The team at IPPR have spent the past few months travelling across England speaking to more than 150 young people and carrying out new analysis of data on how young people are faring. 

We are proud supporters of this research which shows the urgent need for young people to be part of shaping the future. 

Their research found that, while adolescence is a period of profound opportunity, young people today no longer have the support they need to live fulfilling lives and become well-rounded adults. Growing up is now defined by disconnection.

Their research found:

1. The foundations of a good adolescence have eroded. A generation are coming of age in the shadow of a digital childhood, a pandemic, and the erosion of the services and spaces that once helped them navigate the journey to adulthood. Young people today have fewer close friends than they did 10 years ago, and the friendships they do have are less strong. One in 20 young people now have no friends at all. Poor mental health, meanwhile, is now a productivity crisis as much as a wellbeing one: the share of young people saying poor mental health means they have accomplished less has quadrupled since 2010–12.

2. Transitions to adulthood are blocked. The traditional indicators of early adulthood are all happening much later, leaving young people in a longer, hollower and more precarious adolescence. Buying and renting a house is harder, with the average age of a first-time buyer now 34 and nearly one in five young people spending half of their income on rent. Jobs and training are more difficult to find, with apprenticeship starts among 16–24-year-olds down by 40 per cent over the past decade and growing numbers of young people not earning or learning. Ever more young people are stuck in limbo: they are no longer children and yet are unable to access adult life.

3. As a result, young people feel disconnected on three fronts:

- Young people feel disconnected from themselves. Young people feel a loss of agency and self-esteem. They no longer feel they have the support they need to realise their big ambitions. When they reflect on their lives, they conclude they have little control over what happens next, with fewer opportunities to change course. They form identities online, like themselves less and feel less satisfied with their lives.

- Young people feel disconnected from each other. Young people have fewer friends and a lack of spaces to build in-person connections. They feel like they belong less in school and are more likely to be bullied there. ‘Doomscrolling’, a fundamentally solitary activity, has become the daily pastime of a generation.

- Young people feel disconnected from wider society. Young people can see that our current health, education and support services are not structured to meet their needs. They are no longer confident in their futures, with the proportion expecting to become long-term unemployed trebling in a decade.