A survey has found that different generations in the UK agree that young people’s mental health is worse than in the past, but have contrasting views on what causes it.
According to the policy’s research, baby boomers are more likely than younger generations to attribute the potential increase in mental health problems among young people to increased use of drugs and alcohol, which they attribute to increased costs of living. The researchers at King’s College London and Australia’s Origen Research Institute found that this is unlikely to result in a worsening economic outlook.
The survey of 2,516 UK adults aged 18 and over categorized those born in subsequent years into different generations: Gen Z 1997-2009, Millennials 1981-1996 and Gen X 1965- 1980, Baby Boomers 1946-1964.
Approximately half of Millennials, Gen That’s more than 4 in 10 Gen Zers who feel that way. Research suggests.
Baby boomers (17%) and Gen It is approximately twice as large.
British generations (Baby Boomers (65%), Gen of young people say their mental health is worsening.
Of those who believe there has actually been an increase, 57% of those surveyed said it was because of tougher environments, and 36% reported that young people are less resilient than they were in the past. are doing.
Baby boomers (19%) and Gen This result suggests that the
Increased use of social media is the only potential cause of the rise in mental health problems among young people, chosen by the majority of British people, with two-thirds (65%) believing this to be the main factor, and is higher than the proportion of Australians (58%). People who think the same way.
Other factors such as the impact of COVID-19 (40%), the emergence of new technology (38%) and rising costs of living (38%) are the next most important in the UK, while the economic situation is worsening. ing. Alternatively, employment prospects (29%) rank even lower.
Approximately 51% of Gen Zers say increased social media usage is to blame, compared to the more than two-thirds of older generations who hold this opinion. And 27% of Gen Zers blame it on the advent of new technology, compared to about 4 in 10 of other generations.
Baby boomers (50%) are more likely to attribute this change to increased drug and alcohol use among young people than Gen X (27%), Millennials (21%), and Gen Z (20 %), which stands out at more than twice as much.
Baby boomers (25%) are half as likely as Gen Z (49%) and Millennials (50%) to say the increased cost of living is to blame. Additionally, a quarter of baby boomers (24%) and Gen ), it rises to one-third.
According to the survey, British citizens are nearly seven times more likely to say social media and smartphones have a negative (67%) than positive (10%) impact on young people’s mental health. It has been shown that
Although young people themselves have more positive views, half (51%) of Gen Z feel they have a negative influence, compared with 10 of other generations who hold the same opinion. That’s far fewer than 7 middle school students.
Increasing mental health services (34%) is considered the most important thing the government should do to support young people’s mental health, followed closely by a zero-tolerance policy for bullying in schools (31%). This was followed by responses regarding children’s mental health (29%), according to a study that holds social media companies legally responsible for their impact.
However, far fewer people are prioritizing policies that focus on the underlying structural causes of mental health, such as sexism, racism and discrimination (13%) and youth employment (13%).
Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the Institute for Policy Research at King’s College London, said: ‘When we talk about the attitudes of different generations, we see a lot of clichés and stereotypes that can pit one generation against another. As is often the case, this new research shows that attitudes towards most issues are consistent and accept that we face serious challenges when it comes to young people’s mental health.”
He said one aspect of older generations’ more conventional views is that they are more likely to blame the rise in drug and alcohol use among young people for the deterioration of mental health, whereas alcohol consumption has significantly decreased among the younger generation, adding that there is no apparent trend toward this trend. Drug use increases significantly over time.
This reflects a tendency “among young people to generalize relatively rare but high-profile examples of risky behavior, forgetting the risks we ourselves took when we were young.” Professor Duffy said.
