A recent study claims that five times as many high school and college students in the U. S. are suffering from anxiety and other mental health problems in comparison to youth of the same age who were studied in the Great Depression era.

Shadick, who directs Pace's counseling center, revealed that more students are undergoing mental health services. But he and other skeptics of the study mark that up, in part, to more students being aware that such services are available.

However, the study does not cite a definitive reason. But Twenge and mental health professionals speculate that pompous lifestyle with increased focus on looks, status and revolving materialism as the culprit.

The study initiated by Twenge and researchers at five universities, scrutinized the responses of 77,576 high school or college students who, from 1938 through 2007, took MMPI. It revealed an average increase of five times.

The study also claims an increase in "psychopathic deviation," which is related to psychopathic behaviour in a much milder form. The percentage of young people belonging to the category witnessed an increase from 5 per cent in 1938 to 24 per cent in 2007.