Engaging Youth 2022

If ever there was a time to speak to youth audiences to better understand their needs and perspective, it would be now.

Engaging Youth 2022 won't tell you who young people are and what they need. In fact it highlights just how diverse experiences of growing up in the UK are. Increasingly, this is down to socioeconomic inequality. Factors that have to give context to our marketing and communications aimed at young people as we go into 2023.

While some of the picture is bleak, young people continue to propel themselves into higher education, employment, business and often a combination of these as they go. They are exploring the ways in which they make a future, despite of challenges. Any brand, organisation or campaign that doesn't adapt to the spectrum of how young people are experiencing adolescence and early adulthood, risks speaking to everyone at once but nobody listening.

I hope the themes explored help inform your approach to meaningful youth engagement within your marketing and communications. Having worked on numerous projects and campaigns involving young people over the year, there are not any examples of enabling youth voice that haven't led to better work.

Rebecca Roberts

The Generational Price of Living

It’s not just the cost of living for youth audiences but the price they’ll be paying for the present circumstances on their future prospects.

Image of red telephone box which is damaged and vandolised

More children are falling into poverty (1) with Black and minority ethnic people twice as likely to be in deep poverty (2), the growing divide on children’s quality of life and overall health is stark, with recent data highlighting poverty to mental health issues (3).

This year not only are we seeing the knock-on impact of Covid on young people’s future view, but the economic pressures are adding to the scarring impact which is set to cast a long shadow on their financial prospects (4).

Again, while some of Gen Z are set to inherit their financial stability from the more prosperous Boomers, the social inequality that comes with it is also another generational fee that broadens the gap between rich and poor (5).

Overall happiness and confidence in the future is low (6), with rising pressure on jobs, standards of living and a sense of progress (7). Students are experiencing a higher than average cost of living rise (8), with maintenance loans falling short, again having an effect on mental health and for many will impact their ability to stay in education (9).

More broadly, younger generations are less financially resillient and due to pay, housing access and other factors, are being hit hard by the cost of living crisis (10).

Only 20% of young people feel confident about the future of the economy (11)

Those from poorer backgrounds and those who are not in full time employment or education said that they feel their life will amount to nothing no matter how hard they try (12)

Many Gen Z don’t feel home ownership will ever be achievable (13)

More children who are black or from minority ethnic backgrounds are falling below 50% median incomes and suffering material deprivation (14)

50% said they had cut back on food, particularly disabled students, estranged students and those from lower socio-economic groups (15)

Cost of living crisis is making students worry about staying in education (16)

85% of parents and carers are concerned about the impact of the cost-of-living increases on their family (17)

References in this section

Learning & Earning

How young people experience learning and earning in the UK has an impact on their future view, social mobility and overall happiness.

Young person sat looking at computer screen with light and microphone set up on desk as well.

While the gaps in education attainment continue to exist between socioeconomic groups (1), those from Black and ethnic minority communities are progressing to university at a greater rate than their White British classmates, however attainment gaps exist for these students once at university (2) and within the careers market afterwards (3).

Compared to other nations, the UK has a lot of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET), despite data that shows raising outcomes for young people would improve the economy (4).

Youth employment varies significantly around the country with inequalities also existing by gender and ethnicity, with the pandemic accentuating these (5).

Over the course of the year, overall youth unemployment figures have declined back to pre-pandemic rates, although the rise in numbers of young people going into full time education is another factor to consider (6).

Regardless of the stats, young people still need opportunities, particularly as we move into 2023 with the economic challenges ahead. Many young people reported feeling frustrated at missing out on school and work opportunities in recent years and feel their employment prospects won’t ever recover (7).

The majority of young people who are able to get internships or work placements are doing so unpaid (8), which brings inequalities when you then look at career prospects and who is able to better demonstrate experiences over others.

1 in 10 young people in the UK are not in employment, education or training (9)

Decline in working hours for young people with no qualifications were 5 times higher than for those with a degree (10)

1 in 5 young people don't think their employment prospects will ever recover from the pandemic (11)

73% of young people are frustrated at missing opportunities to enhance their careers (12)

66% said their internship or work placement was unpaid (13)

References in this section

Social Lives & Relationships

Growing up, forming friendships and developing relationships underpins wellbeing and life experiences.

four young people with their backs to the camera looking out at a landscape as the sun sets against a white wall Two male, two female.

The pandemic impacted how young people socialise; with rising levels of time spent alone and many finding it harder to make and maintain friendships and relationships (1).

Some insight indicates that as a result, the majority value close relationships more than careers (2), with many expressing that family life with a stable relationship and children is something aspirational for their future (3).

More young people identify as gay, bi and trans than older generations and are more likely to have a pattern of attraction that could be described as queer* (4). Encouragingly, some sources highlight the growth in positive experiences of young people coming out to those close to them, despite the ongoing challenges in society and lack of safety many from the LGBTQIA+ community experience (5).

The push to more creative ways of socialising and dating during lockdown as well as increased time spent along has had a lasting impact. A broadening of ways in which younger audiences want to date and socialise but also for many, less stigma attached to being single (6).

While many young people still want to go out over staying in, their overall relationship with ‘home’ has changed, and experiences and events are preferred with a definite shift away from drink culture continuing (7).

