Hundreds of thousands of UK children ‘unhappy’ with life – report
Written by News on 28/08/2019
A report showing that almost a quarter of a million children in the UK are unhappy with their lives should be seen as a “national scandal”, according to a leading children’s charity.
Chief executive of The Children’s Society, Mark Russell says a number of the findings in their annual Good Childhood Report are deeply troubling – including that children’s happiness with life is at its lowest since 2009.
“Modern childhood is a happy and carefree time for most, yet for too many it is not. It is a national scandal that children’s unhappiness is increasing so quickly,” he said.
The report cites issues around boys’ appearance, friendships and school as potential factors that are driving unhappiness.
Boys were found to be catching up with girls in terms of worries over their looks, with nearly one in 12 boys (7.7% of those questioned) aged 10-15 unhappy with their appearance.
One in eight children (11.8%) were found to be unhappy with school, a key wellbeing measure, which is at its lowest since 2009.
And children’s happiness with their friendships is decreasing with 2.8% of children unhappy with their friends – something the report suggests could be down to excessive social media use and loneliness.
The report also found children as young as 10 are worrying about bigger societal issues. The most common being crime (42%), followed by the environment (41%) and then information sharing online (37%).
Mr Russell says a key theme that was fed back to them was that “many young people…feel side-lined and ignored by those in power”.
The charity’s Policy and Research Manager, Richard Crellin, believes the government must prioritise childhood happiness if we’re to head off some of the mental health problems the UK is increasingly seeing in adults.
He said: “We’re calling on the government to introduce a national measurement of wellbeing. These trends are really concerning and if we’re not listening to our young people, responding to them and monitoring them properly, then we’re not going to be able to make them happy today but also we’re not going to be able to ensure they thrive in the future.”
(c) Sky News 2019: Hundreds of thousands of UK children ‘unhappy’ with life – report
