They analysed data from a long-running study of almost 10,000 people across the UK who were born in November 1958. They found that 28 per cent of the study’s participants had been involved in the Scouts or Guides, and that these were 15 per cent less likely to suffer from anxiety or mood disorders at the age of 50 than their peers who didn’t join. Scouts or Guides were not more likely to come from families of any particular social status. However, people from poorer backgrounds do have a relatively higher likelihood of mental illness – but this effect seemed to be reduced or even removed in those who attended Scouts or Guides.
[1] https://www.newscientist.com/article/2112209-scouts-and-guid...
Submitter but not involved in the study
These children are often particularly socially awkward. I'm not an expert but I think that this group of children may be more predisposed to mental illness.
http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2016/10/05/jech-2016-20789...
They're comparing with people who went to other groups, and concluding that there is a quality of scouts and guides in particular that is protective.
I do wonder if there is still selection bias, since you may choose to avoid certain types of group, and attend others.
My daughter did Sparks & Brownies and it ended up being a big clique of kids who all went to the same church & school and in the end she (a hyper sensitive, artistic, intellectual type child and a more solitary, introverted type) hated it and asked to quit it.
I went through the same thing with Scouts when I was a boy.
The kids that remain after the first couple years of cute crafts and silly games are the kids who like following along with group activities, like doing group organization stuff, and deal well with social groups and (often) cliques.
Basically like sports, like a lot of elementary-level school (and a lot of other things in our society) -- the "odd" kids are selected against.
So no surprise there's "good mental health" for people who are good at conforming to the norm. Because that's literally the definition of "good mental health" encoded in the DSM. A disorder there is a deviation from the norm.
Most parents think their children are unique. That's why sending them to a group that wears a uniform is so important.
Generally you deal with it as quickly & safely as possible, get the rest of your patrol to rally and do what is needed to get said person into a stable state, while sending one member to alert your assistant scoutmaster so that further help can be at the ready. That doesn't mean you get to shirk off and not go get his asthma meds, or get the guy with hypothermia some wool clothing and figure out a way to get him warmed up in short order (throw 3 people in a sleeping bag, or a warm (but not hot!) shower if you are lucky to have one).
If there is one thing I learned, Cotton Kills!
(referencing its heat wicking effect when wet)
Or just switch anxiety for depression - i.e. everyday depression and 'clinical' depression are not the same thing.
Going with a scout group usually means that you wont be relying on the parent as you want to stay as a member of the group of people your own age.
You'll start to feel tired and sore at some stage, and it may start to rain. But if you've prepared properly (and the scout motto is "be prepared"), then you should be ok.
It's just a matter of getting away from it all, and perhaps embracing the suck as mentioned above.
This was my first thought. I would bet it has more to do with the kind of parents who would enroll their kids in scouts (either for socioeconomic reasons as you mentioned or maybe just whatever else that means about the type of parents they are)
Please though, give the researchers some credit. Controlling for demographic factors is sort of the bare minimum for something like this--which they attempted to do by including two "social position" factors in the model.
They also included some factors relating to childhood (presumably pre-Scouts) mental health, which might also help address selection bias.
In my city, the schools in the lower economic status did not even have a scouts/guides program and the ones that did were mostly in schools where the middle class/upper middle class kids went to.
I'm biased to pile on too social science studies but the study in question made efforts to address these considerations.
From another article [0]:
"On average, scouts and guides were 15 per cent less likely to
have developed mental illness or depression by middle age,
even those from poorer backgrounds whose initial risk was higher."
I'd argue that they didn't make enough efforts.
... snip ...
"Family aspiration was estimated from parents desire that their child leaves school at the minimum age, asked at age 11."
There was no judge of parental involvement beyond whether parents had a desire for their children to go to university or get A-Levels.
We went to mountains, deserts, rivers and lakes. We swam in a lake on an island in a lake. We canoed, hiked, camped, cooked, woodworked, laughed and ran.
Our Troop tried to keep event costs down to around $15, so everybody could participate. Succeeded for the most part. And we did regular fundraisers so anybody who wanted to go, had a way to get there.
Scout Troops can be expensive too. Our district has that kind. That can drive the perception of the demographic. But our Troop was top-rated in our District for years. And not because of money. It was because our youth led a very rigorous program, invested themselves in it, and expected a lot from one another.
That's actually the whole point of Scouting - getting the youth invested in something worthwhile. In the process, modeling behaviors and training skills and leadership.
I do feel bad for the other troops in our area though, I know at least 2 folded while we were going strong, one got kicked out of the district cause the BSA hates gay scoutmasters, and the other had no place to meet and severe funding issues. Running a troop requires a ton of parental involvement and effort, and outside the Mormons most troops are dying in the US.
It is really quite sad, but I get why. None of the gay guys in my troop could participate in leadership due to the BSA's policies at the time, and in a small troop that is lethal, you need every warm body that is willing to do the fundraising, planning, organizing, paperwork, etc. and they are few and far between
The gay youth in my Troop never had a problem taking leadership roles. The BSA national (read: Mormon) policy was no gay Adult leaders?
Stuff like "farm community....2 jobs" tends to obscure actual family income. Do you know what income percentile they were in?
> driving a truck
The median annual wage for a trucker in the US is $73,000.
This is not to doubt your comment -- just to put it in some perspective. Until you compare it to the whole country, you might just be saying that they were at the upper end of the middle class, but just didn't fit an idealized profile of a rich person that you have mentally imbibed.
I do see scouts take lots of active outside trips which can help with mental balance. Doing white water rafting, being thrown overboard, fighting elements, being cold and wet, seeing occasional physical injuries and the beauty of the stars in a desert can put minor life disappointments into perspective for a long long time. My 2c.
(This is not just anecdotal but are findings that the RDP (Ring of German scout organizations) made a couple years ago.)