Young adults report lower levels of wellbeing in lockdown

WELLBEING DURING lockdown is lowest for people aged 18-29, according to a COVID-19 study by University College London (UCL).

The study, which is funded by the Nuffield Foundation, was launched a month ago, has over 80,000 participants and is believed to the UK’s largest study on adults’ wellbeing and mental health during the coronavirus epidemic.

Life satisfaction

Participants were asked to rate their life satisfaction during the past week using the ONS wellbeing scale, which asks respondents about how satisfied they are with their life, using a scale from 0 (not at all) to 10 (completely).

AFFECTED: Researchers say young people are more likely to be living away from family and experiencing specific concerns over factors such as employment

Those aged 18-29 have tended to report levels of around 5 or under compared to 5.5 to 6.5 for those aged over 60.

By comparison, a similar ONS wellbeing scale last year showed that satisfaction scales were around 7.5 on average for the population at the end of March 2019.

Living alone

Lead author Dr Daisy Fancourt (Associate Professor of Epidemiology, UCL Epidemiology & Health Care) said: “Wellbeing is noticeably lower than the average levels we have seen for the past 12 months and it also remains more volatile amongst younger adults and for people living alone.

“It’s possible that young people’s lives have been particularly affected by the lockdown, and that they are more likely to be living away from family and be experiencing specific concerns over factors such as employment.”

The study also shows that younger adults are communicating online more than other age groups and overall three out of four adults are engaging in video calls or other messaging services of at least 30 minutes a day.

Weekly tracking

Andrew Steptoe, Professor of Psychology and Epidemiology (co-author, UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care) added: “This study has a substantial number of participants being tracked weekly.

“Although this study is not representative of the population, the data are weighted to match the population on key demographics such as age, gender, ethnicity, education, and country of living.

“This gives us a snapshot of how people in the UK are feeling and coping during the lockdown and allows us to track changes over time as the situation evolves.”