Millennials are Depressed because of Student Debt and Poor Job Prospects

Millennials are Depressed because of Student Debt and Poor Job Prospects
Introduction
Depression among Millennials and Baby Boomers is not the same: it has been found to be more severe among the younger generation than among the older generation, for various reasons. Some of those reasons include economic instability, fear of joblessness, debt concerns, and too much time involved with electronics and digital media to the point where it interferes with the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle (Brown, Richman & Rospenda, 2016). This paper looks at the generational differences and the social interaction challenges that occur among these two generational groups and how these factors play a part in the different levels of depression.
Generational Differences
Brown et al. (2016) found “that the associations between economic stressors and symptoms of both depression and anxiety were significantly greater for members of the millennial cohort compared with baby boomers” (p. 267). Millennials in other words face a more challenging task of overcoming depression caused by economic and financial insecurity than their grandparents, the Baby Boomer generation, experienced (Accius & Yeh, 2017). One explanation for this is that the Boomer generation experienced solid job growth and could go to college when it was still relatively affordable. Today’s Millennials do not have the same job prospects as many jobs have been offshored and college has become an albatross around the necks of many students whose hope for relief is in student loan forgiveness promises made by politicians . The generational experience of the two cohorts has simply been exceedingly different. Baby Boomers enjoyed relatively easy access to credit and high interest rates, which gave them more incentive to save their earnings. Today’s interest rates are near zero and thus Millennials face the risk of investing in equities to see any positive return on savings. It is not a stable way to approach finances. Thus, it should be no surprise that Millennials are more depressed as a result of economic stressors than Baby Boomers, as Brown et al. (2016) point out. Boomers are still in the workplace holding onto the upper level executive positions, while Millennials are energetic and eager to climb up and make their way in the world. They find, however, that the older generation continues to be in their way and it frustrates them and increases their sense of conflict with the older generation as well as their sense of depression of despair (Cannon & Kendig, 2018).
Twenge, Cooper, Joiner, Duffy and Binau (2019) point out that the problem is serious among Millennials: rates of depression are up more than 50% over the past 15 years among this cohort, signaling that the Millennial generation is deeply worried and troubled over something. Economic factors may be just one part of the problem. There may be additional factors causing Millennials to be so severely depressed, anxious, and potentially suicidal. Some possible factors that Twenge et al. (2019) highlight is the “rise of electronic communication and digital media and declines in sleep duration” (p. 185). However, it is very likely that there are internal issues as well—and not just environmental problems. As Accius and Yeh (2017) note, American culture is not investing in the next generation the way it should be: Millennials entered the labor market right when the market was imploding under the weight of the 2008 economic crisis. Unable to find work in their field they entered the services industry and many have not gotten out of it. The problem is compounded by debt: “Given the amount of student loan debt, more than a third of Millennials said, if they could do it all over again, they would not have gone to college” (Accius & Yeh, 2017, p. 105). There is clearly a great deal of frustration among Millennials. Yet among Baby Boomers, the feelings are not the same. Boomers may have had their 401(k)s negatively impacted but the stock market was supported by central bank intervention and most if not all those losses were recovered. Boomers have kept their jobs and have been reluctant to give them up to the upcoming generation, as they are receiving executive level six-figure salaries in many cases and thus have no real reason to let go, since these jobs are management jobs and do not require a great deal of skill or overall intervention. Cannon and Kendig (2018) show that Millennials are frustrated that Baby Boomers are in their way still. Millennials want to be able to rise up and take control, and yet they find that the older generation is still holding onto the reigns.
Social Interaction Challenges
Bland, Melton, Welle and Bigham (2012) show that the social interaction challenges for Millennials are more extreme than they were for previous generations. Baby Boomers entered the world that was largely catered to them. They were given a voice, they shaped the way their colleges developed, they were active in politics, culture, and society. They defined the job market, and established themselves quickly. Millennials have inherited a world where systems are breaking down. The systems were defined by the Boomer generation, and now the systems are coming apart. But rather than being given the opportunity to create their own system, they are finding themselves pushed and pulled in different directions. Colleges ask them to embrace Marxist ideology in many cases, and the real world of business expects them to be team players who will support the corporate cosmology. Millennials have little cultural support like that which Boomers enjoyed when they were college-aged. Boomers came from stable two-parent families. Many Millennials come from unstable or single-parent or mixed-marriage families. They have not enjoyed the same familial stability. They also have not enjoyed the same cultural stability. Boomers shaped culture through the 60s and 70s, but they were supported by the traditional values that were still in place. Millennials have no such support. They must seek out personal values and principles in order to sustain themselves, as Bland et al. (2012) report. They require to feel supported, they require a social network, cleanliness, parental support, and religious support (Bland et al., 2012). Yet in many cases they do not know how to obtain these supports and it leads to anxiety and depression. They are challenged severely when it comes to social interaction with the world because they have not been given the same foundation as the older generation had.
One reason for this is that divorce skyrocketed among Boomers and Generation X, and so Millennials took an unfavorable view of the social stability that marriage affords (Arocho & Kamp Dush, 2017). They were not given an example of why marriage matters, what marriage offers, why procreation was traditionally linked with marriage, and how men and women traditionally managed separate social spheres and thus complemented one another’s social roles. That foundation has been denied Millennials and thus it should be no surprise why they suffer from depression at such a more severe rate than Baby Boomers do. The problem is that they have been given insubstantial road maps on how to navigate the world and how to establish social ties. They cohabitate like their mothers did (Arocho & Kamp Dush, 2017). They see little purpose in romantic/sexual unions outside passing pleasure.
Conclusion
In conclusion, depression is now greater for Millennials than it is for Baby Boomers primarily because Millennials are facing a world that they have not helped to create. Rather than being proactive in determining their fate, they find they must be reactive and in many cases they feel they are faced with tasks that are regressive. They have not learned the value of marriage; the example set for them was poor. They have not been given an opportunity to create jobs: the economy was drained before they had a chance to enter into it. They are drowning in debt and electronics, which further depersonalize and dehumanize their existence. Boomers had the last good breath of fresh air that America had to offer. Generation X saw the decline and Millennials are being buried under it, which is why their depression rates are highest.
References
Accius, J., & Yeh, J. C. (2017). America must invest in its next generations.  Generations, 40(4), 101-107.
Arocho, R., & Kamp Dush, C. M. (2017). Like mother, like child: Offspring marital timing desires and maternal marriage timing and stability. Journal of Family Psychology, 31(3), 261.
Bland, H. W., Melton, B. F., Welle, P., & Bigham, L. (2012). Stress tolerance: New challenges for millennial college students. College Student Journal, 46(2), 362-376.
Brown, R. L., Richman, J. A., & Rospenda, K. M. (2017). Economic stressors and psychological distress: exploring age cohort variation in the wake of the great recession. Stress and Health, 33(3), 267-277.
Cannon, L., & Kendig, H. (2018). ‘Millennials’: Perceived generational opportunities and intergenerational conflict in Australia. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 37(4), E127-E132.
Twenge, J. M., Cooper, A. B., Joiner, T. E., Duffy, M. E., & Binau, S. G. (2019). Age, period, and cohort trends in mood disorder indicators and suicide-related outcomes in a nationally representative dataset, 2005–2017. Journal of abnormal psychology, 128(3), 185.