A psychologist reacted to a Wall Street Journal op-ed asking whether today's politics are making children depressed, saying societal unrest and unhealthy diets are indeed causing mental health problems.
"Children are like violins, and they play the stress of their parents," Dr. Daniel Amen told "Unfiltered" host Dan Bongino.
"With the societal unrest and the political divide, there are a lot of very unhappy children, and if you mix that with the incredibly awful diets we feed kids today — just think of the Happy Meal — and the social media addictions that they have, you see why anxiety, depression, suicide has gone up so much in children."
Bongino underlined the effect social media has had on the latest generation, the first to essentially grow up with its ubiquity their entire lifespan, asking what kind of damaging effects it might have on kids.
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Bongino pointed to public "social evaluations" and other situations disseminated on social media platforms.
"There's no question it's dramatically increasing brain health, mental health challenges — kids who spend the most time on social media, and they often get those toxic political messages — have been actually found to thin the cortex or change their brain in a negative way," he said.
"Your brain is actually not fully developed until you're about 25, so damaging a child's brain can have lifelong effects."
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Bongino asked whether that translates to children digesting crises in a psychologically disparate way from adults.
Amen said they can, adding that limiting exposure to social media and intensive politics, along with taking other precautions, can help children grow up healthier.
In the Journal op-ed, James Freeman wrote that "liberal intellectuals" are reportedly wondering whether progressive politics have a negative effect on mental health, adding the debate has been sparked by recent juvenile mental health findings.
"There are no doubt many factors contributing to a tragic rise in reports of mental health problems," Freeman said. "Could politics be among them?"
