Does Generation Z feel loved? Who does Generation Z turn to for advice? – Desert News

More than four in ten adolescents worldwide wonder whether they are worthy of love, even though they value personal contact and relationships with family and friends, on whom they are still most dependent.

That’s the conclusion of the first report from The Relate Project, by the nonprofit, non-denominational Christian organization Young Life, which surveyed more than 7,200 youth and young adults in eight countries to get a sense of what’s happening with Generation Z and the younger Generation Alpha beyond. headlines about their social media use and high levels of anxiety.

“We are all very aware of the fear, loneliness and isolation that Generation Z has felt, and other generations are feeling too,” Kimberly Nollan, director of research and evaluation for Young Life, told the Deseret News. “That sometimes gives us the impression that this could be their dominant story. We wanted to be able to tell the story of where we see them flourishing and where we see relationships with adults in their lives – whether it’s family or a trusted adult outside the family who helps them thrive and thrive.”

The research included both surveys and focus groups, with the subjects all aged between 13 and 24 years old. The organization plans to release three more reports in the coming months on different aspects of their boom or falter.

“We started this project because we want to better understand the next generation and what drives them. We care about them a lot. As part of this, we want to empower young people to grow into the influential adults we know they can be, and we’re excited to share these findings with others so that – together – we can help younger generations thrive,” Newt Crenshaw, president and CEO of Young Life, said in a written statement.

He said the study revealed a “strong story of hope”. Young people face many obstacles, but they learn resilience and bring with them the belief that they can improve our world. Not only this, but as adults we learn ways in which we can improve young people’s self-concept and quality relationships to help define this next generation.”

The studies were conducted in eight countries, including the United States, Mexico, Great Britain, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and India.

According to the report, “Generation Z faces a number of unique challenges. In the US, social media spreads risky stunts and misinformation; tuition leaves millions in debt. British young people in particular experience high levels of anxiety. And now that teens everywhere from Africa to India can “do anything and be anything,” global access to technology can leave them overwhelmed by choices. But these challenges aren’t slowing them down. Gen Z is stronger, more creative and more engaged in the world because of the obstacles they face.”

Nollan said the researchers found three related issues affecting young people: self-concept, their sense of belonging and relationships. “When one stood up, the others stood up. When one fell, the others fell. High self-concept predicted that the young person would flourish.

“It shows that when we are able to create spaces of belonging, when we support and facilitate close relationships in the lives of Gen Z, they have the opportunity to impact the world and their community for the better and feel that they are worth loving. those things together lead to flourishing,” she added.

Affecting each part of that triangle in a young person’s life for the better will improve them all, Nollan said. “That will allow them to thrive and we want all adolescents to thrive.”

Collecting the data

The surveys included a different number of participants from each country, starting with the US, where 1,994 young people were surveyed. The Mexican sample numbered 1,768, while in Britain it was 1,004. A total of 1,498 young adults and teenagers participated in East African countries, while in India the number was 997.

According to the report, “Quotas were set based on age, gender, ethnicity and geographic region, and respondents were then weighted by gender to obtain a statistical representation of the population in each country. In addition, racial minority groups in the US and Britain were oversampled and then backweighted by their population size to allow for deeper analysis of these subgroups.” The margin of error varies from 2.2% to 3.1% per country.

The study was conducted in July and August 2023, recruiting from existing online consumer research panels, and included two validated scales: the Harvard Human Flourishing Scale for Adolescents and the Brief Resilience Scale.

Relationships count

The research found that family relationships are the most influential and make a difference in how young people deal with challenges, regulate their emotions and in spiritual or religious beliefs. But a very large proportion of young people also have at least one adult who is not related to them, who cares about them and stands up for them. Among 13-15 year olds, about three-quarters say they have both a non-family adult who cares about them and someone they can count on when they need them. By the time the study participants were between the ages of 22 and 24, the number dropped to 63% with someone who cares about them, and 56% with someone willing to show up when needed.

The number of people with an unrelated adult who shows up when needed was higher in the US than in the other countries: among those aged 13 to 17, 78% had such a person in the US, compared to 74% in both Africa and the UK, 66% in Mexico and 65% in India. Among those aged 18 to 24, 71% had someone from outside the family who would show up when needed, compared to 66% in Mexico, 65% in India, 64% in Britain and 49% in Africa.

The report states that as they mature, people with more education are likely to have an older adult they can count on. “Obtaining education beyond high school – whether that’s college, vocational training or the like – expands people’s relationship support network, giving them an additional safety net and sense of security outside their family,” the report said .

Significantly, the report said, having many people in their lives was less important than having high-quality relationships.

The survey also found that 55% of teens worldwide communicate most often face-to-face with close friends. Only 20% use telephone calls, FaceTime or WhatsApp more often. The remaining 25% use text messages, emails, DMs or other digital means to stay in touch with friends.

Older teens have a hard time

One of the most striking findings in the report, the authors wrote, is the “dip in safety, self-confidence and emotional connection among 16- to 19-year-olds.”

The report shows that teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 are the most vulnerable.

“For many parts of the world, that’s the age range where you start driving, where you gain more independence, where you take on more adult responsibilities, where you get ready to go off to college or university. job after graduation. And that’s a time of great uncertainty for people,” Nollan said.

However, that creates the opportunity for adults to “connect with adolescents, even when they don’t seem to invite it.” Stay close, she advises, “because showing up really matters.”

According to the report, before the age of 16, teens confidently say they have people in their lives who love them deeply. That confidence declines among older teens, before returning around age 19. Around the age of 22, confidence is again at a high level. But older teens feel disconnected. “During transitions, many Gen Zers struggle with feelings of loneliness and loss of identity. They can grieve for what they have left behind. The emotional toll can be significant. Even though on the outside they appear eager to pursue independence and autonomy, behind it all they also crave deeper connections and miss the old sense of ‘being known,'” the report said.

After a few months of studying or working, that changes, right? Not necessarily, when it comes to friends. The research shows that young adults have difficulty forming strong friendship bonds during their college years or during the first years of entering the workforce.

Parents and adults need to show up, Nollan said.

On the finding that 40% overall are unsure if they are worthy of love – even higher in this age range – the report said: “Wow. This is a big one. If you take only one thing away from this study, let it be this: Tell the teens in your life that they are worthy of love. Not just your love, but God’s love and their friends’ love and romantic love and so much more. And they don’t have to do anything to earn it. They are inherently and uniquely important, no matter who they are.”

Who are you going to call?

Young people worldwide turn first to family and friends when they need help. About two-thirds of them say they turn to their mother or a romantic partner as their main confidante. About half turn to fathers and siblings, followed by grandparents and faith leaders.

As they enter their early twenties, more and more spouses, partners, roommates, and coworkers begin to enter their inner circle. But parents remain “an extremely important part of young adult development,” the report says.

In fact, it is normal for teenagers to start breaking away from their parents around the age of 16 as they transition into adulthood and a more independent life. The report’s recommendation is to encourage your children to find good mentoring relationships with other trusted adults “and give them space to be themselves outside of your relationship.”

The bottom line for Nollan? For those who know members of Gen Z or Gen Alpha, “make sure we pass on the messages from you that are worth loving. And give Gen Z and Gen Alpha opportunities to experience meaning, to express their agency in the world by making the world a better place.” Finally, she adds, “Be one of those people they can count on when they want to talk about things that really matter.”