The Children's Society reveal one in five children unhappy with life

The survey conducted by The Children’s Society revealed more than one in five children of secondary school age in the South East – more than 116,000 young people - feel dissatisfied with their lives.

Of the children who took part in the South East, 22 per cent gave low scores of less than five out of ten when asked to rate their satisfaction with life.

Mark Russell, chief executive of the charity, said: ‘It’s heart-breaking to learn that even before Covid so many children in the South East felt dissatisfied with their lives, that they lacked purpose and were feeling unhappy at the time of this survey.

‘The fear is that the pandemic will only exacerbate this situation, with all the indications from our frontline support for children and our research being that the pandemic is taking a huge toll on young people’s well-being.’

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