In 2003, psychologist, Suniya S. Luthar performed a case study on adolescents brought up by both high and low socioeconomic income families. The aim of this experiment was to explore possible contrasts between the affluent and low-income adolescents. The upper-class youth reported remarkably higher levels of anxiety and depression. Anxiety of the white-collar families scored a 24% versus the normal average: 17%. Similarly, the wealthy male youth tested 59% for the use of illicit drugs compared to the typical 39%.
Luthar proposed two justifications between this correlation among affluent families and high substance use and elevated levels of anxiety and depression. The two theories include pressures to succeed and the isolation from parents or guardians. Many psychologists that study wealthy families tend to notice the “intensely competitive society of the rich.” The youth and adult’s success is demanded and their inadequacy is highly …show more content…
brought the McCandless family a fortune, which they used on their children, or at least Chris. McCandless had his final two years of college paid for, he had money for law school, and his parents offered to buy him a car. These examples exemplify Luthar’s other argument, the pressures of an affluent child to succeed. With over sixty-four thousand dollars put into McCandless’ education, it can be assumed that his parents were keen on him to graduate and become an accredited lawyer.
Both the isolation from his parents and pressures to succeed indirectly led McCandless to follow the ideas of the Transcendentalist movement, a series of concepts that emphasize, “in order to understand the nature of reality, one must first examine and analyze the reasoning process that governs the nature of experience.” This quote explains that Transcendentalism is rebelling against what is seen as the current society. The movement also emphasized nature is pivotal in discovering one’s self and others around
Luthar proposed two justifications between this correlation among affluent families and high substance use and elevated levels of anxiety and depression. The two theories include pressures to succeed and the isolation from parents or guardians. Many psychologists that study wealthy families tend to notice the “intensely competitive society of the rich.” The youth and adult’s success is demanded and their inadequacy is highly …show more content…
brought the McCandless family a fortune, which they used on their children, or at least Chris. McCandless had his final two years of college paid for, he had money for law school, and his parents offered to buy him a car. These examples exemplify Luthar’s other argument, the pressures of an affluent child to succeed. With over sixty-four thousand dollars put into McCandless’ education, it can be assumed that his parents were keen on him to graduate and become an accredited lawyer.
Both the isolation from his parents and pressures to succeed indirectly led McCandless to follow the ideas of the Transcendentalist movement, a series of concepts that emphasize, “in order to understand the nature of reality, one must first examine and analyze the reasoning process that governs the nature of experience.” This quote explains that Transcendentalism is rebelling against what is seen as the current society. The movement also emphasized nature is pivotal in discovering one’s self and others around