Individuals Need To Take Responsibility
For years, the politically and psychologically correct explanation for the epidemic rise of depression, suicide, violence, and drug and alcohol use among teens has been “poor self-esteem.” Troubled teens are but “acting out” their low opinions of themselves, or so the conventional wisdom has gone. Responsibility for the problem was thus assigned either to the child’s parents or to “society,” the assumption being that if high-risk kids could be made to “feel good about themselves,” these epidemics could be mitigated.
This prescription, unfortunately, has proven to be yet another in a long list of nouveau homilies concerning children that haven’t lived up to their promises. Despite the fact that great numbers of parents and educators have been doing their darnedest to build the self-esteem of children by telling them how wonderful they are, teaching them self-esteem mantras like “I’m a great person and deserve great things” and making them feel successful regardless of achievement, these epidemics continue to rage. The question, then, becomes, how is it that the good intentions of so many have not panned out?
The answer may well be that those very good intentions have done more to promote those problems than relieve them. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and the University of Virginia have concluded that when a child whose self-concept has been artificially inflated - in other words, not as a result of individual effort and bona fide success, but rather as a result of (a) having been led to believe by adults that he is more capable than he actually is and (b) not having been held completely accountable for misbehavior - reaches the teen years and begins having real-world experiences that contradict that egoism, his self-image becomes threatened.
The two likely responses to such threat are withdrawal or a striking out at the perceived source(s) of the contradiction; in other words, depression or violence.
Interestingly enough, rates of teen depression, drug and alcohol use (a form of withdrawal), and violence began rising sharply around the same time the “self-esteem movement” began picking up steam. The movement’s promoters decried “blaming,” which amounted to holding anyone singularly responsible for any and all anti-social behavior. “Blaming” was held to be a form of psychological assault on the right of every individual to “good self-esteem.” Furthermore, said the “self-esteemers,” if one made a sufficient attempt at “understanding,” the familiar or social cause of the person’s behavior would become obvious. The ascendancy of this psychobabble ripped the lid off Pandora’s Box, and it is no wonder that the demons released have done outstanding damage to America’s children.
Judeo-Christian Scripture holds that wrongdoing requires penance - an admission of personal responsibility and a corresponding feeling of guilt. In other words, if you do something bad, you should feel bad about it. Penance drives atonement - the attempt to redress the wrong. It’s this simple: If a wrongdoer is not penitent, he will not voluntarily atone. But that’s not all. In the February 1996 issue of First Things, associate editor J. Bottum points out that not only does penance lead to atonement, but atonement leads to healing. What this means is that the damage done to America’s youth and the damage they are doing to themselves cannot be healed as long as good intentions and sentimental ideas guide child rearing.