Recent research published in journals developmental science Our findings suggest that changes in cultural expectations for young people may be responsible for increased rates of anxiety among children and adolescents. Specifically, this study shows that growing up in societies with declining religious norms tends to increase anxiety among young people. These findings provide evidence that community-wide beliefs shape young people’s mental health and suggest the need to find new ways to provide young people with a sense of belonging in the modern world.
Over the past 30 years, many societies have changed the way they raise children. Cultural expectations have shifted from community-centered values such as obedience to individualistic traits such as personal responsibility. Scientists wanted to understand how these changes in social values affect the mental well-being of children and teens.
“Across the world, we are seeing an increase in the number of young people suffering from mental health problems. To stop this worrying trend, we need to understand why mental disorders such as anxiety disorders are on the rise. There has been a lot of research on this, and these are all relevant factors. We wanted to explore the role of culture and changing expectations for children and adolescents,” said study author Leonard K. Krisch, a doctoral student at Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
Previous research has proposed that highly individualistic cultures create extreme pressure to succeed, which can impair mental health. However, most past studies focused only on wealthy Western countries at a given point in time. Researchers aimed to examine decades of global data to see whether changes in parenting goals actually predicted changes in anxiety among young people.
Parenting expectations are often referred to as socialization goals and represent the personality traits that adults hope to develop in their children. These goals provide a window into a culture’s broader values. Some cultures prefer an independent orientation that encourages self-expression, while others prefer an interdependent orientation that prioritizes social harmony and religious beliefs.
To explore this topic, scientists conducted two separate studies. The first study examined large-scale social data across 70 countries from 1989 to 2022. They collected cultural data from the World Values Survey, which included between 2,400 and 40,230 adult participants per country.
In this study, adults were asked to select the traits they thought were most important to encourage in children. The researchers then compared these cultural values to youth anxiety rates from the Global Burden of Disease Database. This health database estimates the number of new anxiety disorder cases per 100,000 children and teens based on clinical records and registries.
Scientists investigated whether a shift toward independence-related goals predicted increased anxiety. On a global scale, the emphasis on independence does not seem to have an impact on young people’s mental health. But in the educated, industrialized, wealthy, and democratic countries of the West, the situation looked different.
In these particular wealthy countries, we provided evidence that the shift to independence-based parenting is associated with increased anxiety rates. Scientists suggest that these extremes of independence in modern societies can lead to intense competition and loneliness. In developing countries, transitions to independence were not associated with increased insecurity, perhaps because these characteristics now serve to promote economic growth and improve overall quality of life.
When examining specific values on a global scale, scientists found one very consistent pattern. In all 70 countries, a decline in societal emphasis on raising children with religious beliefs was associated with increased anxiety among young people. As cultures made religion less important over time, young people were more likely to experience anxiety disorders.
“Previous literature has pointed to the widespread negative effects of cultural shifts toward more independent and individualistic values,” Krish told SciPost. “This was certainly appropriate for people in the West. The surprising finding was that religiosity (as a particular aspect of more interdependent or collectivistic cultures) was emerging as important around the world.”
The second study focused on individual families to better understand this relationship. The scientists used data from the Family Futures and Child Well-Being Study, which tracked 3,731 children in the United States. The study followed the same group of children between the ages of 3 and 15.
Researchers analyzed how mothers’ personal religious beliefs compared to the broader religious norms of their communities. They then looked at how these two factors were related to children’s anxiety symptoms over time. This approach allowed the researchers to separate the influence of personal family beliefs from the influence of general cultural expectations.
Analyzes revealed that community-wide religious norms more strongly predicted youth anxiety than mothers’ personal religious beliefs. Growing up in a highly religious society appears to have a protective effect on mental health, regardless of how religious a child’s own family is. Shared religious beliefs can provide young people with a structured framework for understanding the world and reduce uncertainty.
The scientists also used statistical modeling techniques to investigate the direction of this relationship. This mathematical tool assesses how past levels of one trait can predict later levels of another trait. This model suggested that religious environments in early childhood tend to reduce anxiety by the time children reach adolescence.
An inverse relationship was not found in the data. This means that children’s early anxiety levels did not predict their later religious involvement. Researchers say religious socialization is likely to help children become more resilient by fostering a clear sense of purpose and connecting them with a supportive community.
“Cultural expectations for young people are changing around the world,” Krish says. “Over the past 30 years, a focus on personal achievement and a decline in social values are likely contributing to the high rates of anxiety in the Western world. In all 70 countries surveyed, a decline in parenting religiosity has coincided with an increase in anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. I believe that in many parts of the world, religion is disappearing, leaving rifts and young people struggling to find belonging and meaning in modern society.”
Mental health theories emphasize that personal growth, environmental mastery, and positive relationships are the foundations of psychological health. Common religious practices often naturally foster these traits by providing stable routines, moral guidance, and strong social networks. Religious education gives young people a clear direction, which acts as a buffer against the pressures of modern society.
A common misconception about these findings is that people who are highly religious automatically have better mental health.
“Some news outlets have presented studies that claim that people who are more religious are better spiritually,” Krish explained. “Our study does not support such claims. In fact, we find that religiosity within a child’s family is less important than the overall religiosity of the population as a whole. Large-scale changes at the societal level are important because they can shape sources of belonging and meaning.”
“Furthermore, the results are similar across time and within countries, meaning that changes in religion can affect mental health. However, we cannot claim effects between countries or individuals based on our study.”
In other words, the findings track how changes in cultural norms within a single society affect overall anxiety rates over time, rather than comparing individual people to each other.
The scientists also noted that the actual effect size in this study was relatively small. Youth mental health is complex, and cultural values are just one piece of a much larger puzzle. Because the study relies on observational data, researchers cannot prove that lack of religion directly causes anxiety.
In future research, the scientists hope to explore how communities can close the social gaps created by declining religious participation. They plan to research alternative ways to foster social connections, such as volunteering, sports clubs, and school programs. As society becomes more secular, finding new ways to help young people overcome personal challenges has the potential to support young people’s mental health.
The study, “Global Cultural Change and Anxiety in Children and Adolescents: An Analysis of Socialization Goals over 30 Years in 70 Countries,” was authored by Leonard Konstantin Klisch, Ana Lorena Dominguez Rojas, Sylvia Schneider, and Babette Vogt.
