Understanding the Stress Epidemic Among Millenials and Gen Z

Research brief

Keywords: Mental health, Psychological wellbeing, People Analytics, Stress, Resilience, Millenials, Gen Z

Author: Dr Anna-Rosa le Roux, Worklife Digital, 3 April 2024

In today's fast-paced world, the pressure on individuals under 40 is immense, with demands ranging from career advancement to personal relationships and financial stability. Amidst this whirlwind, it's crucial to assess the mental wellbeing of Millennials and Gen Z individuals, uncovering the challenges they face.

The adoption of open quantitative models, based on ongoing academic research has enabled the evidence-based measurement of the key psychological constructs that impact mental wellbeing. Ongoing collation of results from individuals who complete our assessment, has unearthed fascinating insights into the psychological landscape of individuals below 40 (See Note below)

Stress: A Major Concern

Both Millennials and Gen Z are significantly affected by stress, with younger individuals reporting slightly higher struggles with stress management compared to older counterparts (51% vs 57% for stress management). Young adults find themselves grappling with the pressures of a fast-paced world. This trend aligns with recent studies indicating that younger people are more likely to experience mental health-related issues, including taking time off work due to stress.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these challenges, with a substantial percentage of young adults reporting feelings of unhappiness and depression. (An analysis by the Health Foundation found that 43% of 18 - 24 year-olds felt unhappy or depressed in April 2020, compared to just 27% in 2017-2018*) Factors such as a challenging job market, lockdown conditions, social isolation, and bereavement contributed to heightened stress levels among the under-40 demographic.

In a recent Deloitte study** younger people were more likely to leave their jobs for mental health reasons: both 18 - 29 year olds and 30 - 39 year olds planned to leave their jobs in the coming 12 months or intentionally left their job in the past 12 months, for mental health reasons.

Addressing Stress for Improved Wellbeing

Ignoring high stress levels can lead to negative consequences, impacting health, relationships, and job performance. If stress is ignored, it can lead to poor decision-making, burnout, increased risk of employee sickness, create conflicts and slow down the progress of the whole organisation.

Work ability is “the extent to which people can do their job satisfactorily without doing harm to their mental and physical health and is an important indicator of sustainable employability of workers”

A recent study from the Swedish Work Ability in Young Adults (WAYA) cohort identified several factors that might influence the relationship between stress and work ability over time:

- Recovery from work, influenced by stress and social dynamics at work, is associated with disturbed sleep and impaired awakening, affecting both stress levels and work ability.
- Work to private life interference, often caused by job strain, can lead to reduced work ability due to increased negative influence from job demands on personal life.
- Control over private life, affected by stress, plays a crucial role in maintaining work ability, as stress can diminish feelings of control at home, impacting health and interpersonal relations.
- Physical activity in leisure time, inversely related to stress levels, is linked to work ability, emphasising the importance of staying active outside of work.

By targeting these mediating dimensions, interventions may mitigate the negative impact of stress on work ability, ultimately enabling sustainable work performance.

Teaching young adults appropriate coping mechanisms not only helps them navigate through tough times but also mitigates the risk of developing mental health issues and substance abuse problems. Furthermore, young adults can profit their entire working life from the benefits of early intervention and improve their resilience to workplace (and life) stressors.

Organisations need to prioritise interventions to support stress management, including promoting work-life balance, providing mental health resources, and create a culture of open communication and support.

WorkLife Digital is a global mental-wellbeing consultancy driven by the mission to improve the sustainability of businesses. Our psychological wellbeing tool, Worklife Quotient (WL-Q), is modelled on cutting-edge scientific research and provides organisation-wide measurement and intelligence on the mental wellbeing levels and psychological resilience of staff. WL-Q also assesses the impact of organisational practices (i.e. people and culture, leadership styles, organisational purpose and values, social impact) that have a direct influence on staff wellbeing and provides strategic recommendations on addressing risks and promoting strengths.

For more information, get in touch at anna-rosa@worklife.digital

Resources

Note: We utilised the Standardised mean difference (SMD) to report large and moderate effect sizes as follows: SMD values of 0.2 to 0.5 are considered small, 0.5 to 0.8 are considered medium, and greater than 0.8 are considered large. Where below 40’s were lagging behind above 40’s, but scored high on the construct, differences were not reported.

*Generation COVID-19. Building the case to protect young people’s future health, The Health Foundation, 30 August 2020.

**Mental health and employers. The case for investment - pandemic and beyond, Delotte, March 2022. Accessed 19 March: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/consultancy/deloitte-uk-mental-health-report-2022.pdf

***Andrade C. Mean difference, standardized mean difference (SMD) and their use in meta-analysis: as simple as it gets. J Clin Psychiatry. 2020;81(5):20f13681.

****Cohen, J. (1992). Statistical Power Analysis. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1(3), 98-101. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep10768783

*****Ilmarinen, J. Work ability—A comprehensive concept for occupational health research and prevention. Scand. J. Work Environ. Health 2009, 35, 1–5. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]