Children from privileged families are more likely to develop mental health problems, reveals new study

10 Nov Children from privileged families are more likely to develop mental health problems, reveals new study

Here’s an interesting article by Jaya Narian, in The Daily Mail Online, Children from privileged families are more likely to develop mental health problems, reveals new study :

Children from rich families are far more likely to develop mental health problems than less affluent youngsters, according to new research.

Scientists have found that the offspring of well-off parents are experiencing a major rise in levels of neuroses, leading to drug abuse, criminal behaviour and eating disorders.

The research shows that depression and anxiety – the major factor behind such behaviour – is almost twice the normal rate in children whose parents earn more than £100,000 a year.

The cause is said to be linked to pushy parents who put relentless pressure on their children to succeed.

Suniya Luthar, the psychologist behind the studies, said many children were simply unable to cope with the continual demands to do well made upon them by their aspirational parents.

Professor Luthar said: ‘The evidence suggests that the privileged young are much more vulnerable than in previous generations. I have spent the last decade researching why this is the case. The evidence points to one cause: the pressure for high octane achievement.

‘The children of affluent parents expect to excel at school and in extracurricular activities, and also in their social lives. They feel a relentless sense of pressure.’

The findings are supported by Tanya Byron, an eminent British psychologist, whose London clinic treats such young people.

Earlier this year Prof Byron said she is currently treating more children suffering from conditions such as anorexia, depression and self-harm than at any other time in her 20-year career.

She says she is seeing students from a number of top independent schools who are so scared of failure they have developed ‘school phobia’.

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