A groundbreaking global study has revealed that young people today are experiencing unprecedented levels of unhappiness, fundamentally disrupting decades-old patterns of human well-being across the lifespan.
The End of the Midlife Crisis
For generations, researchers have documented what they called the "unhappiness hump"—a predictable pattern where people start adulthood relatively content, experience declining happiness through their 30s and 40s, with despair typically peaking around age 50, then see their well-being improve as they approach retirement.
This established pattern has now completely vanished, according to research by David G. Blanchflower, Alex Bryson, and Xiaowei Xu in their study "The Declining Mental Health of the Young and the Global Disappearance of the Unhappiness Hump Shape in Age."
A Generation in Crisis
Generation Z—roughly those aged 12 to 28—has fundamentally altered this happiness trajectory. Rather than the traditional U-shaped curve of life satisfaction, young people today face what researchers describe as "a sort of ski slope," where misery is highest in youth and gradually decreases with age.
The statistics paint a concerning picture:
- Poor mental health among young men increased from 2.5% in 1993 to 6.6% in 2024, according to CDC data
- Young women saw an even steeper rise, from 3.2% to 9.3% in the same period
- Only 15% of Gen Z reported excellent mental health in a 2023 Gallup survey, compared to 52% of Millennials at the same age a decade earlier
The Perfect Storm of Challenges
Generation Z has encountered a unique combination of circumstances that may explain their mental health struggles:
Digital Immersion: They are the first generation to grow up entirely within the social media age, with constant connectivity and screen exposure from early childhood.
Pandemic Disruption: Many spent crucial formative years—typically filled with social development and educational milestones—isolated at home during COVID-19 lockdowns.
Financial Burden: Recent polling indicates Gen Z carries the highest average personal debt of any generation.
The Smartphone Connection
Study co-author Alex Bryson points to smartphones as a primary culprit, telling The Times of London that mounting evidence suggests both correlation and causation between intensive screen engagement and mental health problems.
"There's increasing evidence of not only a correlation between the intensity with which you engage with your screens and mental ill health, but also of some causal impacts," Bryson explained, though he acknowledged this represents only part of a complex issue.
A Global Phenomenon
The research analyzed data from 44 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, revealing this isn't an isolated Western problem but a worldwide crisis affecting young people across cultures and economic systems.
Professor Blanchflower described witnessing the pattern emerge first in the US, where "despair—where people say that every day of their life is a bad mental health day—has exploded for the young, especially among young women." The team then observed identical trends in the UK before confirming the global scope of the crisis.
Expert Perspectives
Arthur C. Brooks, host of the "How to Build a Happy Life" podcast, validated the findings in The Atlantic, noting that the documented increase in mood disorders among adolescents and young adults aligns perfectly with the study's results. He explained that happiness scores don't decline from early adulthood as they historically did because "they now start low; they stay low until they start to rise at the expected age."
Urgent Call for Action
The researchers have labeled their findings a "global crisis" requiring immediate intervention. Their recommended solutions include:
- Implementing smartphone bans in educational settings
- Encouraging young adults to return to in-person social activities
- Developing targeted policy responses focused on youth mental health
- Addressing the systemic factors contributing to young people's financial and social stresses
The study represents more than academic research—it's a wake-up call about a generation experiencing mental health challenges at levels never before documented in human history, fundamentally reshaping our understanding of how happiness and well-being develop across the human lifespan.