More than 300,000 children across the UK are unhappy with their lives, according to the Children’s Society’s tenth annual Good Childhood Report.
The review of young people’s wellbeing has found that almost 7 per cent of ten- to-15-year-olds in the UK, the equivalent of 306,000 children, are not happy with their lives, compared to 173,000 children ten years ago.
Children’s decreasing happiness with aspects of their lives including school, appearance and friends is thought to be contributing to the overall decline, the charity said.
Findings also suggested that children who are not happy with their lives at 14 are much more likely than others to have symptoms of mental health conditions by the time they are 17, including self-harm or suicide attempts.
The gender divide between boys’ and girls’ worries about their appearance is closing, with the proportion of boys dissatisfied with their appearance rising from one in 12 to one in eight (8 per cent to 13 per cent) over the last decade, while the proportion of girls concerned about their appearance has remained at one in seven.
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