In our roles as college professionals, we are increasingly confronted with a concerning trend: a significant rise in mental health issues among incoming students. A March 2023 report by Inside Higher Ed, in collaboration with Healthy Minds, paints a stark picture: 44% of college students surveyed report experiencing symptoms of depression, 37% struggle with anxiety, and alarmingly, 15% have seriously contemplated suicide. These figures represent the highest rates observed in the survey’s 15-year history. This data compels us to confront a crucial question: How can we, as educators and mentors, effectively support the mental well-being of our students?
In response to this escalating crisis, Lisa Damour’s 2023 book, The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents, emerges as a valuable resource. Though primarily aimed at parents, Damour’s expertise as a psychologist extends beyond this audience. She skillfully integrates psychological insights with a historical sociological analysis, exploring how shifting societal structures and cultures impact the emotional lives of teenagers. This approach renders the book highly relevant not just to parents, but also to us as college professionals. Damour’s insights have gained traction in the higher education community, evidenced by her features on various educational platforms, including The Key Podcast by Inside Higher Education. Such recognition underscores the book’s applicability and importance in addressing the mental health challenges we witness in our institutions.
Central to Damour’s analysis is the concept of emotional regulation and its evolution in recent decades. She anchors her argument on two fundamental premises: Firstly, experiencing intense emotions is a normal aspect of teenage development; secondly, the state of feeling good should not be confused with good mental health, nor should feeling bad be seen as indicative of poor mental health. Rather, it is the ability to effectively regulate emotions that is crucial. Damour critiques the cultural shift in the United States towards an overemphasis on adolescent happiness, suggesting that this has led to a neglect of teaching teens how to acknowledge, understand, and manage their emotions. This problem is further exacerbated by the growing influence of the “wellness industry,” an increase in the use of psychotropic medications, and more accessible therapy options, including drop-in and telehealth services. Importantly, Damour also addresses the diverse mental health needs across different genders and races, acknowledging the varied experiences and challenges faced by teenagers in these groups.
The latter part of Damour’s book is a practical guide, offering a wealth of strategies for engaging with adolescents in emotional distress. Drawing from her extensive clinical practice, Damour presents various case studies, providing insights into effective methods for aiding teenagers, and equally importantly, practices to avoid. The book’s final chapters are particularly instructive, focusing on assisting teenagers in expressing their feelings and regaining emotional control.
Moreover, while Damour’s primary focus is on adolescents in junior high and high school, her insights into emotional regulation are highly applicable to college students. Her approach involves a redefinition of how we perceive and handle emotions:
- Recognizing emotions as crucial information for decision-making.
- Understanding that emotions are natural and should not be shielded from.
- Avoiding the conflation of emotional intensity with psychological fragility.
In addition to these conceptual shifts, Damour offers concrete strategies for responding to emotional distress. These include restructuring conversations to encourage openness, finding healthy outlets for emotions, using distraction techniques to manage distress, offering small comforts, promoting better sleep, and teaching effective breathing techniques. The most impactful yet simple advice she offers is the importance of active listening and empathy when engaging with individuals sharing their emotions.
While I regard Lisa Damour’s book as a significant contribution to the conversation on teenage mental health, there are aspects where it falls short. A notable limitation is its class-centric perspective. Despite acknowledging the diversity of teenage experiences through lenses of gender, race, and sexuality, the case studies and narratives predominantly reflect the experiences of more affluent teenagers from stable home environments. Examples like Zach, who distracts himself with video games and sports, or Natalie, who struggles with overwhelming emotions, reveal a tendency towards scenarios where families have the means to access specialized services. This focus raises questions about the book’s relatability to a broader spectrum of teenage experiences, particularly those from less privileged backgrounds. Such an omission suggests that while Damour explores diversity in certain dimensions, there’s a missed opportunity to address the full range of socio-economic realities impacting teenage mental health.
The insights from Damour’s book offer a foundational understanding of the teenage mental health crisis, yet as college professionals, our responsibilities are multifaceted. Our goal shouldn’t only be to how best to respond to students’ distress in the form of services, but instead assess how higher education systems, through their evolving structures and policies, contribute to these challenges. This includes addressing the ongoing commodification of higher education, a trend that frequently positions students, and by extension, their families, as consumers seeking satisfaction, rather than as developing adults in need of meaningful challenges and growth opportunities. In this context, the prevalent emphasis on academic achievement and the expansion of administrative services should be counterbalanced with a deeper commitment to genuine, empathetic engagement with students, focusing not only on their success and retention to the institution but also on their broader emotional and developmental needs. This reflection calls for a transformative approach in higher education, one that not only responds to immediate mental health issues but also proactively rethinks and reshapes the educational environment to foster holistic well-being and growth among our students. As stewards of learning and development, we have the opportunity – and indeed, the obligation – to lead this change, ensuring our institutions are nurturing spaces that support all aspects of our students’ journey.
The Online Sociologist 