UK teens the most unhappy in Europe

[coffeeandteav]

www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/aug/29/uk-teenagers-low-life-satisfaction-europe

Why is this? Many reasons discussed in the media today. What do you think has caused this?

I can say as a teacher and having a 16 year old it is sadly very true.

Lots of suggestions some sensible others not so much.
Why are we different to Europe? They have video games and tech. So what is it?

1.	The weather lack of vit d. ( thats not new though)
2.	Rise of the nuclear family. No more it takes a village..... Europe has more involvement with extended families.
3.	Loss of youth clubs. Apparently they have them in Germany and its cheap and relaxed.
4.	Too many organised activities kids can't be bored anymore and all their time is structured.
5.	Cost of living and see the pressure on their parents so no hope for things being better than them.
6.	Strict army style school system vs 90s uk and Europe.Blazer uniforms even if hot. Screamed at if have a coat on in the corridor, silent corridors.  Toilet control.
7.	Affordable houses, some parents can't even afford to buy.
8.	Brexit knock on effect of costs and schemes such as erasmus being defunct.
9.	Lack of resilience and entitlement here in UK.
10.	Helicopter parents and mollycoddling . Kirsey Allsopp highlighted this. A Dutch lady said kids walk to school at 8 in Holland. Apparently since M.Mcann as a nation we are more fearful ( don't know how true)
11.	Nursery from 9 hours a day. Does this happen abroad?
12.	Sewage in water ( that would be adults too though)
13.	Too much homework. 
14.	The diet.
15.15.	Constant media input about the poor pensioners eg. The vast majority of pensioners are richer than the childs parents. ( obviously a lot are not but a high portion are) so shows a lack of understanding for youth. 
16.	Underfunding health and mental heath services.

All of the above? Some of the above?

Anymore?

But many education systems in EU countries are far more rigid and pressured!

Kids in the UK have way too much freedom in some aspects that they cannot handle properly while have way too little freedom in aspects they should be able to self-regulate in. Both easily lead to dissatisfaction and confusion.

It's because it's so hot. In the past, most city businesses would shut down for at least the hottest month. Now, international trading, etc, means far fewer businesses shut down. As with here, in some ways, school holidays haven't caught up with modern living.

My kids lived in the UK until they were mid/later teens and were both quite miserable. Both had anxiety and found the educational system far too rigid and authoritarian. We moved to Sweden and they are both thriving, so here’s my comparison:

1. The weather lack of vit d. ( thats not new though). We have much drier, warmer and sunnier summers with 10 weeks off from school. There’s lots of outdoor activities to all year round (skiing, skating, swimming in clean lakes and seas, cycling on safe cycle lanes, skateboard parks, outdoor cinemas, commuter boats out to the islands etc.) in short they spend much more time outside.

1. Rise of the nuclear family. No more it takes a village..... Europe has more involvement with extended families. Not particularly the case here either.

1. Loss of youth clubs. Apparently they have them in Germany and its cheap and relaxed. Lots of youth clubs and other groups here and they are all free.
2. Too many organised activities kids can't be bored anymore and all their time is structured. Kids here go out and play without parents, walk to/from school w/o parents from about 8 years old. They have phones from much younger and sort their own play dates out.

1. Cost of living and see the pressure on their parents so no hope for things being better than them. Less pressure here but there is a lack of rental apartments.

1. Strict army style school system vs 90s uk and Europe.Blazer uniforms even if hot. Screamed at if have a coat on in the corridor, silent corridors. Toilet control. Super relaxed here and much more catered to individual needs, interests and abilities. no uniform.

1. Affordable houses, some parents can't even afford to buy. Depends on where you live.

1. Brexit knock on effect of costs and schemes such as erasmus being defunct. N/A

1. Lack of resilience and entitlement here in UK. I think this is linked to pt 10. There is a lack of freedom for young ppl in the UK. Everyone seems to be so scared of the outside world.

10. Helicopter parents and mollycoddling . Kirsey Allsopp highlighted this. A Dutch lady said kids walk to school at 8 in Holland. Apparently since M.Mcann as a nation we are more fearful ( don't know how true). same as above.

11. Nursery from 9 hours a day. Does this happen abroad? Usually not. Childcare is virtually free but most parents pick their kids up around 4-5pm. Working days are shorter here.

12. Sewage in water ( that would be adults too though). plenty of clean water here.

13. Too much homework. much less if any here.

14. The diet. Kids eat sweets on Saturdays and crisps on Friday. Breakfast and other meals are generally quite healthy. Less UPF.

15.15. Constant media input about the poor pensioners eg. The vast majority of pensioners are richer than the childs parents. ( obviously a lot are not but a high portion are) so shows a lack of understanding for youth. I don’t think teens think about this.

