfortunately, when these children fail to develop an individual opinion, they become vulnerable and impoverished adults.

Dr. Levine research work shows that many similarities which are shared by these disturbed teens and their families. It occurs these parents are involved in children's lives, however, there is a limited emotional connection between them. Secondly, the caregiver uses permissive parenting styles, the families focus on materialistic and money ideals and teens are pressurized to succeed in ways defined by parents without consideration of intrinsic needs of the children. Thirdly, the degree of competition replaces co-operation among teen and this results to emotionally immature kids who have no concept of value such as serving others, responsibility, a value of hard work and respect for others.

Evaluation of the developmental information

The information presented in this book is backed by many authors (Randall, Bohnert, & Travers, 2015). According to, parents' expectations have effects on learners' academic performance. The idea is supported by who argue that parent pressure can make student work harder, however, when the pressure is undue and excessive, the high expectation can inhibit youngster development of self, confidence and cause poor outcomes at school. To this end, it can be concluded that the information is resourceful.

Overall critique

According to (Levine, 2006), there are two issues which affect teenage in any normal community: isolation from parents and overwhelming pressure to be the best in school. Her clients need therapy because of stress and worries over tiny issues and rejection from caregivers. In her words "Parents pressure their children to be outstanding while neglecting the very process by which outstanding children are formed" (Levine, 2006). The ideas in this statement are true in a modern community where parental validation is based on perfect test scores, immaculate transcripts, and admission to the best university. Speaking from profession standpoint, she has an ethos in her work. Moreover, other scholars have stated high expectations make students have crippling perfectionism which prevents creative thinking

The ideas presented in this article are backed by finding from other authors (Ballantine & Spade, 2012), this gives it some credibility. The writer's position and the relation between the parental pressure and children learning can also be proven by use of experiment. A study by (Brown & Iyengar, 2008) shows that parent expectation influence caregiver-teen communication about learning. In the same light, research by emphasizing that families which have increase educational target for their students tend to provide more schooling opportunities.

Personal reflections

The work by Madeline Levine addresses key issues in parenting. The study shows that parents ought to motivate their children to work hard, however, there must be a boundary. I feel that parent should not be overbearing and while at home the learners need to feel that they have control over their lives. However, I feel authoritative parenting produce results because parents enforce rules while supporting the teenagers.

As a victim of the system, I feel that parents need to see the essence of education revolution. The need for reform is important now more than ever before because the pressure on learners is much worse. To me, the reform looks like valuing the whole child. It about broadening the idea of success. I find the position drawn by writer relevant, it is time caregiver and the whole society measured non-cognitive skills, such as social responsibility, character, and ethics. The ideas by the writer are leading communities to foster strengthening the kids at school. More importantly, I agree with the central idea, upsetting power balance in school and giving learners more power and control over their learning. I believe that these desires will improve the learning, however, am afraid to say that parental pressure on children will end when they shake up the accepted wisdom which they hold about education.

Conclusion

As shown in the book, it is agreeable that academic perfectionism and parent over-involvement lead to the same horizon as the Ivy League. The expectations from caregiver make the preteens and teens from a rich family to have anxieties disorder, involve in substance abuse, somatic complaints, and depression. Kids appreciate internal motivation, this propels them to find their interest, passion, and abilities. The motivation is not linked to any reward-punishment system but it drives teenagers in engaging in what satisfy them. Moreover, this is the basis of learning.

Recommendations

The study by Madeline Levine can be an improvement to make it more reliable. It is recommendable to use sources of information from both parents and children to get a clearer relation between pressure and education (Georgiou, 2007).

References

Ballantine, J., & Spade, J. (2012). Schools and Society. CA: Sage Publishers.

Brown, L., & Iyengar, S. (2008). Parenting Styles: The Impact on Student Achievement. Marriage & Family Review, 43(1), 14-38.

Georgiou, S. (2007). Parental Involvement: Beyond Demographics. International Journal about Parents in Education, 1(0), 59-62.

Levine, M. (2006). The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids. Harper Collins.

Randall, E. T., Bohnert, A. B., & Travers, L. V. (2015). Understanding affluent adolescent adjustment: The interplay of parental perfectionism, perceived parental pressure, and organized activity involvement. Journal of Adolescence, 41, 56-66.