We are in a world where teenagers are often surrounded by sense of crisis before they reach adulthood. This is the time when young people, who were once referred as beacons of optimism, exhibit lower happiness in comparison to their elders. It goes without saying that young people are less happy and the reasons are not known to wider public.
Experts believe that young people suffer “the equivalent of midlife crisis” and these experts have even warned that young people tend to struggle a lot. Research has suggested that approximately 1 in 6 people is expected to experience depression at some point during their lives. And, ~1 in 4 of them is expected to first have depression when they are under 20 years.
Forbes has reported that ~20.78% of adults in United States, or ~50 million Americans, are living their lives with mental illness, according to 2019-2020 data from Mental Health America. Young adults who are aged between 18 to 25 appear to be at highest risk of the depressive episode according to the report from National Institute of Mental Health.
Young people are less happy: What are the causes?
Leading US surgeon general mentioned that permitting children to use social media and applications is like giving them medicines which are not safe. Apart from this, he believes that governments have failed to better regulate social media over past few years.
The decline in wellbeing among the people who are under-30 has resulted in the US being excluded from top 20 list of happiest nations.
Post 12 years in which people who are aged between 15 – 24 were considered as happier in comparison to older generations in the United States, this trend seems to have flipped in the year 2017. Gap has been narrowed in western Europe and this same change is being expected in the coming year or two.
There is no single cause as to why young people are less happy. This is because life events, hormonal and chemical imbalances, and genetics can together a significant role in impacting an individual’s mind.
Even though each and every person is expected to respond to their life events in their own respective ways, there can be some circumstances which might contribute to anxiety and depression in the young people.
These include unnatural fights with family/friends, changing schools or cities due to different reasons, being bullied by older people or experiencing relationship break-up, death, abuse or being neglected by their loved ones.
In 2021, ~81% of the population which is aged between 18 years – 24 years mentioned that they were happy. This was ~91% in 1997. This group has shown strongest fall in happiness. A study reveals that women are happier without children or husbands. This same associates to life satisfaction. Even though a fall was seen throughout the adult population, a significant majority remain happy and satisfied with their respective lives.
What to do?
Global and leading researchers exhibited that over half of happiness is dependent on things which remain under our control. If you think about it, this means that everyone can be happier and lead a stress-free life. A significant part of the happiness is dependent on the mindset, the habits which we have, and the way and acts we live and we do each day.
If we learn critical ingredients of happiness, we can use them to be happier. Happiness is not just a good feeling or the yellow smiley face. It actually means truly enjoying the life, and desire to make very best out of it.
To start with, we all know that feeling some positive emotions on the daily basis has a significant effect on the happiness and well-being. As the result, the elders have always emphasised why is it important to execute tasks which can give positive feelings.
Some of the even simple actions such as playing with child or pet or going on a walk can create wonders and inspire such feelings. Not only this, people should remain happy at work as work stress is another major reason of young people are less happy.
Next, happiness should rise when an individual discovers a particular strength and then they practices it on a daily basis. More the practice, the better we will be until and unless we master that strength. When we become good at doing something, we can get so much into it that we forget our problems. This is known as flow. Thus, experiencing flow should help boost happiness.
Good relationships is the next most important factor which can help recreate the joys of happiness, health, and well-being. If we develop some emotional skills, it will help us in forming and keeping good relationships.
Final Thoughts
Finally, young people are required to find reasons why they are less happy and purpose in your life. It is important to pay attention to the consequences of the actions. We should live life on the basis of values which are important.
Therefore, carefully managing the mindset, calming mind, increasing the confidence, utilising strengths, and working on things which we actually enjoy are some of the ways which can help young people overcome stressful situations.