The worrying trend in the minds of young Australians

Updated

Working out what's going on in the minds of younger Australians can be both confusing and frustrating.

Are they happy, worried, feeling like they don't belong, or all of the above?

A new survey of 47,000 children across Australia, aged between 6 and 18, may give us a better sense of what makes them tick.

ABC app users: This story contains interactive graphics which are not available in the app. Please open this story in your mobile browser.

The research, by the ABC's children's news program Behind the News, quizzed respondents on how often they worried about being different, bullying or arguments, family, friendships, schoolwork, world problems, their bodies, their futures, and their health.

See if you can guess what's eating kids these days:

If you didn't guess the right answers, don't feel too bad. The research revealed some surprising results.

Childhood may not be as carefree as some of us remember: more than half of six- and seven-year-olds said they worried sometimes or lots of the time.

This chart shows how the percentage of girls that worry about bullying and being different changes with age.

While it worries more than half of girls aged older than seven, other concerns quickly became more widespread as girls grew older.

Concerns about "your body" rose steeply from the age of 12, with more than 75 per cent of 14- and 15-year-olds saying they worried about their bodies sometimes or lots of the time.

However, girls aged 10 or older were most likely to worry about their futures. Nearly 85 per cent of 15-year-old girls said they worried about this.

Lisa Gibbs, one of the researchers analysing the survey and chairwoman of the Children's Lives Research Institute, said it was surprising "the future" was the top worry among students.

But she said it could be a sign of children mirroring what the adults in their lives were feeling.

"Generally we do know that children are tuned into what's happening in their home and what the adults around them are responding to,"

"So it may a reflect a shift in concerns in their parents and adults in their lives."

Boys and girls had fairly similar concerns, although, overall, girls were more likely than boys to worry about any of the nine issues.

Here's how boys responded when quizzed about their worries.

Concern over "your body" climbed quickly from the age of 14, with boys aged 16 and 17 as likely as to worry about this as girls their age.

Boys aged 18 were more likely than girls their age to worry about their bodies. Among 18-year-olds, nearly 73 per cent of boys said this worried them either sometimes or lots of the time, compared to 67 per cent of girls.

Also similar to girls, the most common worry for boys aged 10 and older was "your future", while "bullying" and "being different" were the least likely causes of concern.

Here's an interactive version of the chart. Select a worry to see how the percentage changes as boys and girls grow older.

What would kids change?

The survey also asked children if there was anything they would change about themselves or their lives.

Again, body image emerged as a key issue for both boys and girls.

Forty per cent of boys aged 18 said they wanted to change their bodies, making it one of the most common responses for boys.

"The perception is that this is something that girls worry about, but, in actual fact, boys are also worried about how they look," associate professor Gibbs said.

"They may be worried about different things about the way they look. They may be worried about muscles or height, for example, whereas girls may be concerned about looking thin."

Here are the results for girls.

Fifteen-year-olds were almost three times more likely than nine-year-olds to want to change their bodies.

And it's not just how steeply this desire increased with age. Also striking was that children as young as six identified their bodies as an issue.

"What is a concern is if the children don't value themselves as a result of those concerns about their appearance, and that it affects their self-esteem and their ability to engage in their social lives," associate professor Gibbs said.

The research also showed the ages of 14-16 to be a time of change for girls, with spikes in the percentage wanting to change their feelings, friends, school, school work and even where they lived.

Who do they turn to?

Now we know a bit more about what children are worrying about, the next question is: who are they most likely to speak to about their problems?

Again, that seems to depend on age.

The survey asked: "If you are worried, who are you most likely to speak to?", allowing respondents to choose from several options.

Parents were clearly the go-to people early in life. But from the age of 12, that took a noticeable dip.

Not surprisingly, kids were also inclined to speak to their friends about their worries.

But associate professor Gibbs said what was really troubling was that 26 per cent of children said they wouldn't speak to anyone about their worries.

She said those children who were less inclined to speak to someone were more likely to say they weren't happy.

"It's reinforcing for us that you do need to talk to someone about what you're worried about because it helps you to deal with these things in your life."

If you or anyone you know needs help, please call or head to the website of:

Data notes

Sample sizes for children aged younger than 8 or older than 12 were much smaller than those aged 8-12

Worry percentage is calculated by responses of "Sometimes" and "Lots of the time"

Topics: children, family-and-children, community-and-society, health, child-health-and-behaviour, education, schools, australia

First posted