Life satisfaction plummets during adolescence

Adolescence is full of changes, not only biological, that put in check the lives of those who live it and, on many occasions, of those around them.

During this period, accelerated physical, cognitive and psychosocial growth is experienced that influences how they feel, think, make decisions and interact with their environment, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

An investigation points to a new change that, although it is not so much biological, fully affects their lives: life satisfaction drops significantly during adolescence, which in this study lasts from 10 to 24 years.

In addition, it is the steepest drop compared to any other point in adult life.

Despite the suddenness of the fall, the results are not alarming, nor is the perception especially negative.

The 10-year-olds in the UK who participated in the study rated their life satisfaction at 6.07 out of 7;

while with 24 years, with 5.09;

in Germany, the other country in which they collect data, 12-year-old children rate their pleasure with their lives with a grade of 8.39 (on a scale of 10);

those of 24 years, with a 7.35.

During the rest of adult life, the numbers vary substantially less, according to the study, published in

.

Although the reasons for this happening are not the objective of the study, the researchers suggest that it could be motivated by two issues.

Amy Orben, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, and one of the authors of the study, explains that adolescence is a time of great change that can cause them to feel worse.

"They are much more sensitive to social rejection, they care much more about what others think," she details.

The other option is that the way in which a teenager interprets the question about her satisfaction may change over the years and, therefore, the definition of what a satisfying life is as well.

The factors that determine that satisfaction are almost as personal as tastes, although they may coincide on many points.

Adriana Junquera, 16, will go on to her second year of high school and considers introspective aspects essential to be satisfied with life: being able to fulfill what each one proposes and "being able to disappoint yourself as little as possible".

However, she also values ​​her close environment, another of the pillars: "Also having a good environment and feeling safe in it," she says.

differences between the sexes

In the data from Britain, they found a difference between the sexes, with girls beginning earlier with the decline in personal satisfaction, but that difference disappeared in adult life.

Orben, who also leads the UK Medical Research Council's Digital Mental Health programme, believes this may be because puberty starts earlier in girls than boys and therefore they will go through certain types of developing.

Enrique Echeburúa, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of the Basque Country, argues that the decline in liking life is due to a series of changes in adolescents.

At a neuronal level, the brain is evolving: “What regulates emotional and cognitive life is the development of the frontal lobes, which is the biological equivalent of the orchestra conductor, but that does not develop until 18-25 years of age.

In adolescence, on the other hand, what regulates behavior is the amygdala, which is related to emotions”, he clarifies.

There is also an important hormonal change, which produces a series of physiological changes to which they have to adapt.

On a psychological level, it is "the moment when the family takes off and when they begin to create their social networks of friends," says Echeburúa, which must also be done.

Finally, there is the social aspect, in which these young people encounter a dominant culture in relation to success, with criteria that are difficult to achieve, such as popularity and beauty.

Bárbara Junquera, also 16 years old, comments that, with the arrival of adolescence, a sudden change breaks out: “When you are a child it seems that you live in a bubble and outside are the adults who protect you from the real world.

In adolescence that bubble bursts and you begin to experience first sensations, love, anger... Emotional and hormonal changes that, since you used to live in a bubble, you don't know how to level it”.

This can become overwhelming on some occasions and for this reason, it justifies, there are constant ups and downs.

For this study they have been based on data from two longitudinal surveys of households in Germany and the United Kingdom in which the participants are followed up every year and they are asked about different aspects.

In this case, they were left only with the question related to life satisfaction.

The sample consisted of 37,076 adolescents aged 10 to 24 years and 95,466 adults aged 25 years or older from both countries.

Luis de la Herrán, a clinical psychologist, warns that satisfaction with life and mental health should not be confused.

This study, as he comments, is a statistical investigation with reliable measurements, but when talking about mental health and mental health indices, other references are needed that are measured psychometrically, "which is the science that, in some way, he does the tests that make them measure a score, not asking how life is going”.

"People who may have a psychological disorder may be dissatisfied with their life, or less satisfied, but that doesn't mean that everyone who is dissatisfied has mental health problems," he argues.

Echeburúa, however, recalls that adolescence is a critical period in relation to mental health.

“If in childhood there may be 5% to 10% of children who present some type of mental disorder, in adolescence this percentage can rise to 10-20%.

This has to do, logically, with the fact that people perceive that they have a higher level of dissatisfaction with their life”, he explains.

A study led by the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona in 2021 supports this argument, since it shows that at age 14 is when more mental disorders appear.

The research, whose sample amounted to more than 700,000 people with mental disorders, concludes that it is during the first 25 years when most mental disorders appear uninterruptedly.

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