UK children have lowest happiness levels in Europe

The Children’s Society has reported that children in the UK have the lowest levels of life satisfaction across Europe, crippled by a fear of failure.

The annual Good Childhood Report found that more than a third of UK 15-year-olds scored low on life satisfaction, while also faring badly across happiness measurements including satisfaction with schools, friends and sense of purpose.

Alongside the fear of failure, the rise in UK child poverty and school pressures were cited as reasons why only 64 per cent  of UK children experienced high life satisfaction – the lowest figure of 24 countries surveyed by the OECD.

Richard Crellin, one of the authors of the report, said: “Children and young people talk a lot about the pressure that get placed on them to do well. We reflected this could be linked to a pressure in British society to take things on the chin and have a stiff upper lip. Young people across the UK told [how] they feel judged if they don’t succeed first time.”

Data for the report was collected before the coronavirus pandemic struck. More recent research by the Children’s Society, in July, found that one in five children aged 10-17 in the UK – the equivalent of 1.1 million – reported being unhappy with their lives as a whole during the coronavirus lockdown.