Mind the Children

This is an essential and urgent examination of the youth mental health crisis, where Naomi Schaefer Riley, Sally Satel, and a team of journalists, researchers, and clinicians dig into the depression, anxiety, and struggles of today's children and teenagers, exploring the impact of declining family life and religious affiliation, rising marijuana use, ubiquitous screens and social media, well-meaning schools, political rhetoric, and the shortage of professional help, giving parents and policymakers a clear-eyed picture of American adolescence.

Why are so many children and teens today struggling with depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges, and who or what is to blame? Mind the Children provides insight into the scale, scope, and causes of the youth mental health crisis. From the decline in family life and religious affiliation to the rise in marijuana use and the ubiquity of cell phones and other screens, this book explores the cultural, institutional and technological changes that are making kids' lives more difficult.

Contributors to the book -journalists, researchers, and clinicians- address topics as varied as how schools may paradoxically worsen matters they are trying to address, how political rhetoric may affect children's ability to cope with ordinary challenges, and how to reverse the shortage of professionals available to help kids. Mind the Children will help parents and policymakers gain a comprehensive understanding of a multifaceted problem, which other experts have been too quick to trace to a single cause.

Naomi Schaefer Riley is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she focuses on child welfare and foster care issues. Specifically, her work analyzes the role of faith-based and community organizations in changing the foster care and adoption services landscape. She also studies how race, class and family structure affect foster care placement and services and the impact of the drug crisis on child welfare. She is concurrently a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum.

Sally Satel, MD, is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a practicing psychiatrist and lecturer at the Yale University School of Medicine. She studies mental health policy and political trends in medicine.