Attention to mental health has increased in recent years, and awareness of it is often attributed to generational change.
It is usually thought that new generations have been putting the issue on the agenda because they express higher levels of stress and anxiety, among other aspects of emotional well-being.
in the book The anxious generation (The Anxious Generation), published in 2024, psychologist Jonathan Haidt points out that there has been a decline in mental health among the adolescent population in the United States and relates it, among other things, to the growing use of smartphones.
But the so-called “mental health crisis” is usually identified with new generations regardless of Haidt’s study. Some use the stereotypical description of “the glass generation,” and I think they do so unfairly, since admitting and facing some emotional suffering requires a certain strength and not the fragility that is attributed to them.
In any case, the popular idea is that this mental health crisis is a problem facing younger generations today.
But recent surveys in Mexico suggest that this is not necessarily the case, and that even social class, socioeconomic level, can be as strong or more a predictor of mental health conditions than age or generation. Let’s see.
In the national survey by El Financiero carried out in August of this year among 530 adults, the following question was included: “In general, how would you describe your state of mental health: very good, good, average, bad or very bad ?”
This is a generic self-perception, but some studies on mental health suggest that this question reflects very well the differences between those who do or do not have various conditions such as excessive anxiety or depression, to name a few.
The survey showed that 24 percent of the people interviewed described their mental health status as very good and 52 percent as good, adding to 76 percent who consider themselves to be in good emotional and mental shape.
15 percent described their health status as “fair” and 4 percent described it as “bad,” admitting to having certain conditions that the survey does not specify in detail, but that represent a plethora of possibilities.
No one admitted that their mental health status is “very bad,” but the remaining 5 percent did not answer the question, leaving open the question of whether it is a lack of knowledge or a refusal to admit any illness.
According to the survey, the age of the people interviewed does show differences in the self-description of mental health: among the group of 18 to 29 years of age, 67 percent said good or very good, a proportion that rises to 75 percent among the group of 30 to 49 years, and up to 79 percent among those 50 years or older.
But it is not the youngest group that stands out in the “bad” self-description of mental health, but rather those between 30 and 49 years old, mostly millennials. 8 percent of those aged 30 to 49 said their mental health is poor, compared to 2 percent of those aged 18 to 29 and 3 percent of those aged 50 and over.
But the most interesting thing that the survey reveals is not this difference by age, but by social class. Among those who described themselves as middle class, 88 percent described their mental health status as good or very good and just 1 percent as bad, while among the lower classes 68 percent gave a positive assessment and 7 percent gave a negative assessment. The difference by social class is as notable as that shown by age.
And this is reinforced in schooling: the percentage that positively values their mental health reaches 69 percent among those who reported having a basic education, and rises to more than 80 percent among those with secondary and higher education.
These data indicate that mental health is not only an aspect related to age or generation; We must also look at socioeconomic and social class differences.
