What's Wrong With Our Young People?

The Spring 2023 Harvard Youth Poll surveyed 2,069 young Americans between 18- and 29-years old last March. Harvard's Public Opinion Project has provided the most comprehensive look at the political opinions and voting trends held by young Americans, and this year's survey is worrisome, especially for parents of young adults who identify with the Democrat party.

The Washington Free Beacon offers a summary of the findings.

The poll asked respondents how often they had experienced a certain emotion or problem over the past two weeks, and here's how young Democrats reported feeling "at least several days" over that period:

• 61 percent reported feeling "nervous, anxious, or on edge"
• 57 percent said they had "trouble relaxing"
• 55 percent said they felt "unsafe"
• 52 percent reported feeling "down, depressed, or hopeless"
• 49 percent said they felt "little interest or pleasure in doing things"
• 47 percent said they experienced "loneliness"
• 46 percent reported "feeling afraid as if something awful might happen"
• 27 percent said they had entertained "thoughts that [they] would be better off dead" or "thoughts of hurting [themselves] in some way"

According to the Free Beacon's summary the numbers were significantly smaller among young Republicans.The Free Beacon continues:

Despite feeling nervous and unsafe all the time, nearly 4 in 10 young Democrats said they support "defunding police departments" in their communities.

Nearly one in three said police officers make them feel "less safe."

Other noteworthy findings include the following:

• 32 percent said they regularly use TikTok for "news and current events related content," compared with 21 percent of young Republicans.
• 25 percent said they disagree with the statement "I would rather live in America than any other place," compared with 10 percent of young Republicans; just 49 percent of Democrats agree with the statement, compared with 71 percent of GOP respondents.
• 11 percent said they are neither employed nor enrolled as students, compared with 6 percent of young Republicans.
• Just 72 percent of young Democrats identified as "heterosexual or straight," compared with 89 percent of young Republican.
• 22 percent of young Democrats identified as gay (2 percent), lesbian (4 percent), bisexual (10 percent), or "other" (6 percent), compared with 7 percent of young Republicans.

I don't know why these numbers are so much higher among Democrat than Republican youth although one possibility is that young people already disposed to the attitudes and feelings canvassed by this poll may feel more comfortable in the Democrat party and thus gravitate to it.

However, why that party should make young people with these anxieties and emotional dysfunctions feel at home is a question that I'll leave to the reader to speculate upon.