Are schools in the northeast just less happy fun and positive?
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Anonymous
Not sure about 'seeming happier' but there hasn't been evidence of this in the mental health data. The primary geographical finding about mental health rates is that rural kids across the country have worse mental health (and less access to mental health resources) than suburban or urban kids and the trend has been worsening for decades. The states with high youth depression rates (e.g., over 5%) are: Iowa, Kansas, Montana (6.6!), North Dakota , Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wyoming. The states with the highest youth suicide rates (over 10 per 100000, with some of these going up to the 20s): Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming. In the Northeast, states with a higher relative rural population (e.g, New Hampshire, Maine) have worse mental health than states with a lower rural population (Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York). But, researchers haven't found a more general Northeast vs. Southern (or anywhere else) difference in youth depression/mental health controlling for rural/suburban/urban population rates. Since the thread was a spin-off on Davidson, if you look at the 2013-2019 mental health surveillance data from a combination of national surveys, in North Carolina 3.6% of youth had current depression, with 18.8% of these having a major depressive episode in the past year, and a suicide rate of 5.8 per 100,000. Compare it to Massachusetts as the proverbial "Northeast" and 3.9% had current depression, of those 16.5% major depression episode in the last year, and a suicide rate of less than half of NC at 2.8. (These latter two are important to look at as there may be regional differences in reporting depression, but less likely to be differences in more serious concerns), Connecticut is similar with 3.3% current depression, 14.3 major depressive episode, suicide rate of 4.2 per 100,000. New York has even lower depression rates 2.6, major depressive episode 12.9, and suicide rate 3.6 per 100,000. Some Southern states (Georgia, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina) do report low youth depression rates like New York ( 2.7, 2.8, 2.7, 2.3), but their youth suicide rates are a lot higher (6.3, 5.6,7.7,8.4) which is sometimes interpreted as having higher rates of undiagnosed/untreated depression. Other Southern states, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas fall fairly in the low middle of depression rates (generally in the 3-4 range like Connecticut/MA/NC)--though again with a general pattern of a higher suicide rate (7.6,6.8,7.4,6.7,7.3) which speaks more to lack of mental health resources again. This is a great resource on a lot of data if you're interested: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/su/su7102a1.htm |
Anonymous
I went to college in New England and loved it. We partied A LOT. I got used to the frigid air. It added to the cozy factor. I think I would have liked the Midwest, but probably not the south or west. |
Anonymous
| Thank me to the cdc data person. I was wondering: the depressed states look like a list of states with a lot of white people. Are white children more depressed than Asian or Black or Hispanic children? |
Anonymous
| My kid goes to school in CA and i do think the campus is a happier vibe than any school we toured in the East Coast. |
Anonymous
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At its core, this thread is really no different than the thread arguing that the only VA residents who go to OOS flagships and say they did it to get away from the state are the ones who either knew they couldn’t or didn’t get into UVA. It’s a defense mechanism. Because when you’re talking about “schools in the northeast” being super competitive and snobby, we know you’re really talking about the top private schools. Not ALL the schools in the NE, just the ones your kids are least likely to get into in the first place.
I went to a no name school in the northeast and had the time of life. |
Anonymous
| I think the top ranked northeastern schools are likely less fun than they were a generation ago. Back then, schools looked for well rounded students. Now they seem to be looking for robots with perfect grades who spend all their free time building their resume in some spiky topic. |
Anonymous
| I’m surprised anybody is even asking this question. This is as obvious as 2+2=4. |
Anonymous
lol, I have 2 in college in New England, and both are extremely happy where they landed. Neither were interested in hot humid southern weather, nor southern politics. And being a coastal elitist snob, I'm glad neither ended up in flyover country. |
Anonymous
In the 2013-2019 data sets, depression rates are not consistently different between race/ethnicities if you control for rural/suburban (except that American Indian youth have very high depression and suicide rates). A few of the studies do show White youth with higher depression rates though depending on the particular survey, but those are often ones that haven't controlled for rurality. Some studies show Asian-American youth have lower depression, but this doesn't always hold when you control for other factors like rurality (there are comparatively few Asian Americans living in rural areas) and also there are some studies (not part of this data set) that suggest that the lower depression rates in Asian American youth may be obscured by the fact that they may be more likely to report mental health concerns as physical symptoms (e.g., stomach ache, headache, fatigue, loss of appetite) perhaps because there is more of a cultural stigma associated with mental health concerns than physical concerns in their community. |
Anonymous
+1 And we took pride in work hard, play hard. Intensity isn’t great for everyone though. Softies can go play school in FL or wherever. |
Anonymous
+1 If OP had ever been to the Northeast, I could understand OP creating a thread, but OP clearly has not been to the Northeast. |
Anonymous
+1 Not to mention, people don't exactly seem "happy" in this area - hence this thread, and those like them. |
Anonymous
| I don’t know if it’s due to weather or the fact that competitive NE schools heavily pull from NE and Midatlantic states - which are filled with overly anxious competitive striver families. So the kids are that way too. And then you have a school that is 60% wired like that. I’m not saying the college experience in the NE can’t be fun, I went to college in one of them, but the culture isn’t happy loose and upbeat. |
Anonymous
I had one kid go South and one kid go to Midwest. Neither will come back to this area. They both enjoyed High School but said that after living elsewhere, they realize how miserable, spoiled and arrogant this area is. Additionally, they said how great it is to be in an environment that everyone roots for each other's success. I am not excited to have to move to see my kids after college. I am not bragging out this outcome, it is sad actually. |
Anonymous
+1 |