This new study by the universities of Cambridge and Manchester reveals the happiness of children significantly plummets as they leave primary school and enter secondary school.
Surveying more than 11,000 children across the UK on how they felt about their friends, school, and family, they found that while most children were satisfied with life at age 11, the majority were majorly dissatisfied when they reached age 14. This plummeting satisfaction directly correlates with the jump from primary to secondary education.
Scientists asked children to rank on a scale of one to seven how satisfied they were with their schoolwork, appearance, school, family, friends and life as a whole. One was ‘completely happy’ and seven was ‘completely unhappy’.
Meanwhile, the children used a one to four scale for self-esteem and had to say whether they “strongly agree”, “agree”, “disagree” or “strongly disagree” with various statements.
The findings show that by the time the child was 14, four in five teenagers had a score of below zero, indicating a widespread degradation in adolescent happiness.