A recent study claims that some teens and young adults today are dealing with the same anxiety and mental health issues as youths did during the Great Depression.

According to a recent USA Today article, researchers at five universities came to this finding by analyzing the responses of more than 77,000 high school and college students from 1938 through 2007 who took the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, or MMPI, test.

The study showed that five times as many students in 2007 surpassed benchmarks in one or more mental health categories, compared with those in 1938. It found that 30 percent of youth worries were about finances.

“It’s another piece of the puzzle, that yes, this does seem to be a problem, that there are more young people who report anxiety and depression,” said Jean Twenge, a San Diego State University professor and lead author of the study.

Students listed pressure to succeed and high expectations as two factors fueling their anxieties and depression.

Ilene Schaller, a St. Joseph clinical social worker, said she sees a number of teens and young adults, as well as grade-school children, in her private practice. Part of the increase she sees is due not just to the economy, but the breakdown of the family unit.

“I think a lot of our high school and college students, as well as our grade school students, suffer from a lack of family contact and interaction with both parents,” she said. “It seems like a lot of times, grandparents are raising them, or one grandparent is raising a grandkid. It’s a lack of bonding.”

Financial concerns during the Great Depression were a little different than they are today, Ms. Schaller added. In the 1930s, there were more poor people, and when they did find work, it was for very low wages. But things were cheaper.

Nowadays, the emphasis in some cases is more on not being able to afford name-brand clothing and expensive gadgets like cell phones and video games. That’s what causes some of the anxiety in today’s youth.

“Sometimes a high school or college student looks at some of their friends and thinks ‘How come I have to struggle? My parents don’t have the money your parents have,’” Ms. Schaller said. “Sometimes I think our generation now feels like the parents owe them a fancier lifestyle. It’s a difference in the generations.”

Alonzo Weston can be reached at alonzo.weston@newspressnow.com.