The latest World Happiness Report shows that while not all teenagers and young adults are suffering, a large and growing number cannot cope with being left adrift with few qualifications on an economic sea that is more testing with each passing year.
Social media is believed to play a part in driving down self-esteem and robbing young people of their wellbeing. But it is the lack of education, skills training and affordable housing that underpins the decline in the positive outlook traditionally displayed in surveys of those broadly fitting the gen Z age group.
The report found that young people are becoming more like their beleaguered parents, who have always reported themselves to be exhausted and weighed down by life's cares, and not like older people, who still score highly on the happiness index.
University is less of a guarantee of financial and psychological wellbeing, and those that do not go into higher education are left with only limited access to apprenticeships and further education courses that might lift their social standing, income and self-respect.
This story is from the March 29, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the March 29, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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