Recently, Lithuania topped the World Happiness Report ranking for under 30s, with the country’s young people rating themselves 7.76 out of 10 on the happiness scale. I completely understand why, especially as a young person living in Vilnius.
With the world’s largest economy and its highest GDP, you might think the United States would have the world’s happiest citizens. But you’d be wrong. This year, when the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network released its annual World Happiness Report, the U.S. had dropped out of the top 20, landing at 23rd on the list. The reason? America’s youth are deeply unhappy. What societal and cultural factors are at play here? Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre and a professor of economics and behavioral science, joins The Excerpt to share his insights into what truly makes people happy.
Researchers from the University of Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre developed a framework that divides teacher well-being into three main factors: job satisfaction, individual elements like physical health, and school-level drivers like work-life balance and class size.
In many parts of the world, younger folks are happier than the old. But in the U.S. the opposite is true. Happiness has plummeted so much for the young over the recent past that they are now much less happy than the older generations.
The U.S. ranked number 10 in happiness for folks 60 or older but a startling number 62 for those under 30.
“As we navigate the crucial intersection of education and wellbeing, the research evidence highlights the profound importance of prioritising teacher wellbeing,” Dr Laura Taylor, Deputy Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford and Lead Researcher for the project, said.
“By investing in the health and happiness of educators, we not only empower them to thrive but also lay the foundation for a positive ripple effect on students, schools, and the broader education system.”
The International Baccalaureate (IB) commissioned the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford to produce a report on the latest research on teacher wellbeing.
The report, Wellbeing for Schoolteachers, provides the IB, policymakers and educational leaders an understanding of teacher wellbeing, what influences teacher wellbeing, and what evidence-based interventions might be used to improve teacher wellbeing.
One of the most comprehensive reviews of existing research, the findings allowed researchers to develop an evidence-based framework that indicates the drivers of teacher wellbeing. This framework serves as a discussion point for schools to identify drivers that will be most relevant to their school context.
International data shows that teachers report one of the highest levels of occupational stress and burnout on the job compared with other professions. Workload is a prominent factor leading teachers to leave the profession.
This report reveals an increasing body of research indicating that teacher-related factors are some of the most essential elements impacting learning in schools. Importantly, teacher wellbeing has a significant impact on the wellbeing and academic success of students. Research suggests that teacher wellbeing should be one of the first factors schools consider when looking to improve wellbeing across the school community.
Based on the study, some of the key factors that positively impact teacher wellbeing include the following:
Dr. Laura Taylor, Deputy Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford and Lead Researcher for the project, notes: “As we navigate the crucial intersection of education and wellbeing, the research evidence highlights the profound importance of prioritising teacher wellbeing. By investing in the health and happiness of educators, we not only empower them to thrive but also lay the foundation for a positive ripple effect on students, schools, and the broader education system.”
The full report can be found at wellbeing.hmc.ox.ac.uk/schools.
Wellbeing for Schoolteachers is a companion report to another study by the Wellbeing Research Centre on student wellbeing: Wellbeing in Education in Childhood and Adolescence.
The US is sliding down the world happiness rankings – but it’s the unhappiness of young people that’s really dragging down the average. What has happened to make Gen Z so sad? And what can be done to turn the situation around?
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve (director of Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre) has been analyzing the figures for the World Happiness Report. He offers advice to young people and parents, and looks at what happy young Lithuanians can teach the rest of the world.
The World Happiness Report of 2024 points to childhood and adolescence as periods of considerable importance and a unique window of opportunity for intervention to make strong and positive impacts worldwide to ensure higher global well-being.
“We had picked up in recent years from scattered sources of data that child and youth well-being, particularly so in the United States, had seen a drop,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, professor of economics and behavioral science at Oxford, who is one of the editors of the report. “That has pushed us for the first time to really slice and dice the data by these age categories, which we normally don’t do.”
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Center and an editor of the report, said in an interview Wednesday that the findings are concerning “because youth well-being and mental health is highly predictive of a whole host of subjective and objective indicators of quality of life as people age and go through the course of life.”
