Is the pursuit of overachievement fueling a mental health crisis among students of color?

One morning last summer, I needed to get up my son and tell him that his classmate and friend had died by suicide. It was the third such tragedy in a yr at his Los Angeles independent school.

Unfortunately, this pattern just isn’t typical of my son’s school. Across the country, youth are facing increasing mental health challenges and experiencing suicidal thoughts. According to Results of a study on dangerous behavior of young people published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2021 found that 22% of highschool students have seriously considered attempting suicide, with a noticeable spike in suicide rates and suicide attempts among Black youth.

We know that young individuals are prone to struggle with establishing a sense of identity, belonging, and purpose during adolescence, but what’s less known is that these struggles may not look as you may expect – especially among students of color in independent schools. The classmates my son lost last yr had a similar profile – outstanding students with impressive extracurricular activities under their belts, abandoning countless friends and community members to mourn them. Two of them were students of color.

Why do I keep mentioning race? Because while it’s true that teen suicide rates are skyrocketing, the problem disproportionately affects youth of color, whether or not they attend private or public schools. As a rite of passage, parents and older students often tell high-achieving students of color that they need to do twice as well to earn half as much as their white peers. This truism is well-intentioned and intended to arrange them for the systemic discrimination they may definitely face when taking jobs at prestigious institutions. However, imparting this cultural knowledge can intensify the pressure young people of color feel to do well in class, fit into their social circles, make their families proud and construct impressive résumés of extracurricular activities.

Add to this the pressures of race and young people today navigate a very different world than we did at their age. Digital and social media have immersed us in a culture of immediacy that also directly contributes to the mental health crisis. We live in a time and space where children are bombarded with images, information and opinions on the Internet. Youth of color are told that they’re the vanguard of American culture and that they need to dress in the trendiest and most costly clothes, learn to code-switch depending on their surroundings and who they’re talking to, change into well-versed in mainstream media and expectations, exude an aura of academic excellence and family. At a time when youth of color have already got to work harder than their peers to arrange for school as they navigate predominantly white institutions and depend on authority figures who don’t understand their experiences, they desperately need guidance on methods to navigate and process what they see , read and listen to about themselves on the Internet.

These challenges are usually not insurmountable, but there are not any easy solutions. They require all of us to press pause, take a deep breath and really consider what power and resources we now have to support young people. For example, how can teachers and administrators concentrate on lively listening when interacting with youth? And how can families support youth of color who spend most of their waking hours in institutions that were never intended for them? The answers to those questions will vary depending on school, geography, and student needs, but they’re all rooted in a human-centered approach to education and youth development.

Last yr my organization Private Schools Axishosted “Our Kids Are Not Okay: A Crucial Conversation on the Mental Health Needs of BIPOC Students in Independent Schools.”,” a mental health forum with students of color from Axis partner schools. One of the most typical refrains we heard from the youth who imparted their wisdom to us was that they need and should be understood by the peers and adults who navigate their school communities, and that they thrive after they have a solid sense of belonging.

Education

We must prioritize hiring more teachers, administrators, and physicians of color because of the diversity of the workforce strengthens the sense of belonging for all students. Educators of color are well-equipped to know and address the unique challenges faced by students of color, who often display signs of mental health stress otherwise than “textbook” examples based on a predominantly white population. If we wish students of color to talk openly about what is happening of their hearts and minds, we must first make them feel secure to share their deeply personal struggles. Unfortunately, too often the only help available to them is culturally incompetent clinicians, which leaves students feeling like they need to attempt to “be okay” lest they attract suspicion, anger, and ultimately punishment.

At home, as parents supporting our youngsters’s mental health, we must create an environment that normalizes open and honest conversations about emotional well-being – and that starts with talking to teens about our own emotions and the way we take care of them in healthy ways as adults People. Encourage young people to take heed to the emotions they experience each day and ask them to often share what they experience with you. As you actively take heed to them, keep in mind that encountering emotions across the spectrum is a normal part of the human experience. It’s okay to acknowledge a range of emotions without feeling the have to fix them. Instead, ask your teen how best you’ll be able to support them before you intervene.

I also want to emphasise very clearly that today’s generation of highschool students is greater than capable of proposing and implementing their very own solutions in the event that they have space to work together. That’s why I’d prefer to see more schools create spaces of commonality that concentrate on race and the myriad other ways in which students’ identities impact how systems treat them, including mental health issues and learning disabilities. These groups function integrated secure spaces that may be a lifesaver for students who need support.

As we see increasingly young people committing suicide, all of us – namely educators, parents and faculty mental health professionals – must take radically different approaches, prioritizing young people’s inherent right to mental health support. Not just for those left behind, but in honor of those we now have already lost.