Worried and disillusioned about the future and aware that Covid has irreversibly compromised their education in part. Much less likely than in the recent past to undertake university studies. Greedy and sedentary, dissatisfied with their physical appearance and at the mercy of an aesthetic dictated by influencers and fashion bloggers. More and more ‘connected’ and with a slow, but constant deterioration in relations in the family and with the peer group. The widespread desire, greatly increased compared to the past, so much so that it almost tastes like a “desire to escape”, is to travel.
This is the cross-section that emerges from the 2022 edition of the national survey on the lifestyles of adolescents living in Italy, carried out annually by the non-profit association Laboratorio adolescenza and by the Iard research institute on a representative national sample of 5,600. students aged 13-19.
“After the year of Covid – says Maurizio Tucci, president of Laboratorio adolescenza – we had given this year’s survey the title ‘Adolescence between hopes and fears’, but unfortunately, data in hand, the fears seem to be much greater than The transition from Dad to war, without solution of continuity, has made adolescents, already severely affected on a psychological level by the pandemic, even more fragile and fearful. One figure above all that describes the situation mercilessly: 52.7% of adolescents looks to his own future by defining himself as ‘uncertain’ or ‘worried’. The ‘optimists’ are 14%, a percentage that drops to 12.7% among high school students and 11.8% among girls “. Not only. 63% of the students interviewed think of enrolling in university, but 33% (even 40% of boys) think they do not. An increase compared to 22.9% in 2018.
The survey shows that adolescents are still struggling to regain the serenity lost due to Covid and only a little more than a third of the sample interviewed (35%) believe that the emergency is finally emerging, while 63.6% (70 , 8% of females) fear future upsurge.
After the pandemic, the outbreak of war in Ukraine further undermined their sense of confidence in the future. The concern of adolescents is very high (percentages ranging between 80 and 90%) for most of the possible direct and indirect consequences that may derive from the conflict. Over 75% are also worried about the possible outbreak of a third world war or a possible direct involvement of Italy in the conflict. Finally, it is interesting to note that the absolute majority also does not consider a possible large number of refugees from war zones to be worrying.