Health
Gallup poll reveals how teens cope with negative emotions — and why 'they want to be heard'
A new Gallup survey explored how young Americans cope with stress, anxiety and other big emotions – and the results were mostly positive.
The research was done in partnership with the Walton Family Foundation and Dr. Lisa Damour, a bestselling author and clinical adolescent psychologist who served as a consultant on Pixar’s movie “Inside Out 2.”
Ohio-based Damour and the rest of the team dove deep into the Gen Z experience, exploring the relationship between teens and their parents and other support systems.
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The researchers surveyed 1,675 children between ages 10 and 18, along with their parents or guardians.
The data revealed that young Gen Zers are using a “range of healthy coping mechanisms” to deal with challenging feelings, according to a press release.
A poster for the movie “Inside Out 2” is displayed in Hong Kong, on July 3, 2024, with nine animated emotions: joy, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, ennui, envy, embarrassment and anxiety. Dr. Lisa Damour, a bestselling author and clinical adolescent psychologist, served as a consultant on the movie. (Vernon Yuen/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
More than half of Gen Z respondents reported listening to music as a coping mechanism, while 45% said they play video games, 45% connect with friends and 39% talk about their feelings.
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Only 20% of teens reported that they turn to social media when upset.
The emotional lives of preteens and teens are “marked by more ups than downs,” according to the Gallup poll.
Listening to music is a “really effective way to manage emotions,” a psychologist told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
A whopping 94% of teens said they felt happiness “a lot on the prior day” — while 45% said they also felt stressed, 38% felt anxious and 23% felt sad.
Helping teens handle emotions
The survey explored how parents and guardians can help teens manage their emotions as they start to seek more independence.
More than 60% of Gen Zers said they want their parents to listen to them when upset. Only 28% want their parents to give advice.
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Younger Gen Z respondents are more likely to search for parental reassurance and physical comfort — but teenagers are 20% more likely to want their parents to give them space when they are upset, the survey found.
Young people who feel the need to be perfect are 23% to 30% more likely to feel anxious, sad and stressed.
Among the parents surveyed, 35% reported their teens having “very intense emotions,” but more than eight in 10 parents said they feel “confident in their ability to comfort and communicate with their children.”
The survey also found that one-third of Gen Z kids feel pressure to be perfect, a sentiment that is particularly higher among 13- to 15-year-olds (38%) and girls (40%).
“Social media may be shifting the landscape a little bit, but perfectionism in young people, and certainly in girls, has been on the scene for a long time,” the expert said. (iStock)
Young people who feel the need to be perfect are 23% to 30% more likely to feel anxious, sad and stressed, the research found.
“These new findings suggest that the negative emotions many Gen Zers feel are closely related to the pressure they feel to be perfect,” Stephanie Marken, Gallup senior partner, wrote in a statement.
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“Prior Gallup research has found that children who frequently experience negative emotions are more likely to say that they also struggle in school, so helping Gen Z to cope with these emotions – as well as their underlying causes – is critically important to their academic and future success,” Marken added.
Damour expressed how “delighted” she was to see how “strong and common” positive emotions were in young people. (iStock)
‘Surprisingly’ positive
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Damour expressed her surprise at the large number of young Gen Zers who reported positive emotions and coping techniques.
“I think our results will surprise a lot of people, because the headlines over the last several years have focused on mental health concerns and unwanted emotions,” she said.
“We are hearing from young people that, above all, they want to be heard and taken seriously.”
While 23% of children reported feeling envy and sadness, 29% experienced anger, 38% reported anxiety and worry, and 45% said they were stressed, a majority reported feeling enjoyment (91%) and happiness (94%).
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“The takeaway here is that teenagers have downs, but they also have ups,” Damour said. “And in terms of what they’re telling us, their ups are far more common than their downs.”
While teenagers tend to have complicated emotions and intense feelings, they’re not always negative, she pointed out.
The low number of teens who turn to social media when upset, according to a new poll, reflects their “own awareness” that it “does not help them feel better,” the psychologist said. (iStock)
The expert also offered guidance for parents whose teens may have perfectionist tendencies.
“We want to go out of our way as adults to remind young people that everyone has shortcomings,” she said. “The goal is not to be perfect, but to acknowledge and work on our shortcomings while still feeling good about ourselves overall.”
‘Listening goes a long way’
As the new school year kicks off, Damour encouraged parents to focus on listening rather than always providing solutions.
