High-achieving schools pose high risks for children’s mental health
Our group, has found high rates of serious disturbance – anxiety, depression, substance abuse or delinquency – in every HAS we have studied, including day schools and boarding schools, and public and private schools. These rates can be two to three times the national averages, and in some cases, six times as high and even greater. Other developmental researchers have shown that in large national data sets, serious problems in children’s mental health tend to be the highest in schools at the lowest and highest levels of community affluence, with those in the middle income range faring the best. It’s not surprising to find high levels of stress amid poverty, given challenges related to physical and emotional survival and its consequent ill effects on mental health. But it’s unsettling to find that a notion of…
