Youth of today in financial stress, according to a new report by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre

The crippling cost of living is weighing down young people and even triggering mental health concerns, especially in young women, with most surveyed citing it as one of Australia’s biggest challenges. The dire findings in the latest Youth in Focus report by Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre paints a worrying picture about young Australians aged 14 to 25. While previous generations were marked by calls for global peace and social freedoms, or by the emergence of dot.com and mining booms, the report shows the key concerns among young Australians today is about housing, homelessness and the cost of education. Bella Poll, 21, president of a not-for-profit environmental and social group Millennium Kids, said young people were grappling with some heavy issues. “This is not about young people unable to buy new make-up or a can of coke — this is about having enough money for basic necessities, like food,” she said. The report said the cost of living is the issue most youths deem to be one of the biggest in Australia, with 56 per cent citing it a national concern. On a personal level, it was the second biggest concern after school — with 34.5 per cent claiming they are personally suffering under exorbitant costs. This is up from 23.4 per cent in 2022 when it was the fourth most pressing concern and 31.4 per cent in 2023, when it was deemed the second biggest issue. Report co-author and centre director Alan Duncan said young people had been badly affected by the crisis since the onset of the pandemic because the cost of their essentials — health, education and housing — had increased substantially faster than inflation. Even if they were not mortgage holders, the cash rate hike from 0.1 to 4.1 per cent had dampened hopes for home ownership. The report shows nearly one in five (17 per cent) of those surveyed were concerned about housing and homelessness, which was traditionally a concern for fewer than 10 per cent. “Housing market problems have in a sense been the soundtrack to their lives,” said Professor Duncan. “They don’t have the experience to understand fluctuations in interest rates.” But it was the university system which came in for the harshest criticism from Professor Duncan, who said it was exacerbating financial hardship among young people. The report said university course fees — which grew 17 per cent in real terms between 1997 and 2020 — had drifted away from its original intent to provide fair and equitable access to higher education. Instead, it was leaving students with mounting debt, lower take-home pay and increased financial stress compared to previous generations. Professor Duncan said students had traditionally paid only 20 per cent of their total university fees in HECS, but now some were paying up to 93 per cent. The issues, along with the pressure of social media, were leaving many young people in a state of severe anguish. Professor Astghik Mavisakalyan said women in particular were struggling with their mental health, especially in the 15 to 19-year-old age bracket. The report said the share of young people citing mental health and depression as major personal concern had risen by eight per centage points to 28 per cent. Those citing it as a national concern has risen 10 percentage points over the decade. “Mental health issues among young women have worsened significantly over the past decade, with three in 10 experiencing high or very high psychological distress — double the rate of their male counterparts,” Professor Mavisakalyan said. “At the same time, social connectedness is deteriorating — despite the prevalence of social media — which is leaving many young people feeling isolated and unsupported.” She said the impact of social media on mental health remains a growing concern, with more than a quarter of young people who frequently use social media experiencing serious anxiety and stress But she said while the Federal Government’s proposed national social media ban could counter negative effects, there was also a real risk of unintended consequences, particularly for vulnerable groups. Ms Poll agreed the survey results were consistent with attitudes in her social network. “I am a uni student and we are all just seeing our HECs debt go up and up and up,” she said. “It’s at the point where people are choosing their uni degrees based on the HECS debt.” She had seen instances where students had gone without food in order to buy essential appliances. In one case, a student struggled to cover the cost of transport to hospital for essential treatment. Ms Poll blamed failures in the school curriculum for leaving many young people unprepared for the three of the biggest issues and sources of anxiety in the modern era — artificial intelligence, social media and climate change. “Schools don’t teach students skills and resilience to tackle these problems,” she said. While the report said 27 per cent consider climate change a national concern — down from 41 per cent in 2020 and 2023, student Eva Czislowski said it was the number one issue among her peers. The 19-year-old, also on the MK board, is among many young people determined to help youth fight for climate action. The report said three-quarters of their generation want environmental protection prioritised over economic growth and 86 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds see climate change as a key voting issue. Like Ms Poll, she has a complex attitude towards social media, having witnessed how it can both isolate and unite youths. But Josh Plummer, 19, also on MK board, said social media was overwhelming and mentally degrading, as it prompted self-judgements and peer pressure. He was concerned it had become such a way-of-life in some families that even a two-year-old toddler he knew was able to scroll YouTube before speaking his first word. “There’s too much content to consume and not enough energy in a single person to process the thoughts or feelings attached to it,” he said.