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Journal of Clinical and
Basic Psychosomatics Preventing teen depression and anxiety

17 century that features challenged religious orthodox significantly distances adolescents from nature, increases
th
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and awakened humanist ideals, marking a profound social isolation, and exposes them to stressors such as
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rebirth in human history, this paper advocates for a social overcrowding. In addition, heavy consumption of social
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renaissance that aims to reshape society’s foundational media among adolescents, another distinctive habitual
values to promote collective well-being and address the behavior of modern society, can lead to unhealthy upward
root causes of depression and anxiety. Social renaissance social comparison, 14,15 driven by their innate tendency to
is an original concept we introduced in this paper and compare with others, which adds to their daily stress. 16,17
differs from related concepts such as cultural change and Furthermore, social inequality – whether based on race,
paradigm shift in several ways. Cultural change typically gender, or income – creates environments that leave
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refers to shifts within specific groups or subcultures, disadvantaged adolescents feeling hopeless, helpless, and
altering norms and behaviors, and paradigm shift, in its lacking social mobility, all of which are significant risk
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dictionary sense, refers to a fundamental change in the factors for mental health disorders. These interconnected
underlying assumptions or approaches within a particular socioenvironmental factors – urbanization and social
field or discipline. In contrast, a social renaissance calls inequality – collectively create an environment that
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for transformation with widespread, collective efforts aggravates the vulnerability to depression and anxiety,
to redefine societal norms across multiple dimensions making it crucial to address not only individual mental
– education, lifestyle, and social construct – ultimately health needs but also the pro-stress societal construct that
reshaping how society functions at its core. This concept contributes to such crisis.
plays a crucial role in preventing mental health crises Moreover, adolescents are particularly vulnerable
among adolescents caused by distorted social values and to depression and anxiety, and their adaptability is
modern lifestyles. constantly stress-tested by environmental stressors 20,21
This paper aims to first reveal how depression-inducing arising from family, social life, and school, with childhood
factors, such as psychosocial and environmental influences, trauma having the most significant impact on adolescent
can predispose individuals to or trigger depression. It then depressive symptoms. In 2023 alone, there were reported
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analyzes why current solutions are ineffective in mitigating 546,159 victims of child abuse and neglect in the U.S. This
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the ongoing prevalence of depression and anxiety among calls for an urgent need to optimize the environment in
adolescents, and finally, it proposes that the rising rates which children are raised to prevent the onset of adolescent
of these mental health issues are significantly influenced depression and anxiety.
by societal determinants and that a social renaissance Optimizing the environment not only helps prevent
can effectively address their root causes. By linking the risks by silencing the expression of risk genes but also
increasing rates of mental health disorders with the need counteracts the detrimental effects when encountering
for a collective societal response, this paper seeks to engage adverse events. Research has shown that many individuals
a diverse audience, including academics, clinicians, and who experience early life adversity do not develop
the public. depression or other psychiatric conditions and that the
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2. Depression-inducing factors effects of early adversity can be mitigated through strong
parental support and positive social relationships later
2.1. Genetic predisposition and environmental in life. This underscores the importance of adopting a
factors developmental view when understanding the role of
Genetic predispositions significantly contribute to environmental factors, which can either be depression-
the vulnerability to depression and anxiety ; however, inducing, exacerbating the risk of developing mental
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these conditions cannot be solely attributed to genetics. disorders, or depression-reducing, helping to prevent
Socioenvironmental factors, including modern lifestyles their development. Therefore, it is crucial to focus on the
characterized by sedentary behavior, chronic stress, and environmental aspect rather than genetic, as addressing the
social isolation, interact with genetic predispositions former not only has the potential to prevent the onset of
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to exacerbate mental health risks. Among these mental disorders but also counteract them after disorders
factors, urbanization contributes to social isolation by have emerged.
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creating large, impersonal environments with private, Alongside optimizing the environment at the systemic
gated communities and apartment complexes where level, it is equally important to teach and train adolescents
community ties weaken, and digital communication often to cope with adverse life events at an individual level.
replaces face-to-face interactions, all of which reduce Some individuals, even in challenging situations,
opportunities for meaningful social connections. It also demonstrate greater cognitive adaptability – often referred

Volume 3 Issue 4 (2025) 31 doi: 10.36922/jcbp.8077