Speaking of Psychology: Stress in America – Generation Z, with APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD

Headline issues, from immigration to sexual assault, are causing significant stress for teens and young adults in Generation Z with mass shootings topping the list of stressful current events and more than two-thirds of adults reported feeling major stress about the nation’s future, according to the 2018 APA Stress in America™ report. APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, explains the findings and shares coping strategies to combat stress.

Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, is CEO of the American Psychological Association. Before joining APA, Evans was commissioner of Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Service, a $1.2 billion health care agency that is the behavioral health and intellectual disabilities safety net for 1.5 million Philadelphians. Earlier in his career, Evans was deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services, where he led major strategic initiatives in the state’s behavioral health care system. Evans has been recognized nationally and internationally for his work in behavioral health care policy and service delivery innovation and has authored or co-authored 40 peer-reviewed research articles and numerous chapters, reviews and editorials. 

Kaitlin Luna: Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, a podcast from the American Psychological Association. I'm your host, Kaitlin Luna. I'm joined by APA CEO Dr. Arthur C. Evans, Jr., who's here to talk about our Stress in America report that was released at the end of October and the findings are quite stark – 69 percent of American adults report significant stress about our nation's future and it's not just them. Teens and young adults in Generation Z are also reporting significant stress about issues like mass shootings, school shootings, sexual assault and news headline issues, like immigration. Welcome, Dr. Evans.

Arthur Evans: Thank you. Glad to be here.

Kaitlin Luna: There's a lot happening in the country in the world right now and it's clearly affecting the health for young people. What is the state of the mental health of our young people today in Generation Z.

Arthur Evans: Well, what our survey found is that young people are experiencing a significant amount of stress and it's related to a number of things that are happening in our society.

While young people are not, and we refer to them as Generation Z, that's the age group between 15 and 21, while they're not experiencing different stressors, they are experiencing those stressors at a greater intensity than the rest of the population. So, we're concerned about that. And we're also concerned that when we ask about their mental health and the state of their mental health, young people, that age group, actually say that their mental health is fair or poor at a greater rate than other generations.

Kaitlin Luna: And so, what are some of the unique stressors that this generation faces today?

Arthur Evans: One of the things that we're concerned about is that while Generation Z is experiencing the same things as older generations, they are not as equipped to deal with that. First of all, from a developmental standpoint, you know our executive functioning, the part of the brain that is controls that, isn't fully developed until age 25. And so, on the one hand, you have this generation that is experiencing the same stressors as everyone else, but developmentally they haven't developed. They haven’t fully maturated and don't have all of those skills that they, they need from that standpoint.

So, for example, the issue of mass shootings. Generation Z reports that as a stressor at a greater rate than the rest of the population significantly. They're concerned about school shootings, which is something that is going to affect them more than other groups.

They're also concerned about things like social media. One of the interesting things in the survey is that half of the people, about half of that generation, sees social media as a support and something that's positive and the other half see it as something that can be a stressor.

So, we know social media, a lot of the concerns that they have about what's happening in the news, issues like immigration, issues like suicide, those kinds of issues are also stressors for them.

Kaitlin Luna: In social media, as you said does play a role because that's something that wasn't around as much for Millennials or it was around at all for Generation X or previous generations.

Arthur Evans: That's correct. So, social media and school shootings, that was something that people in my generation didn't worry about but is clearly a stressor for young people today.

Kaitlin Luna: So, about seven out of ten Generation Z respondents reported lying awake at night because of stress, but what are some of the other physiological signs of stress that manifests in teens and young adults?

Arthur Evans: Not only are teens lying awake at night, but they are also experiencing physical and mental symptoms. In fact, 90 percent reported at least one symptom in the past month. That is a very high number. So, you know, we're concerned about the level of symptoms that young people are experiencing this generation. The other kinds of symptoms that they might be experiencing are disturbances in eating, disturbances in sleep, reporting headaches. Those are the kinds of physical symptoms that often are an indication that people are experiencing stress.

Kaitlin Luna: And so, what can parents and other people do to help these young people to not be so stressed and to make their lives a little bit easier?

Arthur Evans: You can do a lot of things. So, one of the things to do is to really be clear about what are the things that are creating stress – and I think the survey is actually one of the things that's helpful in that because we sort of lay out these are the things that young people are most concerned about and ours causing stress for people. But, it's also important for people to understand that things like social support – we have literally decades of research that shows that the more people that we have in our lives that support us, generally the better our health is. Generally, generally, the better our mental health is and frankly the better we do in life. And so, we can be much more intentional about making sure that we are including people in our lives when we are going through very stressful periods. Social media – we talked about social media. Social media, again, can be a help or it can be something that causes stress, particularly when people are bullied through social media. So, being able to limit that and to control that is an important way of managing stress. And then, there are things that we can all do to just take care of ourselves – getting enough sleep, eating right, exercising, those kinds of physical activities actually help us manage the level of stress that we're experiencing.

Kaitlin Luna: And one bright spot the study found is that Generation Z is more likely to go see a therapist than the Millennials. So, is that a sign that the mental health stigma is going away?

Arthur Evans: Wouldn't go there yet. In terms of is mental health stigma going away, we know that mental health stigma is very powerful. It is universal. I was at a recent international conference and the same kind of stigma that we have in the U.S. is really reflected around the world. So, this is much bigger than even the United States. I do believe though that this younger generation is much more open to receiving services, and in fact, our survey says that. It says that they're more likely to be open to receiving mental health services. And so, I think that there is a glimmer of hope that people are becoming more open to receiving mental health services, that there's less stigma around those that them around that generation and around these issues, but we do have a much bigger problem in our country and we have to be very concerned about how do we reduce the stigma and start to view mental health issues in the same way that we view physical health issues.

