Image by Matan Ray Vizel from Pixabay

This October/November¹, members of the World Wellbeing Panel were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with two statements about teenage wellbeing:

(i) “In developed countries, average teenage wellbeing levels have reduced over the last decade”; and

(ii) “We have clear evidence on why the wellbeing of teenagers is dropping.”

For each question, panellists could answer on a five-point scale (Completely agree; Agree; Neither agree nor disagree; Disagree; Completely disagree) and add further comments. 

Responses were received from 13 wellbeing experts of whom 8 were in agreement with the first statement (3 Completely agree, 5 Agree) while 3 disagreed; the remaining two responses were in the neutral category.

For the second statement, only 4 respondents were in agreement (1 Completely agree, 3 Agree) while 7 respondents were in disagreement (1 Completely disagree, 6 Disagree); 2 were neutral.

Only 4 of the 8 who were in agreement with the first statement were also in agreement with the second implying uncertainty about the causes of a wellbeing decline amongst teenagers. Indeed, several respondents noted a paucity of evidence on: (a) whether wellbeing had declined systematically for teenagers, and (b) even if it had, what the reasons are for this decline.