OECD report: Happiness among teenagers. What country has the least satisfied pupils?

Dutch teenagers are the happiest ones regarding their school activities, according to the most recent study from the Organization for Economical Cooperation and Development (OECD). At the opposite end, the report shows that the least happy are the pupils in Turkey.

540,000 pupils aged 15 from 72 countries were questioned for the OECD – PISA 2015 survey. On a scale from 1 to 10, in which 10 is the highest degree of satisfaction, most teenagers reported a general satisfaction level of 7,3.

Nevertheless, the report emphasised important variations of this level, depending on the country. Therefore, while less than 4% of the pupils in the Netherlands declared themselves unsatisfied with their lives, the proportion increased to over 20% with the Turkish pupils.

Regarding the UK pupils, 28,3% declared they are very satisfied with their lives, while nearly 15,6% claimed they are not. In the USA, 35,9% declared they are very happy, while 11,8% stated they did not like their lives.

Plenty of teenagers declared to be very satisfied with their lives: 44,4% of the Finnish, 46,7% of those in Iceland, 44,6% of those in Brazil, 50,9% of those in Colombia, 58,4% of those in Costa Rica, 67,8% of those in the Dominican Republic, 47,6% of those in Lithuania and 50,1% of those in Montenegro.

Turkish pupils, the unhappiest

At the opposite end, the highest rates regarding pupils that are unhappy with their lives are recorded in Turkey (28,6%), South Korea (21,6%), Tunisia (19,3%) and Japan (16,1%).

Overall, among the countries that are members of OECD, there are differences between genders, according to the survey. While girls generally reported a satisfaction level of 7, the average score for boys was of 7,5.

In the OECD countries, 59% of pupils reported that the main cause for anxiety is represented by tests/exams, even if they had studied. Moreover, 66% declared that the possibility of getting low marks is their main source of stress.

37% also admitted they are very tensed when studying, and 52% confessed they are very stressed when they don’t know how to solve a certain problem/task from school.

What motivates teenagers to study

These values are even higher among British teenagers: nearly 72% have declared they are very stressed because of tests/exams even if they are well prepared, and 52,5% declared they are very tensed when studying. In the USA, the rates, in this case, are of 67,7% and 43,3%, respectively.

When it comes to what motivates pupils to study, in the OECD countries, 92% of pupils state that they do this in order to make sure they will have the best opportunities after graduation, and 59,2% say they do this because they want to be the best in their class.

The report keeps the same trend in Great Britain and the USA. 97,8% of British teenagers work for better marks in the possibility of a future with more opportunities, and 75,6% – so that they are the best in their class. In the USA, the rates are of 97,3% and 85,4%, respectively.

The OECD report also draw attention upon the phenomenon of “bullying“, that still affects numerous children and teenagers. On average, 11% of pupils in the OECD countries declared they are frequent targets for jokes, 7% declared they are often “left out”, while 8% declared they are often the subject of inappropriate comments or rumours.

20% of British pupils feel like “outsiders” in school

The high percentage of those that have been physically abused is also concerning. OECD countries saw on average a percentage of 4% of teenagers that claim to have been hit several times a month by their colleagues, and 7,7% declared they have been hit a few times per year. Moreover, 4% declared that their goods have been destroyed or taken by other pupils. Girls endured less physical abuse than boys, but they were more frequent targets of rumours or comments.

23,9% of British teenagers claim they were victims of bullying several times a month. The proportion is lower among the Americans: 18,9%.

Regarding whether they feel they belong to the school, the OECD average is the following: 73% of teenagers declared they feel included in the school collective, while less than 20% declared they feel excluded.

In the UK, 67,8% of teenagers say they feel included, and around 20% declared they feel as outsiders. In the USA, the proportions for the same situations are of 74,2% and of 76,2%, respectively.

At an OECD level, one in five pupils confessed they have been mistreated by their professors – for instance, they were ridiculed in front of their classmates – at least a few times a month.

The number of British teenagers that work and get paid

The OECD – PISA survey also analysed for the first time the situation of teenagers trying to make a living.

On average, 73% of them said they work in the household either before or after classes, and 23% said they work and get paid.

In the UK, 23,2% of teenagers stated they work before or after classes in order to make money, while 30,4% of American pupils declared the same thing.

Regarding the way teenagers spend their free time, 43% of those interviewed said they do sports before going to school, and 66% declared they get active after classes. Only 5,7% of boys and 7,5% of girls declared they engage in no physical activity outside the school.