LAST year, national statistics revealed that two in five Malaysian teenagers nationwide experienced anxiety issues, while one in five were depressed.

Based on the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) scoring, at least one-fifth of secondary school students sampled in the government’s National Health and Morbidity Survey rated themselves as regularly experiencing a range of emotional difficulties, including hopelessness, devaluation of life, self-deprecation, and situational anxiety. Meanwhile, a recent mental health report published by Penang Institute further showed that trends of adolescent mental health problems have escalated over the years. In 2006, approximately 14% of youth aged 16-19 reported psychological distress; this figure doubled to over 30% in 2015.

These trends reflect a worrying deterioration in mental health among the young people and should warrant concern for policymakers, as well as those who care about the wellbeing of this generation.

What are the causes?

What are the causes of mental health problems amongst youth? It is certainly not easy to pinpoint definite reasons. First and foremost, many symptoms of serious difficulties that would signal mental illness in adulthood are usually treated as token characteristics of adolescence. For example, “mood swings” tend to be attributed to hormonal changes and thus passed off as “normal” teenage behaviours.  

In reality, popular explanations for poor youth mental health tend to be linked to external social experiences. For example, much has been said recently about the effects of bullying and peer aggressiveness in school on youth wellbeing. This message is reinforced by the findings of NHMS 2017, which quantified bullying effects as a major risk factor leading to youth mental health problems. Negative peer influence is also the basis for many other risk factors, including vices such as smoking, substance abuse, and alcohol addiction.

Families are a crucial support pillar

While these are no doubt detrimental factors, to an extent, they are just part and parcel of experiencing life. Most young people will inevitably be exposed to bullying and social ills in public settings such as schools, universities, recreational spaces etc., albeit in different forms and to varying degrees.

In such cases, teenagers with strong networks of social support tend to be more resilient and equipped to make better choices. This includes being surrounded by people who are trustworthy and reliable, and being made to feel that one is cared for, esteemed, and valued.

Most experts would agree that social support is one, if not the most crucial component, of good mental health, especially in adolescence when teenagers go through changes in terms of friendships, bodies, brains, their place in the world, and how they make sense of it.

How teenagers navigate their world depends on whether they have appropriate resources and support; key among these is the family. Teenagers are the product of their childhood experiences, and children are first and foremost shaped by what they experience within their homes and families.

Parental relationships matter

In most families, parents play a role in creating a stable and nurturing home. As role models and primary caregivers, besides providing material needs, they are responsible for making their children feel safe, secure and, perhaps more importantly, loved and valued.

To that end, the quality of parental relationships matters greatly, for how parents behave towards each other has a huge impact on the way that a child develops. If there is mutual love, care, and respect between parents, there is a good chance that their children will grow up grounded and emotionally secure, with a healthy sense of identity.

Conversely, the child caught in between warring parents experiences great stress and tension. Studies have shown that children in high-conflict homes typically exhibit higher levels of low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. These insecurities will have an impact on their mental health outcomes significantly in the long run.  
Strong families must be a top policy agenda

The new Pakatan Harapan government has made much ado in its manifesto about wanting to invest in the youth and to develop the generation to their greatest potential. Aside from addressing education and health priorities, such an agenda must also include building strong and stable families.

At the immediate level, structural factors that contribute to family stress and perpetuate family instability must be tackled and mitigated, through targeted policies that address issues like poor work-life balance, rising living costs, and other problems.

On a deeper level, a more fundamental question is whether parents, regardless of their background, are sensitive to the need to provide a secure and supportive home environment for the wellbeing of their children. Some may scoff at this sentiment, yet it cannot be denied that the way parents relate to each other and raise their children matters greatly for youth well-being.

Admittedly, good parenting is not something that can be easily defined nor taught. More so in our country, where practices and approaches are complex and varied, depending on a family’s cultural heritage. Nevertheless, efforts can and should be made. The Women, Development and Community Ministry, seen as the primary bastion for family-related matters, should take the lead in working to improve the quality of parenting within communities. Some good groundwork has already been laid, in the form of parenting intervention programmes and public campaigns on strengthening the family.

Such campaigns should enhance parents’ ability to give care to their children, in ways that do not go against the grain of culture and inherited traditions. For this to work, more research is needed to inform decision making. Policy institutions and think tanks in Malaysia should invest in research to better understand the dynamics of family functioning in specific communities,  and underlying causes that predispose families to poor wellbeing. In the long term, this will be essential for developing effective ways to instil better resilience in families, which will surely improve mental health outcomes, for the current youth, and future generations to come.

A wise man once said: “other things may change us, but we start and end with the family”. This saying illuminates the magnitude of families as the cornerstone upon which lives are built.

In the spirit of its new reform agenda, the incumbent government has a duty to increase the wellbeing of families in its public policies. But responsibility should not rest on their shoulders alone. True change begins with individuals like you and I, working out the qualities of a stable family in our own homes. Let us not remain indifferent, but take active ownership of creating wholeness in our families. – August 28, 2018.

* Lim Su Lin is a policy analyst with Penang Institute in Kuala Lumpur. She graduated in 2013 with a degree in history from Cambridge University. Her research interests lie primarily in psychosocial health and wellbeing. She explores these in the context of making recommendations to improve social and development policies. The long-term goals of her work are to advocate for more equitable outcomes and reduced inequalities in society.

* Lim Su Lin is a Policy Analyst with Penang Institute in Kuala Lumpur. She graduated in 2013 with a degree in History from Cambridge University. Her research interests lie primarily in psychosocial health and wellbeing. She explores these in the context of making recommendations to improve social and development policies. The long-term goals of her work are to advocate for more equitable outcomes and reduced inequalities in society.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.