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As I write this post, I looked at my question, and I know the answer is: "Of Course". I didn't know how to explain this concept though. Without getting too controversial, I just thought that teenagers today are making choices that I never even dreamed of making as a youth. There are kids at very early ages, such as nine years old, deciding they want a sex change. There are kids in middle school deciding that they are fluid-gender, that they will decide each morning if they want to be a male, a female, or a not listed above, to be defined later. Personally I don't think that children are wise enough to make these significant decisions in their life with little knowledge and wisdom to draw from.

I Am No Psychologist....

Most of my kids wanted to get tattoos in their teens. I was against this, as I knew from running a small business, that they would be judged for their tattoos. Whether that is right or wrong, it is the reality. A person came in to interview one day for an internship. He came in a t-shirt and jeans. After the end of a very short interview, one of my employees thought he would help the young lad out and suggest that he dress up next time. The kid replied back, "I don't want to work for anyone that requires me to dress professionally to an interview". As he didn't seem too clever, he is probably still looking for a job......

Back to the tattoos..... I have very few rules that I imposed on my kids such as this (beyond the no drugs in the house stuff), so I said if they got a tattoo, their college fund would not be available to them. I added - try me on this, as it will personally save me a lot of money. No one tried. Now my kids will be 28, 26, and 22 this year. Guess what - no tattoos. Why? Because they realized that they didn't want them that badly anymore - they are expensive, and two of the three have positions in which they deal with the public all the time. Because they know their current situation, they decided not to move forward with tattoos. As a 17-year old, if we gave them a green light, they certainly would have taken it, as I know my kids quite well.

I Have Rambled, Now To My Point!

I listened to this podcast that did an very eloquent job of explaining this concept. If you are interested in exploring this further, give it a listen. It is about teen-anxiety, which is a big deal, and as they go over the interlocking parts of the problem, they explain the term: Prevalence Inflation, which I never heard before.



At the -30:00 minute mark, that quote was said:

"By focusing teenagers attention on mental health issues these interventions may have unwittingly exacerbated their problems."

I have been grappling with questions for some time relating to why our youth is involved with what I think is age-inapropriate concepts. When presenting our youth with these concepts, we are actually influencing their behavior - basically tempting them into dabbling with things that weren't even an option for me at those ages because we didn't even know they existed. Couple that with social-media 'pushing' these concepts, they can't help but to dabble in these areas.

I have been specifically thinking about all these 'new value propositions that kids are presented with'. By asking kids if they think they are 'fluid gender', that actually causes them to decide to give it a try and 'be that way'. If the proposition was never made that they could be fluid gender, then they never would have come up with that concept on their own, let alone decide to give it a try."

Prevalence Inflation - A New Concept for Me

Here is a quote from part of their discussion at -28:00 minutes: ".....to the point that those start to become a trapping of our identity then we will function in the world in ways that are less adaptive right or certain more reaffirming of those mental health problems so I think you know in the piece that you referenced that I wrote for the New York Times. I talked about this phenomenon of prevalence inflation, which is the idea that when you hear about people having a particular diagnosis or problem and you know, maybe even if you’re online your feed is kind of populated with people with those particular problems you start to feel like everyone has them and that you start to feel like of course I have this also, you start to self diagnose yourself, and then that becomes kind of a self fulfilling prophecy Yourself with that identity then you’re gonna gravitate towards examples that are congruent with that identity you’re gonna maybe even unconsciously act in ways that affirm that identity and you’re gonna get into a bit of a vicious cycle I think, with your own sort of perceived pathology."

This references this article: New York Times - This Is Not the way to Help Depressed Teenagers

It also references this study: Investigating the efficacy of a Dialectical behaviour therapy-based universal intervention on adolescent social and emotional well-being outcomes

Can Prevalence Inflation Apply to Other Areas Of a Teens Life?

The term "prevalence inflation" has been discussed in the context of mental health awareness efforts. It refers to the phenomenon where greater awareness of mental illness leads people to interpret normal life events as symptoms of mental illness. This concept has been addressed in a paper presenting the prevalence inflation hypothesis. Additionally, an article by Lucy Foulkes, an Oxford psychologist, mentioned prevalence inflation in the context of mental health interventions for teenagers, highlighting the potential unintended consequences of focusing attention on mental health issues. The term is used to emphasize the importance of evidence-informed mental health literacy programs and the need for thoughtful approaches to mental health education and intervention.

Listen For Yourself

The Dark Side of the Internet’s Obsession With Anxiety Give it a listen and let me know what you think. - Alan