Postmodern Kids Spiritually At Risk, Family Expert Says
by Jim Brown
April 16, 2004
(AgapePress) - A child and family psychologist is concerned about the declining spiritual state of America's youth. A recent study by Duke University and the Foundation for Child Development found that the emotional and spiritual well-being of children in the U.S. has not improved since the 1980s.The study found that children today, although safer than they were nearly 30 years ago, are more likely to be obese, impoverished, suicidal and living in single-parent families. Parents tend to spend less than 40 minutes a week engaging in meaningful conversation with their children, who typically spend long hours in front of the TV, which is on in the average home some 49 hours a week.
Dr. Bill Maier, vice president of Focus on the Family, says that is no surprise, considering how America's, culture is steeped in postmodernism. "We have a very selfish, narcissistic, self-centered culture that we live in, and it's all about 'me and my rights and what makes me happy.' And in many American families, there is very little sense of a transcendent morality and there's very little sense that there's something beyond us," he says.
According to the childhood development expert, when children are seeking truth and meaning in a society like America, it is no wonder these young people are suffering emotionally. He notes that the current youth suicide rates are especially troubling.
Although teen suicide is the number-three killer of teenagers in the United States, Maier says an alarming new trend is emerging. He says, "What we're seeing is younger children -- kids that are 9, 10, 11 years of age -- committing suicide. What a tragedy. And I think if we looked at these kids' families, what we would probably find is a great deal of family dysfunction. We would find divorce. We would find absent fathers."
Maier asserts that kids cannot survive and thrive without stability, love, and lovingly imposed limits on their lives. Unfortunately, the psychologist says, many families are failing to provide these essential elements for their children. (See Earlier Article)