Kaitlin Luna: So, only slightly more than half of Generation Z respondents said they were likely to vote in the midterm elections. Now, we're past the elections now, but what does that say about why this generation chooses not to be active in politics?

Arthur Evans: Well, I'm not a political scientist, but what we do know is that the older people are the more likely they are to vote. And so, Generation Z is not different than previous generations in that sense. We do also know that this generation has been, is a little more likely to vote than previous generations of that age group. So, I think there's a little good news there that it looks like the trend is towards them being more active, the fact that they're not voting is not atypical. One of the things that we are, I think, that is good about this generation is that you see a level of activism that we haven't seen in this generation in the past. We saw that around the issue of school shootings. We see that around other issues. And so, one of the things that we know is that the more engaged you are around issues that you're feeling stress about, the more likely it is that you are able to manage that stress effectively. And so, by voting, by being engaged in the political system, those are ways that actually help all of us deal with stress more effectively.

Kaitlin Luna: And moving on to adults, in this survey compared to last year, the overall stress for adults went up significantly, so what does that tell us?

Arthur Evans: Well, it what it says is that people are really feeling the effects of the environment – the political environment, the social environment. We were surprised last year when we saw 63 percent of Americans saying that they were stressed when it came to thinking about the future of the country. That number went from 63 percent last year to 69 percent in the current survey. And so, it means that the current environment isn't getting better. It also could mean that people are being more sensitive to it, but I suspect that it has more to do with the environment changing and becoming more entrenched around some of the incivility that we've seen as opposed to people being just more sensitive to that.

Kaitlin Luna: Okay and about a quarter of all people respond to the survey said discrimination was also a source of stress and that was close to half of African-American adults and one-third of Hispanic adults and which was surprising is that this rate is the highest since the question was first added to the survey in 2015. So, can you speak to the challenges facing minority communities and people of color?

Arthur Evans: Well, minority communities, people of color have historically rated and experienced more stress than other parts of the population. So that's pretty consistent. The results of this survey are showing that, and I think reinforcing this idea that the current political environment, the current social environment is having an effect in terms of people's stress levels. So, not unexpected, but I think we have to be concerned then again about the current political environment, the current tone that we're in, because that is having an impact on Americans in general, but also on minority groups in particular.

Kaitlin Luna: And so, overall you advise people to seek out social supports to get sleep, exercise, take care of themselves. Are there other coping strategies that you suggest for teens and adults?

Arthur Evans: Well, I think it's very important to be, to actively be engaged around the issues that people have concerns about and stress about. Since many of the things that we, we noted in the survey are political in nature, it's important then for people being engaged in the political process, for people to vote, for people to be active on issues that they care about – if that's immigration, if that's in the environment – if you know, whatever that issue is for people to be actively involved in those issues actually helps them to manage their stress level.

Kaitlin Luna: And so, why does APA do this study?

Arthur Evans: Well, we do this study because we know that there is a direct connection between the level of stress that we experience and then a whole series of health outcomes. And if we want the nation to be healthy, we know that stress is can be an impediment to that, we think we're doing a public service by helping the public to understand one, what are the things that people are stressed about, what are the levels of stress that people are experiencing, how is that changing, but more importantly it gives us an opportunity then to talk about strategies, coping strategies and things that people can put in place to really manage that stress and be much more conscious about the stress that they are experiencing.

Kaitlin Luna: And APA always offers plenty of resources on a variety of topics, like Stress in America or you know, postpartum depression, you know, how to talk to children about traumatic events. So, what does APA and what does APA and psychologists around the country, what role they play in helping ease people's stress?

Arthur Evans: Well, a variety of things. So, one of the things is that when our stress gets to the point that it manifests in mental health challenges, seeing a psychologist can be very helpful. We also know that because we have psychologists all over the country who are aware of some of these issues, they can be very important resources to schools, to communities, giving lectures about ways that people can manage stress. You know, we really don't want people to need clinical intervention. So, the more we can do to educate people about ways that they can manage stress, ways that they can mitigate stressors that are happening in their lives, the less likely it is that people are going to run into challenges that really require clinical intervention. Clinical intervention is okay. That's why we train because we want to be able to do that, but we also want to be proactive and be preventative and do early intervention, as well.

Kaitlin Luna: And the APA website is a great tool for that.

Arthur Evans: The APA website is a great tool for that. It has a lot of resources there. Our Stress in America section can be very helpful, but we also have information on how you can reach a psychologist if you're looking for one and need one.

Kaitlin Luna: Wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Evans.

Arthur Evans: Thank you. I've enjoyed being here.

Kaitlin Luna: If you want to learn more, please visit StressinAmerica.org. If you've been a longtime listener or viewer or are new to our show, please consider giving us a rating or write a review. We'd really appreciate it.

We also like to hear from you directly, so if you have any questions or comments, please email me at kluna@apa.org. That's kluna@apa.org. Speaking of Psychology is part of the APA podcast network, which includes other great podcasts, like APA Journals Dialogue and Progress Notes. You can find our podcasts on iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also visit Speakingofpsychology.org to view more episodes and to see resources on the topics we discuss. I'm Kaitlin Luna for the American Psychological Association.