Money worries overtake young people’s fears about the environment

The findings have emerged in the Children’s Society’s annual Good Childhood Report, which found this year that almost half of young people are worried about rising prices.

Concern around increasing prices has pushed last year’s top worry, around the environment, into second place. While last year green issues were cited by 41 per cent of young people as a worry, this proportion fell to 37 per cent this year.

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Crime continues to be the third biggest worry according to young people, cited as a concern among a third of those surveyed this year and in 2022.

“Children who always worried about money were several times more likely to be unhappy,” said the Children’s Society.

This includes concerns about how much choice they have in life and their housing.

This year’s Good Childhood Report also found that more than two in five young people “do not feel positive about the country’s future” with a similar proportion pessimistic about the future of the planet.

In addition, less than half of secondary school child do not feel safe at night in their local area, with these fears particularly prevalent among girls.

One in 10 children aged 10 to 17 are unhappy and average happiness scores among 10- to 15-year-olds in areas of their life such as friends, appearances, school, and homework are lower than last year. This dip in happiness is greater among girls, The Children’s Society found.  

“The last few years have been extremely tough, and life is just too hard for too many children,” said Children’s Society chief executive Mark Russell.  

“It is a national scandal that children’s happiness continues to slide. It is really shocking that almost half of all young people feel gloomy about the state of our world, because we know they feel deeply about the future and have a deep sense of justice." 

He added: “The need for improving children’s wellbeing is urgent. We are calling for children to be protected from the rising cost of living by renewing investment in social security for children through an increase to child benefits.”

He is also calling on the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to “make children a priority with an accompanying strategy so we can invest in children and build hope and security for their futures”.