16. Underfunding health and mental heath services. It’s better here but not perfect. I have found that provisions for kids and young adults with ASD is excellent and it lasts well into their 20s.

Or maybe it's the fact that loads of people seem to hate teens and kids in this country as evidenced here.

Yeah I agree with all your points, and also want to add in screens. I think a lot of ‘anxiety’ is screen withdrawal.

Plus we’ve completely sterilised humour and made almost everything offensive or unacceptable. I truly believe people laugh less now. When I was a teenager we seemed to do nothing but laugh at childish or inappropriate jokes, but now we hold teens to adult emotional standards.

Belgium also has long nursery hours.

I feel like the whole of the UK is less happy than it used to be so it would be surprising if kids and teens weren’t included. Standards of living have dropped, more people feel worried and on edge, healthcare is in the toilet, schools are struggling. Add a divided country which has for the last decade prioritised the old over the young.

To be honest from your list the vast majority apply to other countries, or more. Uniform is the main outlier but not all schools have strict rules anyway. Most other countries have longer school days and more homework in my experience.

I think just being ungrateful accounts for some of it. I don't think we're particularly good at instilling a positive, make the best of it attitude into our kids. They're not resilient.

I think we are, quite possibly, a nation of whinge bags. Just look at the threads on here!

Good grief.

Dismissive or what.

Dismissive or true?

We do love a whinge.

This is half the problem. Everyone moans about "the state of the country" and no one speaks positively of it. It royally pisses me off how much everyone complains.

All the 90s reruns I've been watching come with warnings that "this programme contains outdated views and beliefs that do not reflect those held by the channel now"

Yes when I was at school it was South Park, the Inbetweeners (just as I left), things like Little Britain… all of which would NEVER be released now for being offensive.

I think the humourless are completely lost when it comes to the concept of the offensive person ‘being’ the joke. They just assume you’re laughing because you approve of the bigotry.

They complain because it has got markedly shitter.

It is delusional to be positive about things getting shitter.

Toxic positivity helps no one, it's just papering over the cracks for people too scared of real life.

The UK has always been the most fashion conscious country in Europe. That combined with social media and commercial pressures are the heart and soul of the problem.

@IceStationZebra i would slightly disagree on that having lived in Copenhagen and also go to Germany with work a fair bit. We got far more sun and less rain when we lived in Copenhagen- although it rarely got above 24 degrees and we got more frost, ice and a bit more snow too. My friend been posting her picks in Stockholm last few weeks, lovely blue skys most days. I've frequently been to Stuttgart or Frankfurt area mid to late April and been in a t shirt buying ice cream too - good weather seems to start earlier there and is way more consistent-although they do get more thunder and storms in the summer on odd days after hot weather. Northern France and Ireland though much the same here

The Children's Society said it is 'particularly troubling' that the gap between boys and girls is widening. Between 2015 and 2022 happiness levels among 15-year-old girls in the UK have also declined more sharply than the European average.
Data from the Good Childhood Report found that 22.6 per cent of girls reported being unhappy with their appearance in 2021/22, compared to 9.2 per cent of boys.

One teenager said their peers often feel they need to 'change' themselves to be accepted, because people won't 'acknowledge you or look at you' otherwise. They said people had to 'look a certain way to be accepted'.

The report said that the dissatisfaction relates to a range of factors including food deprivation, NHS waiting lists for mental health services, bullying in schools and levels of physical activity – with the UK having the fifth highest rate of pupils reporting no physical exercise.

I think the problem is it's become like the US , but with none of the better aspects of the US - very dog eat dog- they are all competing against each other - be it looks, possessions, achievements.

Far too much emphasis on academic achievements and not enough about life skills, social skills- a decline in FE colleges and practical courses or support , and yes as someone else said- youth clubs!!

A lot of parents struggling too both in money and relationships- kids aren't deaf or blind.

Do you think so? I’m no fashion expert unless Tu at Sainsbury’s counts as such but I’d have thought both France and Italy would surely be more conscious of fashion. I was a teenager at the height of heroin chic: not fun. TopShop and miss selfridge would never go above size 14 back in the day and even they were few and far between.

Belgium has one of the highest rates of teen suicide in Europe.
They have a very high rate of parents splitting up compared to many other countries.

I come across a fair number of people who have moved to the UK as they find European education too rigid so I definitely don't think 'Europe' is more relaxed about exams; quite the opposite in some countries. My European husband thinks that schools in Britain are too relaxed.
I've seen a lot of changes just in the last few years so I think some of the perceptions here are a bit out of date.

I'm from one of the countries near the top.

One main and very glaring difference is the different life stages the 15yos are at.

In my country, they would've just finished their first year of high school(or thereabouts) -with 3 more years until the really important exams- whereas here at 15 teens are smack dab in the middle of their GCSE saga and already considering A level and all that.