"How we experience happiness used to follow a predictable rhythm. For decades, researchers across psychology and economics identified a stable "U-curve" of life satisfaction. We start off high as children, dip in early adulthood under the weight of responsibility and uncertainty, and rebound in old age once perspective softens the sharper edges of life. This was never some immutable law of nature, mind you. It was an artefact of the way our lives stacked up."
"These golden years still exist, at least for prior generations reporting them today. What has changed, as David Blanchflower and others now show, is the left side of the curve, which now traces more of a 45-degree angle than a U. Youth are now beginning their lives in a state of ill-being, and unless we change the conditions around them, we might see the trajectory they trace flatten out entirely."
Youth happiness has collapsed, breaking the historic U-curve of life satisfaction and shifting early-life wellbeing downward. Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation among adolescents and young adults have risen to historic highs. Today's young people face a lived poly-crisis: COVID-19 isolation, climate change, geopolitical conflict, and rapid technological upheaval from AI. The left side of the traditional U-curve now trends toward a 45-degree decline, leaving many beginning adulthood in ill-being. Persistent uncertainty makes narrow mastery less adaptive. Breadth, adaptability, and optionality—creating many accessible paths—are essential to build resilience and prepare youth.
Read at Psychology Today
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