Young Unemployed Feel Socially Isolated

Young Unemployed Feel Socially Isolated: According new research, the young unemployed feel socially isolated, with one in two feeling anxious in everyday situations whilst almost half (46%) avoid meeting new people. The research is based on interviews with 2,265 young people (aged between 16 and 25).

Young Unemployed Feel Socially Isolated

Young Unemployed Feel Socially Isolated

The research, published by the Prince’s Trust, suggests that 13% of people in the UK aged between the ages of 16 and 25 regularly feel anxious to the point that they are unable to leave their own home. However, the report stated that young people who are unemployed were more than twice as likely to feel that way when compared to those who were working.

The study went on to suggest that nearly half of young people who were out of work said that they felt down or depressed either ‘always’ or ‘often’. More than a third (36%) said anxiety had stopped them looking after their health and two fifths (38%) said that this was stopping them from eating a proper diet.

Last year (January 2014) the Prince’s Trust released a similar study – also as   part of the charity’s Macquarie Youth Index – which suggested that as many as three quarters of a million young people in the UK may feel that they have nothing to live for. The research in this instance covered 2,161 16-25 year olds, of whom 281 were classified as NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training). A tenth of respondents to the survey agreed with a statement which read: “I have nothing to live for.” Proportionally, this would equate to 751,000 young people in the UK at the time.

Following the release of this year’s results, Martina Milburn CBE, chief executive of the Prince’s Trust, said thousands of young people often feel like “prisoners in their own homes.”

She added that depression such as this can impact on a wide-variety of life issues, such as job prospects, relationships and overall self-confidence.


 

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