‘Parents are very complicit in this avoidance’: how well-meaning mums, dads are fuelling anxiety

When even a trip to school camp is too much to bear, Adelaide childhood experts says something has gone seriously wrong with the way Aussies raise their kids.

New national data shows almost 40 per cent of young people aged 16 to 24 have have suffered a mental disorder in the past 12 months. Picture: iStock.

Over-involved helicopter parents are fuelling an anxiety epidemic with an “outrageous” upsurge in youth mental health issues across the nation, a leading Adelaide psychologist says.

New national data shows almost 40 per cent of people aged 16 to 24 have suffered a mental disorder in the past 12 months.

Clinical psychologist Tom Nehmy, a director at Healthy Minds which offers preventive psychology programs in schools, has labelled the trend a “national disgrace”.

“I think there are two broad contributors … one is the rise of smartphone technology among young people,” Dr Nehmy said.

Clinical psychologist Tom Nehmy has described rates of youth anxiety and depression as ‘a national disgrace’. File picture: Campbell Brodie.

“But the other is a generational shift in parenting practices; research shows over-parenting, or over-involved parenting – some people say helicopter parenting – is associated with susceptibility to anxiety.

“Over-parenting is absolutely born out of love, goodwill and good intentions; it is parents trying to be so diligent in their care and responsiveness to their child but they end up doing too much … (parents are) hovering over their kids, cautioning them to be careful at every turn.

“When I go into schools, I hear from teachers that young people today seem to be less resilient across the board, that they are more prone to ‘giving up easily’; they are more likely to avoid things like school camps and, most concerning, parents are very complicit in this avoidance.

“We know avoidance is one of the major causes of anxiety.”

Dr Nehmy described as “massively concerning” the rate of youth anxiety and depression revealed in the ABS National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, released this month.

“The prevalence of anxiety in this report is outrageous and I don’t think it is getting the attention it deserves,” he said.

“We wouldn’t tolerate this as a society if it was any kind of physical malady (but) because it is psychological in nature, people see it as more opaque and harder to solve and they tend to throw their hands up in the air.”

“We need to get really focused and hone in the attention of educators and parents on the things that are going to be most impactful … we have a window of opportunity to get young people through this critical phase of their youth without developing anxiety or depression and it actually has benefits for the rest of their lives.”

Dr Nehmy said the good news was the trend could be reversed.

“The ‘positive opposite’ of the problem is to teach kids healthy thinking (which is thinking that is balanced, helpful and realistic) and ensure they get exposure to age-appropriate challenges,” he said.

“We need to harness the good intentions parents have and help them parent in ways that support the healthy psychological development of their child (and) upskill teachers to be able to model and coach psychological skills to kids.”