unhealthy human behaviors relieved by higher emotional intelligence!
the overall mental health of Americans leaves a lot to be desired.
As do the behaviors that wreak havoc in our individual and community lives (see right column below).
Most aberrant child, teen and adult behavior can be traced back to low emotional intelligence – the lack of the skills to manage one’s own reactions and relationships with others in a healthy way.
Now in the COVID-19 era, Americans mental health is at crisis levels perhaps not seen before. The Census Bureau reported last year that 34% of Americans showed signs of clinical levels of depression or anxiety. One separate study of home-confined students found 50% of parents saying their children are over-stressed.
Matters have improved since vaccinations took effect and the economy picked up. Still, mental heath issues and crime remain substantially higher than before the pandemic.
Years of studies show that most of the bleak statistics below – plus those of crime, divorce and business partnership feuds – will improve dramatically for the next generations if we start now to make EQ-raising Social-Emotional Learning a priority in all our schools.
Doing so can also affect the current situation because comprehensive EQ programs at their smartest also engage parents and non-teaching staff, as well as students and teachers. And the sooner Emotional Intelligence and EQ are household terms and a societal goal, the faster adult training in EQ skills will be adopted by other major sectors and institutions.
Businesses are already moving in that direction – and a huge amount of more growth is possible.
here are some individual and societal pains that widespread EQ skills would mitigate.
Violence: 10 million children annually are victims of domestic violence – on the rise even more now, police and social workers report. 20% of students in 2019 reported bullying. 12 million domestic partners in U.S. annually experience violence – also now increasing. U.S.: highest murder and violent assault rates of all advanced countries.
✤ Sexual Abuse: 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys in U.S. sexually abused before age 18. 325,000 women raped a year. 1/6 of American women are raped in their lifetimes.
✤ Self-Harm: 1 in 4 teenage girls and 19% of overall 14-year-old girls and boys self-harm. Rates of self-injury among teens were highest (above 20%) in Idaho, Kentucky, New Mexico, and Nevada.
✤ Mental Health: 13. 1% of youths aged 12 to 17 had at least one major depressive episode in 2020. Suicide was second leading cause of death for teens and grew dramatically between 2207 and 2019 and worsened with the pandemic. Nearly 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. – 43.8 million – experience mental illness in a given year. 1 in 6 Americans take psychiatric drugs, 80% of them long-term.
✤ Drug Usage: 58.2% of high school seniors reported they drink, and 34.9% used marijuana. 23.5 million Americans are addicted to alcohol and drugs – or 1 in every 10 over the age of 12 . $740 billion annually in related costs due to crime, lost work productivity and health care.
✤ Workplace: 48% of American adults report abusive experiences at work. Billions lost to workplace stress, conflict and trauma.
✤ Global Survival: In the 76 year existence of nuclear weapons, there have been two killing bombs – Hiroshima and Nagasaki – four near accidental nuclear wars because machines misread machines, and two near deliberate nuclear wars – Cuba Missile Crisis and India-Pakistan.
*Statistics based on reports from the Center For Disease Control and the Departments of Health and Human Resources and Education.
how did we do this to ourselves?
how about lack of emotional awareness?