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“Well-meaning adults will often lead with some suggestions or guidance when a teenager brings painful emotions their way – and though it may come from a loving place, we are hearing from young people that, above all, they want to be heard and taken seriously,” she said.
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“Listening to teenagers and taking their feelings very seriously goes a long way to helping them feel better,” Damour added.
Parents should gauge how best to support their children based on their individual needs, the survey suggests. (iStock)
By stepping back instead of rushing in to help, adults may find that teenagers can effectively manage their own upset feelings, she said.
“We’re in a moment where parents are very, very anxious about teenagers and very, very anxious about their kids becoming teenagers,” the psychologist noted.
“Teenagers want to be heard by and taken seriously by adults, they are very thoughtful about how they manage emotions, and they know what doesn’t help them feel better.”
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Fatigue can stem from a variety of illnesses and life stressors, but when that exhaustion lasts for months — often following an infection — it may indicate a condition called chronic fatigue syndrome.
Approximately 3.3 million people in the United States currently have the syndrome, with about one in four people confined to their bed at some point during the illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Despite its prevalence, experts say it’s a poorly understood condition that physicians frequently miss, with past research suggesting that only about 15% of those affected are diagnosed correctly.
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What is chronic fatigue syndrome?
Formally known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a chronic disease that causes fatigue so severe that it impairs the ability to perform daily activities.
Approximately 3.3 million people in the United States currently have the chronic fatigue syndrome, with about one in four people confined to their bed at some point during the illness. (iStock)
The National Academy of Medicine defines the syndrome as having the following three symptoms that last at least six months.
- Severe fatigue that is 1) new and 2) decreases the ability to perform activities that you did normally prior to illness
- “Malaise” that worsens after physical or mental effort that previously was well-tolerated
- Unrestful sleep
People may also experience trouble with thinking and memory (often called “brain fog”) or lightheadedness when standing up.
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There are no tests to confirm chronic fatigue, so doctors diagnose it by talking to their patients, examining them and excluding other disorders, like hypothyroidism and depression, that often share the same symptoms.
Chronic fatigue is frequently missed by physicians, with past research suggesting that only about 15% of those affected are diagnosed correctly. (iStock)
“CFS, fibromyalgia and long COVID are all related conditions with different names,” Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, author of “From Fatigued to Fantastic” — whose research focuses on chronic fatigue syndrome — told Fox News Digital. “What these illnesses have in common is that they are immune disorders, and immune disorders predominantly affect women.”
Many genes related to immune disorders are on the X chromosome, suggesting a genetic component, the doctor added.
Causes of chronic fatigue
Chronic fatigue syndrome may be triggered by infection or other physiologic stressors, but its causes and symptoms can vary widely from person to person, according to Dr. Julia Oh, a professor in dermatology, molecular genetics and microbiology, and integrative immunobiology at the Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina.
Teitelbaum compared the condition to a “severe energy crisis” in the body. When energy drops low enough, the “control center” in the brain — the hypothalamus, which regulates sleep, hormones, blood pressure and pulse — may not work as well.
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Although hypothalamic dysfunction can trigger dozens of other symptoms, the hallmark signs are insomnia (despite exhaustion), brain fog and widespread pain, the doctor said.
Anything that causes severe energy depletion can trigger the syndrome, including chronic life stressors, nutritional deficiencies, thyroid and stress hormone imbalances, and sleep problems.
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These triggers are usually associated with a gradual onset of CFS, but sudden onset can be caused by certain infections, with two classic ones being COVID and mononucleosis, past research has shown.
Head and neck trauma and sudden hormonal shifts after pregnancy can also trigger chronic fatigue, Teitelbaum warned.
Anything that causes severe energy depletion can trigger the syndrome, including chronic life stressors, nutritional deficiencies, thyroid and stress hormone imbalances, and sleep problems, according to one doctor. (iStock)
There aren’t currently any blood tests to uniformly diagnose the syndrome, but Dr. Oh said she is hopeful that will change in the future.
Her research team developed an experimental artificial intelligence-based tool, BioMapAI, that has been shown to identify the condition with high accuracy by analyzing stool, blood and other common lab tests, according to early research published in July in the journal Nature Medicine.
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“Instead of finding one smoking gun for the disease, our AI model uncovered a distinct biological fingerprint that was dysregulated in the patients, which spanned changes in gut bacteria, hyperactive immune cells and disrupted metabolism,” Oh told Fox News Digital.
Treatments and therapies
Given how differently chronic fatigue syndrome can affect people, there is no universally effective therapy, according to Oh.
