TIME.com: Why kids who believe are happier

[Perspicuo]

TIME: Why Kids Who Believe in Something Are Happier and Healthier
http://time.com/3825083/why-kids-who-believe-in-something-are-happier-and-healthier/

Despite more than a decade of widespread attention on happiness and the benefits of positive psychology, there is an epidemic of unhappiness in children and teens. Quite severe unhappiness. Health statistics over the past decade show that beyond the 20% to 25% of teens with major depression are another 40% (yes, that’s a total of 65%) who struggle with intrusive levels of depression symptoms at some point, and often with anxiety and substance abuse as well.

An increasingly narcissistic culture and the constant reward for achievement, whether on the playing field, the music stage or the math test, creates what I call in my book the unbalanced “performance self” of the child; a child who feels his or her worth is founded on ability and accomplishment.

Now the antidote. A new study just published online in the Journal of Religion and Health by my lab at Columbia University shows that happiness and the character traits of grit and persistence go “hand in hand” with a deeper inner asset: spirituality, which this study measured as a deep spiritual connection with a sense of a sacred world.

 

[ronburgundy]

Other research shows that more religious people lie about their happiness, and that more objective indicators of happiness show they are not any more happy.

This isn't at all surprising since religion is at its core an act of self-delusion and denial of reality.

 

[fromderinside]

Choose your calming pill. Certainty or uncertainty. Why would that be important to teens? Hormones perhaps.

 

[Perspicuo]

Hormones...

 

[Perspicuo]

Speaking of drippy drooling gaping mouths in empty heads...

http://talkfreethought.org/showthre...eing-an-atheist-not-bad-fr-your-mental-health
Christians in science can make it fib in their favor.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

First off, this isn't about kids. According to their study there are two groups, the adolescents and emerging adults were (18 to 25), then the older adults (26-82). Yeah, I thought the same thing.

An increasingly narcissistic culture and the constant reward for achievement, whether on the playing field, the music stage or the math test, creates what I call in my book the unbalanced “performance self” of the child; a child who feels his or her worth is founded on ability and accomplishment.

So, the author, pretty much just concludes kids are unhappy today because they all presumably received trophies for sports participation.

Now the antidote. A new study just published online in the Journal of Religion and Health by my lab at Columbia University shows that happiness and the character traits of grit and persistence go “hand in hand” with a deeper inner asset: spirituality, which this study measured as a deep spiritual connection with a sense of a sacred world.

How nice.

Read the abstract, found these two interesting things.

A minority subgroup of “virtuous humanists” showed high levels of positive psychology traits but low levels of personal spirituality, across both age cohorts. Whereas level of depression was found to be inversely associated with positive psychology traits and personal spirituality, uniquely personal spirituality was protective against degree of substance use across both age cohorts. Overall interpretation of the study findings suggests that personal spirituality may be foundational to positive psychology traits in the majority of people.

Notice how the first sentence is given almost no further attention and they move on to conclude... therefore God!

What a crock!

 

[TV and credit cards]

Your depressed children cannot be productive children. We must all feed the machine. Give them something to look forward to: Death.

Perhaps if we cared for our planet and others instead of raping the planet and harming others and passed this along to our children, they would find purpose in life. But when your taught early on, when you're immersed in the doctrine of make more money, buy more shit, that this is your purpose, it's easy to understand that many will look for something more to cling to. So there it is, spirituality. Just hang on and go through the motions and everything will be just dandy once you're dead.
The problem is our purpose is fucked up from the word go.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It occurred to me. Most children are raised in homes that have parents in a religion of one sort or the other. That they become depressed and leave the religion seems to be getting blamed on the lack of religion, which looks a bit bass ackwards.

 

[fromderinside]

... bass ackwards.

Nailed it.