Young people's happiness at an all-time low
New Prince’s Trust research reveals that young people fear for their emotional health more than ever before.
They have worries about the future, money and generally ‘not being good enough’ pile up on their generation.
61% of young people regularly feel stressed and more than a quarter go as far as to say they regularly feel hopeless
Young people’s happiness and confidence in their emotional health have dropped to the lowest levels ever recorded
Prince’s Trust chief executive, Nick Stace, calls on the government and employers to promote positive mental wellbeing and support young people into fulfilling, sustainable careers
Based on a survey of 2,194 respondents aged 16 to 25, it found that the happiness and confidence young people feel in their emotional health have dropped to the lowest levels since the study was first commissioned in 2009.
According to the Index, which gauges young people’s wellbeing across a range of areas from working life to family relationships, the happiness young people experience in relation to their emotional health has plummeted by four points in just one year, from 61 to 57 . This is the biggest drop in any area attributed to wellbeing ever recorded by the Index, and is a score which has fallen considerably since 2010, when it stood at 70. Confidence in future emotional health is also down by two points this year, to 65 – the lowest level so far.
When asked to describe how they feel, 61% of young people said they regularly feel stressed, 53% said they regularly feel anxious and 27% go as far as to say they feel hopeless on a regular basis . Furthermore, 47% of young people say they have experienced a mental problem.
The report also highlights some of the factors that could be contributing to the sudden decline in relation to emotional health. It shows that almost half of young people (42%) think they put too much pressure on themselves to achieve success. Despite these concerns, more than one quarter (28%) of young people would not ask for help if they were feeling overwhelmed by something.
Published: by Radio NewsHub