Of course, the picture varies dramatically and for many young people the cost of living crisis puts additional pressure on their relationships and opportunities to socialise.

*i.e. outside the scope of exclusively heterosexual attractions between cisgender people.

48% say their social life is worse (8)

Over half say they’ve spent a lot of time on their own (9)

82% of participants received a supportive or very supportive response from the person they had come out to about their sexual orientation (10)

Over a third of 16-24s describe themselves as “happily single” (11)

79% prefer going out to staying in (12)

6 in 10 say the way we socialise will be the most lasting societal change since the pandemic (13)

References in this section

Surviving or Thriving?

A look at youth health in the uk helps us to think about the priorities and key issues young people will face over the coming years into adulthood, both physically and mentally.

Three yellow balloons on the floor. Two of them you can see two black eyes and a smile printed across them

Among teens, smoking rates and drug use have dropped, with those trying alcohol or drinking regularly broadly the same. However, it’s vaping that’s seen a boom across age groups and a significant shift in recent years (1).

The significant health data over this year points to the rise in mental disorders among children and young people (2), with many young people feeling that they won’t ever emotionally recover from the pandemic (3).

For those children with probable mental disorders, this has a knock-on effect to their wellbeing at school when it comes to feeling safe, learning or having a friend to support them. It’s also worth highlighting the links to family income, need for additional support like food banks etc, also correlates to pupils being more likely to experience issues with their mental health (4).

As we’ve seen with the overall picture of poverty among children and young people, this doesn’t play out equally across regions and when it comes to marginalised communities.

Data indicates that children and young peoples’ activity levels have however recovering but gaps between boys and girls still exist (5). The picture isn’t universal however, with those from low affluence families still likely to be less active (6).

UK children’s happiness with their lives continues to decline and areas like wellbeing at school, appearance (more so for girls) and family wealth all connect (7).

Tackling inequalities is a major part of addressing this alongside listening, supporting and empowering young people when it comes to campaigns to improve their health (8).

9% of pupils in england vape (9)

23% don’t think they’ll ever emotionally recover from the pandemic (10)

in 2022 18% of 7-16 and 22% of 17-24s had a probably mental disorder (11)

50% of boys and 45% of girls are doing an average of 60 minutes a day of physical activity (12)

Those from low affluence families are less likely to be active than those from high affluence (42% compared to 52%) (13)

27% have struggled with the cost of PE or sports kit over the last year – around 450,000 more children than are in receipt of Free School Meals (14)

References in this section

A Life Online

With nearly all children in the UK going online over the past year (1), online safety continues to be an issue the UK has to tackle.

Young person sat with headphones over hoody sat lookking at laptop screen.

The long-awaited online safety bill is due to come into play in 2023, with rising pressure on how platforms will protect children and young people from harmful content, addictive functionality and algorithms built for sales rather than social connection (2).

As ever, social media use varies among youth audiences and there’s definitely a spectrum of attitudes towards it as well as habits. Average times on social media vary as do perceptions on whether they think they spend more time than they should being on social media (3).

While the rise in popularity for BeReal continues in the UK (4), notable for its lack of advertising, influencers and breadth of content, TikTok and Instagram continue to dominate as well as rising AI photo apps and Snapchat, particularly with younger teens. AI poses additional risks to privacy and safety among young people (5)

For many young people, their experiences are positive online (6), but that doesn’t mean that they are always safe, avoid seeing worrying things, don’t experience bullying or display risky behaviours (7). Some data highlights the issue of risky and criminal online behaviour being normalised among young people across Europe, with online trolling and digital piracy common (8).

Growing numbers of children and young people are spending time online gaming and forms another part of their social life, often with those they do and don’t know in real life.

As well as platforms improving safety functionality, age verification and tackling harmful content, much of the data points to parents’ roles in helping to control healthy screen time and open discussion about online safety (9).

Almost half of young people don’t think they spend more time than they should on social media, but around a third do (10)

1-8+ Hours A day on social media (11)

1 in 4 16-19-year-olds have trolled someone online, 1 in 5 have engaged in sexting and 1 in 3 have engaged in digital piracy (12)

53% of 13-17s said being online was good for their mental health, with 17% disagreeing (13)

Over a third of 8-17s said they’d seen something worrying or nasty online in the past year, with 6 in 10 saying they’d always tell someone (14)

Engaging Youth

Engaging youth 2022 highlights a lot of context for young people in the UK - but how can you apply this to your work?

If you want more content you can sign up to a weekly update on the Thread & Fable website, listen to guests on the Hear It Podcast and contact Rebecca at info@threadandfable.com to find out more about workshops, talks and ways in which to work with Thread & Fable and the collective it works with to support your campaigns and projects.

There are so many ways you can represent young people's voices through your work, involve them, co-create with them and offer invaluable opportunities for them to feel seen and heard.

As ever, a huge thank you to those who have sent reports, shared work they're involved in, come on as guests and to clients who have embraced engaging youth within the work.

Thank You

References

Throughout the report you'll find specific links and references. Below are the breadth of reports and articles that have been reviewed as part of this years' report. They are great sources of insight and may be useful within your own youth engagement.