• A new book by a Charles Sturt University academic and a colleague presents an evidence-based re-examination of how adults often misunderstand and mismanage youth mental health
• The book challenges widely accepted interventions, and argues that what needs to change most isn’t the children, but how adults respond to, support, and trust them
• The authors offer practical strategies that parents, educators, and youth mentors can apply immediately

The authors of a new book reflect on ancient Greek philosopher Socrates’ complaints about “kids these days” and the many common examples today that label youth as ‘fragile’.

The book, Kids These Days: Understanding and Supporting Youth Mental Health, is by Dr Will Dobud  (pictured left), Senior Lecturer in Social Work in the Charles Sturt University School of Social Work and Arts and co-author Professor Nevin Harper at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

Dr Dobud said Kids These Days presents an evidence-based re-examination of how adults often misunderstand and mismanage youth mental health.

“We reflect on how each generation comes up with labels for the youth of today, and it’s happened for millennia; that’s the ‘Kids These Days Effect’,” Dr Dobud said. “The issue is that today we also diagnose teens with mental disorders, intervene, and medicate at higher rates than ever before.

“We question whether these rates of labelling and medicating is really helping, and we look at other ideas that we all know could work to help kids adventure through adolescence.”

The authors draw on two decades of clinical practice and research experience in outdoor therapy, youth work, and trauma-informed care. They explore how ─ despite having more counsellors, educators, experts, interventions, and medications than ever ─ the evidence tends to point towards worsening trends, marked by anxiety, depression, self-harm, loneliness, and rising rates of suicide.

“By challenging widely accepted interventions we question whether diagnostic labels, increased access to talk therapy, and medication alone are sufficient, or even appropriate, as default responses,” Dr Dobud said.

“We advocate for approaches that restore agency, connection, and relational trust, and we emphasise the importance of fostering autonomy, mastery, gratitude and meaningful relationships in building and promoting resilience.”

Dr Dobud said Kids These Days calls on parents, educators, clinicians and policymakers to shift from ‘fixing’ youth to supporting them as co-adventurers in their own development.

“In reframing the youth mental health crisis, we posit that what needs to change most isn’t the children, but how adults respond to, support, and trust them,” he said.

“The book is grounded in research and filled with expert insights from parenting and psychology professionals, and we offer practical strategies that parents, educators, and youth mentors can apply immediately.”

Find out more about studying the Bachelor of Social Work at Charles Sturt University.

Kids These Days: Understanding and Supporting Youth Mental Health is published by New Society Publishers.