The theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is “community”. IF researcher, Toby Whelton, examines what “community” means for young people in the wake of decades of intergenerationally unfair policy decisions.
Importance of community
Community is a fundamental societal and psychological need for all humans. It gives a sense of belonging, improves individuals’ self-worth and enables social connection. Ultimately, it gives life a sense of meaning and purpose.
It is an antidote to loneliness and can act as a safety net for the most vulnerable. Countless studies have shown that being a member and participant in a community, whether it is a sports club, neighbourhood group or a religious community, is linked to a reduction in the symptoms of mental illness, such as anxiety, depression or paranoia.
Community is the theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week and in the current political climate it is an apt one. It is becoming apparent that the cause of the social and economic malaise of so-called “broken Britain” is not just a lack of economic growth, but a broader break down in the sense of community, cohesion and belonging. This follows after decades of underinvestment in local communities where council budgets have been bankrupted by the spiralling cost of social care.
Society has become more atomised and individuals more isolated and unsupported. There is an epidemic of loneliness. Community hubs continue to be shut down. Politics has become more polarised as many people feel left behind and disconnected from each other.
In focus groups, individuals report that their social lives have never truly recovered since the pandemic. People have retreated from social spaces and admit to becoming far more inward looking.
The loneliest generation
While levels of isolation have risen across all age groups, younger generations are particularly suffering. A series of studies have shown Gen Z to be the “loneliest generation”.
Young adults are five times more likely to struggle with loneliness than those aged over 65 and the number of under-35s reporting that they have just one or no close friends has trebled in the last ten years, from 7% to 22%. Previous Intergenerational Foundation research backs this up. In 2018 and again, in 2020, IF published research reports using wellbeing indicators as a means of estimating how young people’s quality of living has changed over time. In both reports, young people’s “belonging” wellbeing, “social” wellbeing, and “relationships” wellbeing had deteriorated and this was well before the damage done by the 2020 pandemic lockdowns.
It is therefore no coincidence that young people are suffering from mental health issues at unprecedented levels. Now, one in three (34%) of 18−24 year-olds report symptoms of “common mental disorders”. For young women, the level stands at 41%.
Despite the worsening levels of mental health, support in the NHS continues to be underfunded. Mental health support for children and young people accounts for just 1% of the NHS’s total budget yet a million children are referred to mental health services every year. The lack of funding of these services has meant that in 2022−23 a third of all mental health referrals were closed before support was accessed and another third waited over a year before receiving support.
At the same time young people grow more isolated, they are being deserted by the state.
How has this happened?
There is no shortage of explanations for why communities have broken down in the UK. For some, the loss of a communitarian spirit was the inevitable product of the triumph of neoliberalism and the prioritisation of the “individual” above all else. For some right-wing pundits, and seemingly the Prime Minister, the loss of community was the product of uncontrolled immigration and the loss of “traditional, British values” − whatever that might mean. Other explanations range from the secularisation of British society to our addiction to social media et cetera, et cetera.
But, for young people at least, there is a far simpler answer. Young people’s estrangement from communities is a product not of cultural attitudes but their dire financial state. Decades of intergenerationally unfair policies by successive governments have neglected the interests of the young leaving them broke, unsupported and severed from society.
Lack of disposable income
Many young people simply cannot afford to participate in the leisure and the social activities required to join communities. Once the month’s living expenses have been met, there is nothing left over. Our research has shown that non-essential expenditure for young people has decreased by a staggering £147 a week from 2003 to 2023.
Food insecurity is at a high for younger generations with 30% of 16−24 year-olds having marginal to low levels of food security. Food bank usage is almost double for this age group compared to any other. For the most vulnerable young, they are preoccupied with survival, with little time or resource to “branch out”.
This reduction in disposable income has been the result of the highest tax burden in 70 years, the cost of paying off eye-watering sums of student debt as well as unaffordable rents swallowing up over a third of young people’s income.
What have young people received in return? They have received chronic underinvestment in youth services, cuts to welfare support and continual underfunding of youth mental health services.
Rootless renters
The housing crisis further ostracises young people from local communities. Renters, which includes most young people, are less likely to feel a sense of belonging in their neighbourhood compared to homeowners. Young people live in financial precarity, having to face insecure tenure and are unable to lay down roots and cultivate a local network.
This is not to mention the increasing numbers of young adults, who are stuck living at their parents’ home, delaying their independence and ability to create a life of their own.
The scars of the pandemic
There is of course an elephant in the room – the pandemic, which has affected our relationships and socialising in ways we still can’t quite understand. Young people’s were uniquely affected with over half of 16−24 year-olds reporting their mental health was harmed by the pandemic.
Five years on, and young people still live in its shadow. The pandemic came at a crucial time in their development, whether it was starting primary school, moving on to secondary school, missed GCSE and A Level exams, starting their first year of higher education or their first job. The ripples of lost learning and lost socialisation are still being felt today. Pupils starting school missed out on forming their key, first friendships. University students were appallingly treated, having been quite literally locked up and fenced in their student accommodation when they were meant to be living the “best years of their life”. Meanwhile, new entrants to the labour market were made to work from home, often from their bedrooms in shared accommodation, while also denied invaluable mentoring and networking opportunities that come from in-office working.
Young people made great sacrifices to help protect older generations during the pandemic. What has the nation given them in return?
The national community
Young people’s isolation from local communities reflects their marginalisation within the broader national community. Britain’s youngest citizens have been systematically excluded from access to affordable housing, adequate welfare support, and financial stability.
Young people feel left out, ignored and apathetic, evident by the fact that fewer than half of young people voted in last year’s General Election. As young people become more and more disengaged from society, it is even more imperative that the state does not forget them.
For young people to participate more in their local communities, their interests must be better considered within the national community. It is their very wellbeing that is at stake. Improving intergenerational fairness by investing more in their prospects need to be at the heart of government policy.
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