To say that the next generation is primarily screwed in terms of resilience

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And WTF do we do about it?

Obviously many young people are wonderfully resilient but the overall trend I’ve seen in my line of work (behavioural education) is that there are vast, and I mean VAST numbers of young adults who cannot leave the house, come into a classroom, look someone in the eye, make a phone call, speak infront of the class (if they make it in), cry when pronouns are wrong (daily occurrence), take responsibility to revise/get a job/learn to drive.

What is going to happen to these humans in the future?

Really, all of them?? Don't be absurd.

I'm not singling you out particularly, but I keep reading this, and it's just nonsense. Yes, I agree all generations complain about the ones coming behind them, but this is something different. Never before have there been large numbers of young people who simply cannot seem to cope with normal life, who expect others to change things to suit them because they can't be expected to do something they don't like, or have never done before, and couldn't possibly give it a go (like all the previous generations had to) because of their MH.

Read the posts from people in education, who have been doing the job for years and have never encountered children like this before. Something is seriously wrong and laughing it off with this old chestnut isn't going to help.

I do see the lack of resilience in teens and young 20’s but agree it’s more general across age groups too.
Yes Covid restrictions made a huge difference, especially to those in small spaces without physical access to friends but the trend was already there.
My guess is a combination of too much screen time, lack of physical exercise, and especially team focussed, lack of boundaries and parental guidance on coping skills Etc but too much steering of play dates, lack of sleep, lack of nutritious food, too many pollutants, especially those affecting hormones. Add in that the news is very worrying from wars to cost of living crisis to knife crime and climate change and to top everything off exam syllabus are definitely harder, grades need to be ever higher to get into Uni and then you’re left with a huge debt and a job shortage.
I believe it’s an incredibly hard time to be a youngster.

I'm a boomer, as are all my friends many of my work colleagues, and cousins. We are all fine, no-one is suffering from any trauma, and no-one has turned to alcoholism. We all had great childhoods, and managed to navigate our schooldays unscathed. A couple lost their mothers when they were children, one has lost a child.

And yet we are supposed to admire young people who can't cope with the most trivial upset

There is a lot of rubbish on this thread.

I've already said this, but I will repeat it. Nobody is force fed the news and has photos of atrocities shoved down their throats every day. If people are so weak that they are incapable of limiting the amount of this stuff in their daily lives then I seriously fear for the world. It's yet another symptom of this decay - people thinking that they have no choices and it's all being "shoved down their throats". I watch the news once or twice a day, read the local newspaper and that's about it. You are in control of what you see/hear, the fact that you choose not to exert that control is your fault, no-one else's.

It is not just the younger generation how many examples on here daily

Oh people can't do that or make that decision - because it will then become about me

I am feeling judged because someone else has put something on social media so I have come up with a backstory

If someone says something in passing there is a way to turn it about themselves

I am also wondering if narcissism is increasing?

Yes, and many of those posters are bringing up children of their own. It's frightening.

Sorry I didn't add the link https://open.spotify.com/episode/5dyeoq59cAIlP1FpOcEW2F?si=T7XaB53VQYWfarCz_WAggg

Also The Coddling Of The American Mind is all about this, and applicable here (UK) too.

This

Writing an entire generation off as snowflakes without looking at the extreme pressures they’re under and the lack of resources or support they’re getting isn’t going to help either.

A report has just been published by the Resolution Foundation that says more 20 somethings are on long term sickness leave from work, or claiming out of work disability benefits, than 40 somethings, reversing a longstanding trend. Much of this is due to mental health issues.

I think it's a big problem. I work in a university and I'd say at least half my tutees declare an anxiety condition. It's commonplace to get extension after extension on assignments. I don't see how that's preparing them for life post uni but unis are understandably worried about students committing suicide. Eg see the recent court case against Bristol Uni (I don't work there but it's national news).

This is about children though

We dont normally expect children to have the maturity to control their behaviour all the time

I do think there is an element of every generation saying this about the one before. I also think that in the past that people were expected to just mask and internalise their emotions and get on with it, leading to many emotionally unhealthy adults. Even when I was growing up in the 90's there was a lot of self harming, emotional problems etc amongst teens, but not a lot of help out there for those problems. Now mental health is not something that is stigmatised as much, so inevitably it's going to seem like more people have issues than in the past, because now it isn't shameful to ask for the help needed. Maybe this generation won't be self medicating with alcohol like so many middle aged people are at the moment, because they are more in touch with their mental health. I have a 14 year old and they don't seem much different than we were to be honest, they are just more open about things
and less compliant than we were.

Well surely their parents have some influence, and schools shouldn't be allowing phones in school time (which happens where I live). I can't imagine as a child being even remotely interested in anything classed as "news" and wouldn't have taken any notice.

My view is that firstly kids are pushed much harder than ever with the government determined to break them. Kids having to learn grammar rules in primary school that used to be reserved for degree level foreign languages. Constant testing. All the crazy rules implemented at senior schools that give kids no way of having any individuality. Kids not being allowed to roam free like we used to. Covid didn't help and now kids who missed massive chunks of education are being expected to catch up on missed work with none of the help the government promised. Schools on their knees financially. Parents on their knees financially. Both parents having to work. Expectations of kids doing extra curricular activities. Pressure from social media to be perfect. The list goes on. Frankly I'm not surprised kids are struggling.

