The Kids Are Not OK, but Education Innovations Provide Hope

American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. 555 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20001. Tel: 202-879-4420; e-mail: ae@aft.org; Web site: http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/ae

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Educational Innovation; Mental Health; Mentors; Young Adults; Youth; Personal Autonomy; Skill Development; Access to Education; Positive Attitudes; Well Being; Youth Programs; Vocational Education; High Schools; Community Colleges

0148-432X

Young adults today are the least happy demographic group, departing from a long-established U-shaped relationship between life satisfaction and age in many countries worldwide. The longstanding U-curve reflects the unhappiness and stress that most people experience in the midlife years as they juggle financial and family constraints while both the young and the old exhibit higher life satisfaction and lower stress, anxiety, and depression. But now, youth in the United States are faring worse than their stressed-out parents. Most suggested policies to remedy this problem focus on better regulation of social media and increased access to mental health care. While both of these things are important, they will not address the deeper economic, climate, and civil discourse challenges that precipitated the well-being crisis. An important and underreported solution to the crisis lies in restoring hope. While hope resembles optimism--as individuals believe things will get better--an equally important part of hope is that individuals can do things that improve their lives and thereby demonstrate agency over their futures. Helping the young form a vision of what their futures can look like will help them have hope and aspirations. This is crucial because, as Carol Graham's research has found, there are strong linkages between hope and long-term outcomes in education, health, and mental well-being, with hope more important to the outcomes of youth with limited access to education and mentorship

ERIC

2025

EJ1455684