Marketing Research Shows Younger Adults Have Most Stress
OK, Boomers! How many of you remember your parents saying "Youth is wasted on the young." I do! And I also remember having a conversation with a friend about her college-aged daughter's amazing adventures and opportunities: study aborad, internships, and more. "When I die," she told me, "I want to come back as my daughter."
But a new survey of 1200 online Americans conducted by Polaris Marketing Research and our data collection partner ResearchNow shows that youth may not perceive themselves to be so fortunate!
Adults aged 18-34 were significantly more likely than other age groups to say that they are "very stressed." At the other end of the scale, individuals aged 55 and older were significantly more likely to report themselves "not stressed."
Even worse, young people are more likely to say their stress levels are "worse than twelve months ago"!
And finally, the poor dears believe themselves to be significantly more stressed than others, while - again - those lucky boomers are significantly more likely to feel their stress levels are about the same or lower than others.
Now, I don't mean to make light of anyone who believes themselves to be under stress. And clearly, younger people are dealing with a lot: higher unemployment rates than the rest of the population, education debt loads coming due, managing relationships in a privacy-challenged world. And our research did not measure actual stress - just perceived stress - so we can't say whether Boomers actually have less stress or just seem to be handling it better.
But - as my mother also used to say - "The grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence." Next time you find yourself under too much stress - remember that others may have it worse! And as we say in marketing, "Perception is Reality!"