I’m really not sure that MH is more acceptable, it’s just more out in the open. I think kids have a whole lot more pressure put upon them these days, definitely. I remember being relieved when I could just leave school behind at the end of the day and have a break from the teenage drama. That’s basically inescapable now if you’re embroiled in it with 24/7 access to social media etc.

I agree. Not everyone who 'gets on with things' is a healthy person.

My aunty is very self sufficient but she literally can't cry or look at photos of lost loved ones. She also drinks every night.

Also. Simple things like nutrition are going backwards

Our soil is so knackered our food has become less nutritious. Antibiotics are killing gut bacteria
People are walking around depleted of vit d iron

Students, plural, I have more than one 😀
Schools, colleges and parents will coach, supervise, tell them what to write, rehearse past papers until they're blue in the face and replicate model answers. This does not encourage an enquiring mind just people who can remember and replicate stuff. You won't get the A* grades but enough to get onto a degree, especially if you apply through clearing. Lots of universities offer alternatives. So for example, if your grades aren't enough to get onto the Physiotherapy degree that you really want (and which is professionally recognised) you may be offered Health Studies which has lower entry requirements.
The 'good' students will do their own research and actually think about what they're studying; others won't and, even with the vast array of support on offer these days, university comes as a shock. A lot turn it around once they've failed their first set of assessments but others choose to take no responsibility and expect to be spoon fed at every step and complain about the many, many injustices me and my colleagues subject them to. These are not unintelligent people.
It's about an unwillingness or inability to think independently. It's about an inflated sense of their ability and superficial approach to learning; thinking that reading a single web page gives them all the knowledge they need to pass an assignment; laziness, I could go on.
I've got mature students balancing children, work responsibilities, and a full time degree. They study when the kids are in bed, before they go to school, and during their breaks.

I totally get it.

I see it all the time

I have a friend in their 20’s who has never had a job and says they will never want/ have one. Society can only support a limited number of people with no intention to work.

If you are working in behavioural education then i am assuming these are the children/young adults who need the added support with an holistic approach to be able to do so and build their skills as opposed to being labeled. They may either not getting the support at home, in previous education settings, undiagnosed mental health/neurodiversity needs, previous trauma potentially that they have not spoken about or have it “normalised”.

Having worked in Youth Offending Teams and from being a probation officer for 10 years and a youth worker prior, working with those 10-72 there is often a lot more going on and a behaviour is a projection of feelings to certain settings and experiences, previously kept them “safe” such as avoidance which in itself is a trauma response putting people into freeze mode. Obviously such reasons wont be true for everyone but behaviour is learned or learned responses to situations.

Understandably currently young adults see the world a lot differently than previous generations, where statistically less likely to have a better standard of living than previous generations, consistent news about global warming, wars, injustice, high costs of livings, good degrees no longer guaranteeing a good life, social media whereby theres less emphasis on personal interaction and increasing feelings of isolation etc.

I was in and out of foster care all my life and my behaviour was abhorrent and told how i would not succeed at anything, motivation between 9-18 was non existent because I never had a role model or consistency or a care giver to model how to regulate emotions and behaviour, every situation i would meet with resistance and violence.

you are in a great job and position to aide that early intervention which is so key to these young people and potentially break cycles for them. Whilst working in probation id say at least 90% of the adults displayed behavioural difficulties at school, and score extremely high on Adverse Childhood Experience thresholds. If they had well rounded earlier support it could have made a huge difference, as it did whilst working with youth offending teams where children had intensive support to build “resilience” - not a lover of that word.

I'm more concerned that an adult who's job it is to support young people in the situations you describe has such disdain for them.

I'm not surprised young people are struggling. It was inevitable.

The government/ societal pressures took mothers away from their babies & toddlers & young children. Mothers were forced into working outside of the home (whether they wanted to or not) and this generation of young people were raised by childminders & nurseries.

If they were very lucky, it might be granny but, granny still has to work too because the government withheld their pensions.

Add to that, they've never known a world without Internet & social media.

No surestart centres, reduction in youth clubs & even libraries.

Add to that, education changed - more box ticking for teachers & targets, less arts & the things that made going to school fun at all - more tests, more exams, more assessments, more pressure to be academic or you're a failure. Start earlier, leave later, shorter breakables. Must be uncomfortable either in a blazer & tie even if it's 30 degrees or because the toilets are locked unless you need it during your 30 minute lunch.

Then a pandemic

Then straight into a cost of greed crisis

All before their brains are even fully functioning

And you wonder why they don't want to go to school?

'If a flower doesn't bloom where you plant it ...

An elderly customer recently told me that 80 years ago, when she was in secondary school, she used to get very anxious and freak out in school. She knew if she said she was upset she'd be told to pull herself together, so she would say she had a stomach ache. She spent a lot of time in the school sick bay. They wouldn't call her mother because that wasn't the Done Thing.

Her conclusion was that how we treat children today is so much kinder.

I don't think human nature particularly changes, but we've created a kinder culture where we try to meet children's emotional needs, and now we're seeing those needs more than in previous generations because a) they're expressing rather than repressing them and b) they're under a lot of pressure too, as pps have said.