We are making our children ill with unrealisable=20 expectations

Young=20 people are paying the price for an economy driven by dissatisfaction, in = which=20 social mobility is in sharp decline

George Monbiot
Tuesday = June 27,=20 2006
The Guardian=20

If this were Iraq, or Somalia or Chechnya, the trend would not be = difficult=20 to understand. But this is Britain, during the longest period of = domestic peace=20 and prosperity in modern history. After 36 successive quarters of growth = and low=20 inflation, with high employment and a low chance of being murdered in = your bed,=20 we should be the happiest, calmest, least fearful people who have ever = lived.=20 But something has gone wrong.

A report published last week by the British Medical Association = suggests that=20 there has been a steady increase in mental health disorders among = children=20 between five and 16 years old. Today, 9.6% of them - very nearly one in = 10 -=20 suffer from psychological problems that are "persistent, severe and = affect=20 functioning on a day-to-day basis". Roughly "1.1 million children under = the age=20 of 18 ... would benefit from specialist services". I don't think it = would be an=20 exaggeration to describe this as a social catastrophe.

What is going on? The BMA isn't sure. It suggests that diet may be a = factor,=20 in particular a possible deficiency of Omega 3 fatty acids (an issue I = discussed=20 in last week's column). It notes that while there has been no increase = in the=20 number of 11- to 15-year-olds who drink alcohol, consumption among those = who do=20 has doubled in 14 years. It found that children living in poverty were = much more=20 likely to develop disorders than those with richer parents. But as child = poverty=20 is falling, you would expect this to mean that psychological problems = were=20 declining.

The BMA also points to changing family lives. But another report on = the same=20 issue, published by the Nuffield Foundation in 2004, found that "marked = changes=20 in family type ... were not the main reason for rising trends in = behaviour=20 problems".

The same study contains one of the most arresting statements I have = ever=20 read: "Rises in mental health problems seem to be associated with = improvements=20 in economic conditions." As our GDP increases, we become more disturbed. = Among=20 other possible causes, it blames rising pressures at school, changing=20 relationships with other children, and a decline in the limits and rules = set by=20 parents. But all these, it admits, are "untested hypotheses". As = anyone's guess=20 is as good as anyone else's, I feel justified in hazarding one of my = own. I=20 accept that this a complex problem, and that there are doubtless many = causes.=20 But I propose that one of them is Willy Loman syndrome.

Willy Loman is the hero of Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman. = He is=20 torn apart by the gulf between his expectations - the promise held out = to=20 everyone of fame and fortune - and reality. Even as his modest powers = decline=20 and his career falls apart, he believes that he can still be No 1. This = used to=20 be called the American dream. Now it is everyone's nightmare.

A survey published in April by the economist Tom Hertz showed that = the United=20 States has one of the lowest levels of intergenerational mobility in the = rich=20 world. A child born into a poor family has a 1% chance of growing up to = become=20 one of the richest 5%, while a child born into a wealthy family has a = 22%=20 chance. Another study, published by Business Week, found that in 1978 = 23% of=20 adult men whose fathers were in the bottom quartile made it into the top = quartile. In 2004 the figure was 10%. But reality and public perceptions = are=20 travelling in opposite directions. A poll for the New York Times = published in=20 2005 showed that 80% of respondents thought it was possible for poor = people to=20 become wealthy by working hard. In 1983 the figure was only 60%.

Hertz noted that "among high-income countries for which comparable = estimates=20 are available, only the United Kingdom had a lower rate of mobility than = the=20 United States". In April the Joseph Rowntree Foundation published a = study=20 showing that UK citizens in their 30s today are twice as likely to be = stuck in=20 the same economic class as their parents than people born 10 years = earlier.

Here too, declining mobility is accompanied by rising expectations. = In=20 January the Learning and Skills Council found that 16% of the teenagers = it=20 interviewed believed they would become famous, probably by appearing on = a show=20 like Big Brother. Many of them saw this as a better prospect than = obtaining=20 qualifications; 11% of them, it found, were "sitting around 'waiting to = be=20 discovered' ". The council claimed that the probability of being chosen = by Big=20 Brother and of becoming rich and famous as a result is 30 million to = one. But=20 the promise held out to us is that it can happen to anyone. The = teenagers seemed=20 to believe it can happen to everyone.

And this is surely how much of our economy now works. A vast industry = is=20 devoted to selling people images of themselves that bear no relation to = reality.=20 The most obvious of these (this is hardly an original point) is the = celebration=20 of extreme thinness just as childhood obesity becomes an epidemic.

The headline on this month's edition of the girls' magazine Sugar is = "Get=20 this Bikini Body with no effort". Most pages are devoted to either = bodies or=20 celebrities. A feature on Theo Walcott's partner, Melanie Slade, shows = how she=20 is about to exchange her modest life for mansions, sports cars, health = spas and=20 shopping in Bond Street. Its drawing of a typical "celeb wedding" = contains an=20 enclosure for "ugly relatives". A fat woman is being hosed with fake tan = by a=20 makeup artist, who is "trying to make the uglies photogenic".

A couple of readers seek to rebel against these impossible dreams, = but they=20 are slapped down. "After reading 'How to be sexy by Christina Aguilera' = ", one=20 girl writes, "I realised: how can a girl say she's individual, but look=20 plastic?" The letters editor replies: "She has an individual approach to = fashion, image and attitude - which is why we think she's fab." Another = letter=20 asks: "Why is a celeb always on the cover of Sugar? People who aren't=20 celebrities are people, too, and readers would respond better to seeing = their=20 mate's older sister than a star who they wish they were!" She's told: = "We've=20 done our research and most of you'd prefer to see a celeb on the cover."

One of the conditions that is growing fastest, the British Medical=20 Association says, is self-harm: cutting or burning yourself, pulling out = your=20 hair, swallowing poisons. It is commoner in girls than in boys: one = survey found=20 that 11.2% of girls had committed an act of this kind. If girls are = attacking or=20 seeking to erase their bodies, it is surely because they have been = taught to=20 hate them.

The gulf between what we are told we should be and what we are is = growing. As=20 children's expectations lose contact with reality, they are torn between = their=20 inner lives of fame and fortune and the humdrum reality their minds no = longer=20 inhabit. Advertising (and the businesses supported by it) is not the = clattering=20 of the stick in the swill bucket that Orwell perceived as much as the = carrot=20 that keeps the donkey moving. You are never allowed to come close enough = to eat,=20 however hard you pull. An economy driven by dissatisfaction could = scarcely fail=20 to cultivate mental illness.

Monbiot.com

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