Experts wonder whether popular culture’s emphasis on physical appearance, wealth and status is to blame for the increase in mental health issues.

Corroborating what school counselors have observed nationwide, a new study found that five times as many high school and college students are dealing with mental health issues as students that were surveyed during the Great Depression. Jean Twenge, the study’s lead author, believes that a “popular culture increasingly focused on the external—from wealth to looks and status—has contributed to the uptick in mental health issues,” Martha Irvine wrote for the Associated Press.

Researchers analyzed responses from 77,576 high school and college students that took the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) from 1938 to 2007. Five times as many students in 2007 “surpassed thresholds” in one or more mental health categories compared with students in 1938. Two categories—“hypomania” (“anxiety and unrealistic optimism”) and depression—grew at an even higher rate, with six times as many students scoring high.

Twenge says that the numbers may actually be low; she believes that students on antidepressants and other medications may have sk

via Study Shows Increase in Anxiety, Depression in Young People.