A new study shows that people born in the 1990s – also known as Generation Z – have experienced a decline in mental health, Well, at least as far as Australians are concerned as the study comes from the University of Sydney.
The researchers said that the mental health of Australians has been declining since around 2010 and this is seen in earlier generations, not just the youths of Gen Z. They also stated that it is “widely agreed” that young people’s mental health has declined in developed countries in recent years.
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Generation Z, also known as Zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as the starting birth years and the early 2010s as the ending birth years.
Generation Z is the first generation to have been born and raised with technology, and they are highly proficient in using digital devices and the internet. It is the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in history and is said to be more pragmatic than previous generations, and they are more likely to prioritize financial security and stability over other factors such as career satisfaction or personal fulfillment.
People from Generation Z are also said to be more likely than previous generations to be interested in starting their own businesses and are very concerned about social and environmental issues, and they are more likely to volunteer their time and money to causes they believe in.
The research found that people born in the 1990s have poorer mental health for their age than any previous generation and do not show improvements in mental health as they age, as experienced by earlier generations. Importantly, the researchers found that this decline in mental health from around 2010 also impacted those born in the 1980s and, to a lesser extent, even the 1970s.
“Much of the focus to date has been on the declining mental health of school-aged children and adolescents, where we expect their mental health to eventually improve as they enter adulthood. But this study shows this pattern is changing and that it is not just the kids we need to worry about,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Richard Morris, senior research fellow in the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Medicine and Health.
“Our data not only shows a continuing decline in the mental health of the current crop of young people but continues to affect older generations today heading into their 40s and 50s. We are not seeing the rebound out of young adulthood that previous generations saw as they aged.”
It is too soon to say that this study definitively proves anything about the mental health of Generation Z. They are still very young and in each generation people are more likely to seek psychological aid. This means that such statistics are eschewed by the fact that younger generations have merely been more likely to acknowledge such issues than earlier ones.
