Amid rising anxiety, colleges tell students it’s OK to fail

A growing number of U.S. colleges are sending a message to students saying it’s OK to fail.

Campus mental health officials from Massachusetts to California are trying to normalize failure for students as one way to combat rising rates of anxiety and depression among college students.

Bentley University near Boston recently hosted an event inviting students to hear professors talk about some of their worst failures and how they moved past them.

Stanford University encourages students to celebrate their failures at an annual event called “Stanford, I Screwed Up!”

Mental health officials say younger generations appear to be less resilient and have a tougher time bouncing back from challenges. Some experts blame protective parents who shield their children from failure and prevent them from learning to cope with it.