Poll: Majority of American teens ANXIOUS about their future and DISILLUSIONED by politicians

02/01/2024 / By Laura Harris

A poll has found that majority of American teenagers are anxious about the future and disillusioned by politicians.

The survey conducted by Gallup and children’s advocacy group Common Sense Media (CSM) highlighted this sentiment. The results of the poll, which asked teenagers aged between 12 and 17 years, were published on Jan. 29.

It found that only one-third of respondents aged 12 to 17 believe things are going well for children and teenagers today. Less than half are confident in being better off than their parents in the future. This downbeat view is not exclusive to American teens, as similar sentiments were found among teenagers in several affluent countries. (Related: Americans fear the government is spying on them and are pessimistic about the nation’s future, surveys show.)

A separate poll by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation (WFF), whose results were also released on Jan. 29, compared the attitudes of Generation Z with those of Generation Y. It found that Gen Z is notably less likely to rate their current and future lives highly.

Particularly alarming is the sharp decline in mental health. Per the CSM poll, just 15 percent of respondents aged 18 to 26 consider their mental health excellent – a significant drop from previous years.

“The data is pretty stark,” said CSM founder and CEO James P. Steyer. “Our kids are not all right.”

Youngsters don’t want a Trump and Biden rematch

The surveys also shed light on the potential impact on political engagement among young voters.

Kristen Soltis Anderson, a pollster involved in the CSM survey, suggests that the limited political options – with Trump and Biden representing most of their lifetime choices – may contribute to decreased youth turnout and engagement in the upcoming elections.

Twenty-three-year-old mental health research assistant Lucy VanDyke is one of them. The independent voter from Grand Rapids, Michigan – who reluctantly supported Biden in the last election – joins a growing number of young voters expressing dissatisfaction with the current administration. VanDyke and others are considering alternative options due to the current state of the economy, handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict and worries about the president’s age.

“I don’t want a Biden-Trump rematch,” she said. “I know people can say, ‘Your voice doesn’t matter if you vote independent.’ But the more that people vote independent, even if that candidate doesn’t win, it shows that people are unhappy.”

Young people are not indifferent to public policy. Both the CSM and WFF surveys reveal that while they are passionate about issues like climate change, abortion and the Middle East conflict, nearly two-thirds feel that politicians do not adequately represent their needs and experiences.

Moreover, the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics reported a decline in the inclination of young people to vote due to a lack of faith in the ability of the government to address significant issues. In interviews with nearly two dozen young voters under 30, sentiments were described as “scary,” “disheartening” and “pretty depressing.” Major worries like economic status, difficulties in affording homes and student loan burdens are only a few of the long list of reasons.

“While they’re very issue-oriented, young voters … [are] not specifically tied to either party, and they think the entire political system is failing,” said Celinda Lake, president of Democratic polling firm Lake Research Partners and a pollster behind the CSM survey.

Watch Nouriel Roubini warn about the American economy facing a “perfect storm” on the Fox Business program “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street.”

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