Regardless of their circumstances or backgrounds, the majority of young people in the UK face a steep fall in their wellbeing during their first years of secondary school, according to new research.
Researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Manchester examined the happiness and self-worth of over 11,000 youth from all around the UK using information gathered when they were 11 and again at 14. Over the subsequent years, the teens’ total “subjective well-being,” or happiness with many areas of life (including friends, school, and family), considerably declined.
It is commonly acknowledged that elements like family structure and economic conditions have an impact on young people’s wellbeing and mental health. Despite this, research reveals that throughout the first few years of adolescence, well-being tends to decline sharply and uniformly.
The change to secondary school at age 11 is probably responsible for that reduction. A strong connection between changes in these young people’s academic and social lives is suggested by the study’s finding that the specific areas of well-being that changed in early adolescence were often related to school and peer connections.
Additionally, pupils who had better self-esteem at age 11 had less of a decline in happiness at age 14. This suggests that deliberate attempts to boost teenagers’ self-esteem, especially in the first years of secondary school, may be able to prevent the likely decline in happiness and life satisfaction.
The study’s principal investigator, doctorate candidate Ioannis Katsantonis at the University of Cambridge‘s Faculty of Education, stated, “We saw a continuous decline in wellbeing even though this group of adolescents was vast and diverse.” The obvious connection to changes at school was one of the factors that stood out the most. It implies that there is an urgent need to provide support for secondary school pupils’ well-being across the UK.
Student well-being expert Ros McLellan, an associate professor at the University of Cambridge and co-author, said: “The relationship between self-esteem and happiness seems to be particularly significant.” Supporting students’ ability to feel good about themselves during early adolescence is not a panacea, but it could be quite helpful given that we are aware of how susceptible their well-being is.
Adolescent well-being is declining across the board. 12% of young people in the UK between the ages of 10 and 17 have poor wellbeing, according to data from the Children’s Society. Dr. Jose Marquez, a co-author and research associate at the University of Manchester’s Institute of Education, stated: “We haven’t completely grasped how widespread poor well-being is until now.” Additionally, it is unclear how self-esteem and wellbeing are related.
The Millennium Cohort Study, which includes a nationally representative sample of people born between 2000 and 2002 and includes common questionnaires about well-being and self-esteem, provided the researchers with the data they needed. They next determined a “score” for each student’s level of well-being, balancing it to account for other variables that can affect well-being, such as socioeconomic status, bullying, and a general sense of safety.
At age 11, the majority of adolescents were content with their lives, but by age 14, they were utterly unhappy. 79% of the participants’ well-being scores at that age were lower than the group’s average score from three years prior. This decrease is statistically significant, according to Katsantonis. It exceeds what we would consider moderate by a wide margin.
The survey also gathered data on the adolescents’ contentment with particular facets of their lives, such as their families, friends, schooling, and personal appearance. This implied that the most severe declines between the ages of 11 and 14 were probably connected to both school and peer connections.
Despite the overall decline, students who had higher self-esteem at age 11 tended to have better well-being at age 14. Better wellbeing at the age of 11 did not, however, predict later improvements in self-esteem. This suggests a causal relationship wherein teenagers with higher self-esteem appear to be less likely to experience more severe reductions in wellbeing.
Supporting self-esteem is not the only thing we must do to enhance the wellbeing of young people, according to Katsantonis. “It should never, for instance, serve as a justification for failing to address issues like poverty or bullying, but it can be utilized to enhance young people’s life pleasure at this crucial juncture.”
The researchers suggest numerous strategies by which schools could assist with this. At the most fundamental level, Katsantonis proposed that kids’ successes should be acknowledged, their good work should be valued, and comparisons to other pupils should be avoided.
The study emphasizes the need to make sure that comparable efforts are undertaken throughout the UK and proposes more deliberately including elements that enhance self-esteem in England’s well-being curriculum. Recent studies have, for instance, emphasized the potential advantages of “positive psychology” programs that instruct teenagers to create attainable personal goals and recognize and reflect on their own character qualities, as well as the possible advantages of mindfulness training in schools.
McLellan continued: “It’s crucial that this continues; it can’t just be something that is done once when pupils enter secondary school or that is implemented occasionally.” It might be beneficial to make a deliberate effort to raise students’ self-worth. “This is something that many excellent teachers already do, but it may be even more crucial than we previously realized.”