The CDC recommends that patients with CFS work with their doctors to create a management plan based on the symptoms that most affect quality of life.
There are no tests to confirm chronic fatigue, so doctors diagnose it by evaluating symptoms and excluding other disorders.
Treatments generally include a combination of lifestyle changes, therapies and medications. Patients and their physicians should weigh the potential benefits and risks of any approach.
There are some alternative therapies that have shown to be effective for some. Teitelbaum developed a protocol called SHINE, which focuses on sleep, hormones and hypotension, infections, nutrition and exercise. Some research has shown that this approach can help to improve the quality of life for people with CFS and fibromyalgia.
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Others may find alternative treatments, like physiotherapy (physical therapy) to be helpful.
Those who experience persistent fatigue that hinders their ability to participate in regular activities or impacts their quality of life should speak with a doctor.
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Long before the Black Death killed millions across Europe in the Middle Ages, an earlier, more elusive version of the plague spread across much of Eurasia.
For years, scientists were unsure how the ancient disease managed to spread so widely during the Bronze Age, which lasted from roughly 3300 to 1200 B.C., and stick around for nearly 2,000 years, especially since it wasn’t spread by fleas like later plagues. Now, researchers say a surprising clue may help explain it, a domesticated sheep that lived more than 4,000 years ago.
Researchers found DNA from the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis in the tooth of a Bronze Age sheep discovered in what is now southern Russia, according to a study recently published in the journal Cell. It is the first known evidence that the ancient plague infected animals, not just people, and offers a missing clue about how the disease spread.
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“It was alarm bells for my team,” study co-author Taylor Hermes, a University of Arkansas archaeologist who studies ancient livestock and disease spread, said in a statement. “This was the first time we had recovered the genome from Yersinia pestis in a non-human sample.”
A domesticated sheep, likely similar to this one, lived alongside humans during the Bronze Age. (iStock)
And it was a lucky discovery, according to the researchers.
“When we test livestock DNA in ancient samples, we get a complex genetic soup of contamination,” Hermes said. “This is a large barrier … but it also gives us an opportunity to look for pathogens that infected herds and their handlers.”
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The highly technical and time-consuming work requires researchers to separate tiny, damaged fragments of ancient DNA from contamination left by soil, microbes and even modern humans. The DNA they recover from ancient animals is often broken into tiny pieces sometimes just 50 “letters” long, compared to a full human DNA strand, which contains more than 3 billion of those letters.
Animal remains are especially tough to study because they are often poorly preserved compared to human remains that were carefully buried, the researchers noted.
The finding sheds light on how the plague likely spread through close contact between people, livestock and wild animals as Bronze Age societies began keeping larger herds and traveling farther with horses. The Bronze Age saw more widespread use of bronze tools, large-scale animal herding and increased travel, conditions that may have made it easier for diseases to move between animals and humans.
When the plague returned in the Middle Ages during the 1300s, known as the Black Death, it killed an estimated one-third of Europe’s population.
The discovery was made at Arkaim, a fortified Bronze Age settlement in the Southern Ural Mountains of present-day Russia near the Kazakhstan border. (iStock)
“It had to be more than people moving,” Hermes said. “Our plague sheep gave us a breakthrough. We now see it as a dynamic between people, livestock and some still unidentified ‘natural reservoir’ for it.”
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Researchers believe sheep likely picked up the bacteria from another animal, like rodents or migratory birds, that carried it without getting sick and then passed it to humans. They say the findings highlight how many deadly diseases begin in animals and jump to humans, a risk that continues today as people move into new environments and interact more closely with wildlife and livestock.
“It’s important to have a greater respect for the forces of nature,” Hermes said.
The study is based on a single ancient sheep genome, which limits how much scientists can conclude, they noted, and more samples are needed to fully understand the spread.
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The researchers plan to study more ancient human and animal remains from the region to determine how widespread the plague was and which species may have played a role in spreading it.
Researchers (not pictured) found plague-causing Yersinia pestis DNA in the remains of a Bronze Age sheep. (iStock)
They also hope to identify the wild animal that originally carried the bacteria and better understand how human movement and livestock herding helped the disease travel across vast distances, insights that could help them better anticipate how animal-borne diseases continue to emerge.
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The research was led by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, with senior authors Felix M. Key of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology and Christina Warinner of Harvard University and the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology.
The research was supported by the Max Planck Society, which has also funded follow-up work in the region.
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