Washington, D.C., July 30, 2024 – Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation today announced a new research series with Dr. Lisa Damour, best-selling author and clinical psychologist, to advance their ongoing work on the experiences of Gen Z.

Along with Dr. Damour, they will explore the relationships that 10- to- 18-year-old Gen Z children have with their parents, the support systems that children and parents rely on, and how both groups navigate the preteen and teenage years.

“Parents want to understand their kids’ emotional lives and to know how to offer support,” said Dr. Damour. “My partnership with Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation illuminates key points: along with their uncomfortable emotions, young people feel a great deal of happiness; they have effective strategies for helping themselves feel better when they’re upset; and they want to feel heard and be taken seriously by adults.”

To mark the launch of the research series, and ahead of the start of the new school year, Gallup, Dr. Damour and the foundation released a new survey of 1,675 10- to 18-year-old children and their parents or guardians.

The data shows young people are using a range of healthy coping mechanisms. These can be leveraged by families to help children overcome uncomfortable emotions and prepare them for the stress of a new school year. Gen Z youth are most likely to manage challenging feelings by listening to music (58%), playing video games (45%), connecting with friends (45%) and talking about their feelings (39%). Only 20% reported turning to social media when upset.

“These new findings suggest that the negative emotions many Gen Zers feel are closely related to the pressure they feel to be perfect,” said Stephanie Marken, Gallup senior partner. “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.”

The new survey also demonstrates that the emotional lives of preteens and teenagers are marked by more ups than downs. Nearly all children (94%) say that they felt happiness a lot of the prior day, but 45% also felt stressed, 38% felt anxious and 23% felt sad.

Parents also have a role to play in helping their children manage their emotions. According to the young Gen Z respondents, 62% say they want their parents to listen to them when they are upset, yet only 28% want their parents to give advice. Younger Gen Z children are more likely to want reassurance and physical comfort from their parents, while teenagers are 20 percentage points more likely than 10- to 12-year-olds to say they want their parents to give them space when they are upset. While 35% of parents say their child has very intense emotions, more than eight in 10 parents feel confident in their ability to comfort and communicate with their child when they are struggling with their emotions.

Overall, one-third of Gen Z children say they feel pressure to be perfect. That sentiment is higher among 13- to 15-year-olds (38%) and is especially high among girls (40%). Whether Gen Z children report feeling negative emotions is closely related to their propensity to feel the need to be perfect. Those who say they need to be perfect are 23 to 30 percentage points more likely than those who do not feel that pressure to say they felt anxious, sad and stressed a lot of the prior day.

Throughout the summer and fall, Dr. Damour, Gallup and the foundation will release further research and analysis about the relationship between Gen Z children and their parents.

Methodology

Results are based on a Gallup Panel web survey conducted Mar. 13-20, 2024, with 1,675 parents aged 18 and older, and their 10- to 18-year-old children. The Gallup Panel is a probability-based panel of U.S. adults, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, who are randomly selected using address-based sampling methodology. Gallup also recruits using random-digit-dial phone interviews that cover landline and cellphones.

Parents were eligible to complete the survey if they indicated they had at least one child living in their household between the ages of 10 and 18. If there were multiple children between the ages of 10 and 18 in the household, parents were asked to answer questions about the child who would have the next birthday. After completing their section of the survey, parents were asked to pass the survey to that child, who then completed their section of the survey.

For results based on the total sample of adult parents, the margin of sampling error is +/-3.3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For results based on the total sample of 10- to 18-year-old children, the margin of sampling error is +/-3.3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

About the Walton Family Foundation

The Walton Family Foundation is, at its core, a family-led foundation. Three generations of the descendants of our founders, Sam and Helen Walton, and their spouses work together to lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. We work in three areas: improving education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support, and investing in our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. To learn more, visit waltonfamilyfoundation.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About Gallup

Gallup delivers analytics and advice to help leaders and organizations solve their most pressing problems. Combining more than 80 years of experience with its global reach, Gallup knows more about the attitudes and behaviors of employees, customers, students and citizens than any other organization in the world.