Debate: Young people are living in unprecedented times – too much chaos or too little resilience?: No Pain, No Gain? Why articulating distress marks youth resilience

Rising levels of anxiety and depression among children and adolescents are increasingly cited as evidence that today's youth are growing up in a world of unprecedented chaos and diminishing resilience. Yet, this interpretation rests on a fragile assumption: that greater expression of distress necessarily signals weaker coping. In this debate article, we argue the opposite. Drawing on long-term epidemiological trends, developmental theory, and recent evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic, we suggest that young people today may not be less resilient than previous generations, but more capable of recognizing, articulating, and responding to emotional strain. In this sense, the growing visibility of distress may mark not failure, but progress: a generation that has learned to give language to pain as part of adaptive development.