Back to School: Checking in with Gen Z

This report details Gen Z’s significant stress, feeling unprepared for post-graduation life, and disappointment in community and political leaders' efforts to address their challenges. We found that Zoomers have mixed emotions about returning to school, severe mental health struggles, and a desire for real-world learning opportunities. Despite these challenges, Gen Z’s political engagement continues to rise, as many Zoomers expressed that they planned to vote in the midterms.

Key Findings

• Gen Z has mixed emotions about returning to school after more than two years of disruption. While 52% of high school students volunteer positive words like “excited” (29%) to describe their feelings about the upcoming academic year, a roughly equal number of teenagers used negative words (39%) like “unenthusiastic” (9%) and “nervous” (9%).
• It is difficult to understate the severity of the Gen Z mental health crisis. A solid majority of Gen Z high school students admit struggling with their mental health over the last 30 days – and more than a quarter have had thoughts that they would be better off dead, or of hurting themself in some way in the last two weeks. More than 60% of Gen Z high schoolers are also concerned about sexual assault, gun violence, or a friend attempting or completing suicide.
• Gen Z credits teachers and some adults for trying to understand and address their needs–but not local or national education policymakers and politicians. For example, 44% report that their local school district’s board has “not much” or no (not at all) understanding of their needs, and Gen Z views their local superintendent (-10 net difference between “not much/not at all” and “a lot/some”), Democrats in Congress (-20), Republicans in Congress (-26), and local elected officials (-21) even more harshly.
• Zoomers do not believe their educational experience will adequately prepare them for life after graduation. While half express positive sentiment about returning to school, one third of high schoolers are not very confident about their future. Nearly all want learning opportunities that help them gain skills for the real world or obtain good jobs after graduation but say they aren’t readily available.
• Political engagement of Gen Z is tracking to historic levels from 2018. More than a third of eligible high school voters plan to “definitely vote” in the midterm elections, most favoring Democrats.