The Despair of Young Liberal Women

New research shows young people are in crisis, but how much is due to politics?

Something is happening to young people. A growing number of research studies suggest that young adults today face unprecedented degrees of mental distress. Most recently, the CDC reported that teenage girls are experiencing record levels of sadness. Left-leaning young women appear to be faring worst of all. What’s going on? 

There has been a lot of good writing on this topic—including from David French on the role of parents, Matthew Yglesias on liberal catastrophizing, and Jonathan Haidt on social media. I’m not going to rehash those arguments. Rather, I’m going to consider two possible explanations that have gone underappreciated and unrecognized: the #MeToo movement and a rapid change in social identity. 

Personal Unhappiness 

Liberals consistently report lower levels of personal satisfaction than conservatives. This has been clear for quite some time, I might add. I wrote about this recently in this newsletter, but lots of other folks have explored this idea, including Thomas Edsall …