Romain Rouillard (comments collected by Louise Sallé) / Photo credit: VALENTINO BELLONI / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 8:43 p.m., January 29, 2024
Nearly one in two adolescents suffers from anxiety, according to an Ipsos barometer which measures the mental health of 11-15 year olds. An alarming figure, although lower than last year, and whose origins are multifactorial.
The morale of adolescents is improving, but is not yet in good shape. According to an Ipsos barometer, 50% still suffer from anxiety in this age group. A lower figure than that revealed last year, but which remains worrying and which has its origins in numerous factors.
Hélène Roques, author of
Savons nos enfants
, published by Robert Laffont, but also founder of the company “Our future to all”, is at the origin of this study. She evokes a generation “shaped by two founding shocks” and first cites “the mobile phone in the cradle”. A very early presence of screens to which are added “parents, next to the cradle, who themselves have this mobile phone”.
The negative impact of confinement
Hélène Roques therefore points out this “unavailability” which “has changed the relationship with each other of each of us”. And to cite “confinement” – specifying “confinement at puberty” – as being the second founding shock. The combination of the two “creates unprecedented isolation,” she says. "It may be difficult to discuss with parents. Children receive on their mobile phones, alone in their corner, information, news from the world which revolves around war, violence, obviously the state of the planet, which is information that they do not understand.
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Often discouraging news which, as the study points out, "is difficult to digest, creates anger and feeds their anxiety", concludes Hélène Roques.