The Correlation between one result of the Feminist Movement and new age mental illness in children, Coincidence?

[Chris Sawatsky]

First I want to say that I believe women have always been above, better than and healthier than men because evolution gave them 90% of everything needed to continue the Human Species well into the future. A little DNA from a man and they are equipped to do almost all the rest. Nature would not have given women these responsibilities if they were not capable of fulfilling them. The problem has always been mens beliefs and desire to dominate everyone around them. The feminist movement brought some of this to the world's attention and has made things better for women in many ways but is it possible that the immediate changes to the relationship between mother and child due to women going to work 2-3 years after childbirth had a negative psychological effect on many children within the last couple of generations? Don't jump to conclusions here because I am NOT trying to blame women's choices to work, get a post secondary education and/or career for the explosion of mental disorders like ADHD, ADD, Depression and others over the last 4-5 decades. The question I am really asking is this...Is it possible and or likely that because children have had their mothers around 24/7 for all of their lives for 99% of our evolution that the almost instantaneous change to being cared for by others so mom can work, starting as young as two years old, be part of the reason so many children (In the west anyway) have developed so many psychological/emotional issues with attention, behaviour and life choices? Could it be that we became so dependant on mom always being available that her absence at an early age causes the symptoms that are diagnosed as ADD, ADHD and the like? Again I am not trying to blame women as a whole for these issues, if anything it would be mens fault for repressing, abusing and traumatizing women for so very long. If you consider humanities long journey through evolution and the idea that we only relatively recently gained the ability to ignore our instincts and make choices for reasons other than survival and the future of our species, it stands to reason that our instincts have been to take the safest road and ignore any selfish desires, how easily we become dependant on things as they are and are famously resistant to change, it is at least possible that early separation from mom for the majority of our time not sleeping could trigger instinctual feelings of anxiety, fear and low self worth. One thing I would like to know is the stats concerning the gender children who present with symptoms of psychological illness early in life. Is it 50/50? Do both boys and girls develop ADD, ADHD etc equally or are the majority of these children male? This is what I suspect because I am a man and admit to being insecure often in my youth. Also it would make sense that females are less often diagnosed with these disorders for several reasons I won't bother mentioning.

[iNow]

I’ve noticed that more people carry umbrellas when it rains. Conclusion? Umbrellas make it rain 

[TheVat]

1 hour ago, Chris Sawatsky said:

One thing I would like to know is the stats concerning the gender children who present with symptoms of psychological illness early in life. Is it 50/50? Do both boys and girls develop ADD, ADHD etc equally or are the majority of these children male?

Why not use a search engine and find out what the current research is showing?

1 hour ago, Chris Sawatsky said:

Also it would make sense that females are less often diagnosed with these disorders for several reasons I won't bother mentioning.

It's hard to make sense of your statement if you don't share what you think those reasons are.  

Generally, social science data is notoriously bad for establishment of clearcut causal relationships.  People, life, culture, physical environment, all are complicated and it's hard to isolate variables.

51 minutes ago, iNow said:

I’ve noticed that more people carry umbrellas when it rains. Conclusion? Umbrellas make it rain 

Whenever I remember to carry my umbrella it doesn't rain.  Clearly umbrellas somehow inhibit atmospheric condensation.

[CharonY]

Also note that it is easy, especially non-quantitatively to correlate two or more random temporal trends with each other.

[iNow]

I also sometimes see shapes in the clouds! 

[J.C.MacSwell]

ADD and ADHD may have been previously underdiagnosed. Fortunately Big Pharm has been able to come up with the drugs necessary...

...to make themselves more money.

[CharonY]

12 hours ago, J.C.MacSwell said:

ADD and ADHD may have been previously underdiagnosed. Fortunately Big Pharm has been able to come up with the drugs necessary...

...to make themselves more money.

There is that, but I think with more data, we are starting to think a bit more about what is the range of normative behaviour? At which point does a certain behaviour cause dysfunctionality and requires additional treatment and how is what we should accept as normal range? One big issues is that in contrast to, say, infectious diseases we do not have causative agents, or even absolute clear targets. I am fairly sure that among experts, there is a more nuanced discussion about that, though.

[StringJunky]

17 hours ago, J.C.MacSwell said:

ADD and ADHD may have been previously underdiagnosed. Fortunately Big Pharm has been able to come up with the drugs necessary...

...to make themselves more money.

I used to think dyslexia was rather nebulous until I saw it with my own eyes.  I literally saw some letters change on the page to the correct ones after initially misreading it.

[iNow]

Better biochemistry lends to nicer narratives. 

[StringJunky]

56 minutes ago, CharonY said:

There is that, but I think with more data, we are starting to think a bit more about what is the range of normative behaviour? At which point does a certain behaviour cause dysfunctionality and requires additional treatment and how is what we should accept as normal range? One big issues is that in contrast to, say, infectious diseases we do not have causative agents, or even absolute clear targets. I am fairly sure that among experts, there is a more nuanced discussion about that, though.

Isn't the general definition of normal behaviour that behaviour which is neither pathological to the subject, nor those around them? Social/cultural expectations being accounted for and distinguished.

Edited January 13 by StringJunky

[CharonY]

That is true and exactly the problem. For example,  attentionspan and  is going down everywhere, but it is not clear whether current tests account for them.

[StringJunky]

12 minutes ago, CharonY said:

That is true and exactly the problem. For example,  attentionspan and  is going down everywhere, but it is not clear whether current tests account for them.

Is there documented inverse correlations on relative attention span between pre-internet use and present day?

edit: I should have added 'inverse' before correlations

Edited January 13 by StringJunky

[CharonY]

11 hours ago, StringJunky said:

Is there documented inverse correlations on relative attention span between pre-internet use and present day?

edit: I should have added 'inverse' before correlations

Theere should be. I remember a study around 2000s that measures task switching as a measure of focus of around 2.5 mins. A recent follow up from same author measured around 0.5 mins or so.  I have the papers... somewhere.

[StringJunky]

30 minutes ago, CharonY said:

Theere should be. I remember a study around 2000s that measures task switching as a measure of focus of around 2.5 mins. A recent follow up from same author measured around 0.5 mins or so.  I have the papers... somewhere.

Wow. They can't even listen to a 2.5 minute pop record, just the intro. 

Edited January 13 by StringJunky

[TheVat]

I am fairly confident that my generation has been able to retain its longer pre-web attention spans wow is that a gray squirrel in the yard haven't seen one this far west in years!