Canadian youth ‘doing worse’, struggle with friendship and bullying: report

A global study from UNICEF suggests many Canadian kids are unhappy, with social struggles such as bullying and difficulty making friends among the sources of their anguish. 

A global study from UNICEF suggests many Canadian kids are unhappy, with social struggles such as bullying and difficulty making friends among the sources of their anguish.

UNICEF’s 19th Report Card suggests one in five youth in Canada face frequent bullying, one in five are lonely and one in four struggle to make friends.

It blames bullying in particular for a drop in life satisfaction reported by 15-year-olds, down three percentage points to 76 per cent since 2018.

That marks Canada’s biggest slide among categories examined by the report, which compares the well-being of Canadian children to those in other wealthy countries between 2018 and 2022.

Despite being among the 10 wealthiest countries studied, Canada ranked 19th out of 36 countries overall, landing toward the bottom end for adolescent suicide, child mortality and social skills.

The head of an early learning unit at Vancouver’s University of British Columbia said the findings are especially disappointing since Canada should have the resources to address youth struggles, and the societal factors that exacerbate them.

“Children, in many ways, are doing worse. The supports are decreasing rather than increasing,” said Dr. Mariana Brussoni, director of the Human Early Learning Partnership.

“Children are part of families, which are part of communities and neighbourhoods and societies, so it’s not just children (struggling). You have to think about everything that surrounds them, and we’ve seen how parents are struggling and how communities are having hard times.”