In the first of the Engaging Youth Series 2025, I’ve shared All About Alphas. A report exploring the research and data sets on those born between 2010-2024 and their lives growing up in the UK.
Before we’re bombarded with unhelpful stereotypes of children who are at one end about to sit their GCSE’s and at the other having their first birthday, All About Alphas will give you some contextual insight into what childhood is like in 2025.
The key focal areas I’ve pulled themes into explore health and wellbeing, education and their future view on work and prospects, and their media habits. From this I’ve also shared a framework from a marketing and communications perspective that could better engage youth voice and summarised the key themes across the report.
What does it tell us?
Building on over 30+ pieces of research, the sobering findings highlight a number of major challenges which are critical to be informed by.
Growing gap: the growing divide within the same generation is perhaps the most pronounced we have seen. This falls along lines of health and educational outcomes, prospects, and will dovetail into other factors into adulthood from ideology through to life expectancy.
Upended generation: more time online in unregulated and unsupervised spaces. Media habits, content type, dis and mis information are all factors, alongside the positives around democratised access to information and learning. Children are having to grow up faster.
Opportunities: with growing disparities among young people, as well as a bigger disconnect for organisations to reflect youth voice, opportunities can be win-win. They should be built into everything from societal decisions that will impact young people, through to marketing/comms activity with an organisation.
Race for health: the biggest crisis apparent across so many of the findings, particularly those comparing the UK to other wealthy nations, is the extreme inequality when it comes to physical and mental health. Support for key structures as well as community, family and other key influences in children and young people’s lives feels at breaking point.
Read All About Alphas in full here
You can also explore more updates on the new Engaging Youth Substack here
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