"Rich People Problems"

In American Studies, we frequently discuss our community around us and how we differ from the rest of the world. We live in the "bubble", and live in an affluent community. At our school, there is thousands of students filled with anxiety and stress, especially now, right before finals week. We compete, we struggle, and we definitely don't always feel like we're in the top one percent. So when I was flipping through the news and saw an article titled "Growing Up on Easy Street Has Its Own Dangers", I decided to read on. 

This article starts with the story of a 30-year-old man who killed his father after a disagreement on the allowance he was given. My first reaction: wow, that guy must be pretty crazy. My second reaction: what thirty year old still receives an allowance from his parents? I asked my parents if they would think about giving me an allowance when I'm thirty, and they laughed in my face. I found the second part of the article more interesting than that story, however, because it talked about how studies have shown that children from affluent families often have "higher rates of depression and anxiety and elevated levels of substance abuse and certain delinquent behaviors". This is shocking to me; you would think that it would be the exact opposite! Children from affluent families, who live in suburbs probably similar to ours, have more resources and opportunities, in my opinion, than others of poorer communities. So why is it that they are the ones that fall victim to these mental disorders?

Suniya Luther, a psychologist, supported this idea by data from low-income families compared to high-income families. Teenagers of high income families have more pocket money, therefore money to spend on drugs and alcohol, and usually have the means of getting to places where they can buy it from. After reading this study, I thought about the argument more and understood her idea. However, I don't agree with this completely because I think that there are different kinds of stress and mental disorders that face low-income and high-income families. The kids come from completely different backgrounds, so I don't think it's easy to compare the two. I definitely don't think it's okay to say that children coming from wealthy families don't have any problems compared to others. The phrase "money buys happiness" is false; everyone has problems, and money isn't the driving variable that causes one to have more or less problems. I feel like the "rich kids" usually get made fun of the most for their "false" problems, whether it's on social media or in real life. Why do you think children from wealthy families are seen to have smaller problems in comparison to those from poorer families?