Wrong. All wrong.
Mission Australia's latest national youth survey - at more than 50,000 participants, including many from the Hunter, the biggest annual stocktake of young people in the country - is evidence that our youth are well-adjusted, have a strong set of values and place enormous importance on family relationships.
And apart from shouldering a range of serious concerns - both personal and for the nation - young Australians are overwhelmingly positive about the future.
Our survey flies in the face of popular stereotypes of Generation Y as shallow and materialistic. But it's not all good news. This year's survey has also uncovered some serious issues we, as a community, need to address.
Once again, body image is the leading personal concern for young people - in the Hunter and around the country - while at the same time they're wrestling with stress and school/study worries at far greater levels than in recent years.
When asked to rank their personal concerns from 15 issues, body image was ranked most frequently in the top three by one-in-three respondents.
It was the leading issue of concern for groups aged 11 to 14, and 15 to 19, and for females. Almost half of those aged 20 to 24 considered it a major concern. And it's not just "a female thing"- for young males body image was the second highest concern behind alcohol.
Meanwhile, young people's concern about stress jumped close to 10 per cent from last year's survey - a worrying trend.
So while young Australians are well-balanced, there's a serious and rising vein of discomfort about themselves and some of the influences around them.
In terms of body image, the results tell us that despite governments, welfare groups and youth agencies moving to tackle the issue more earnestly, there's still a lot of work to do - particularly among young adults.
Recent developments such as the Voluntary Industry Code of Conduct on Body Image also seem to have failed to convince media and the fashion industry to be more responsible.
One thing we need to do is develop young people's "media literacy", so that when they look at a magazine and see models with unachievable body perfection, they know the image has been altered.
As for stress, the level of concern picked up in our survey suggests the merit in a broader discussion about the nature and sources of stress among young people and how we can alleviate it.
Many young people indicated they wanted to better manage their competing demands, noting the potential negative consequences of not doing so, including a range of mental health issues.
We need to better equip young people, including in early adolescence, with the practical strategies to help them deal with stress.
Because we know young people go to their friends, parents and other family members first when under pressure, we must invest in supports that assist these groups so they have the skills to help. This includes peer-to-peer education and programs targeted at family members.
One constant since beginning our survey in 2002 has been young people worrying about bullying. While other issues tend to jump around, bullying has remained steady with a quarter of young people considering it a leading concern.
Young people don't make a distinction between physical bullying or cyber-bullying via online or SMS - any bullying is an issue to them and their peers because they see the consequences of it in terms of self-harm, depression and poor mental health.
Anti-bullying strategies need to stay ahead of the game in terms of technological developments that can be used and adapted to intimidate and attack others.
They also need to target the bully and the bullied-both sides reflecting a need for support and guidance.
But let me end as I began, on a positive note. For the first time this year we asked participants how they felt about the future. The answer was resoundingly optimistic.
Two-thirds were either positive or very positive about the future; only about 9 per cent were negative.
Despite the challenges, our future is in good hands - in the Hunter and around the country.
Latest news about youth survey findings...
- Tory Maguire, The Punch: 'Which comes first, a problem or its definition'
- MA VIC State Director Paul Bird, The Punch:
'Fear of violence is killing Victorian culture'. - Mia Freedman, MammaMia:
'The #1 concern for young people is body image. And stress'. - ABC TV, News: View at this link.
- ABC Radio, The World Today: 'Young Australians feeling more stressed'
- Mission Australia news: Read on at this link
Toby Hall is the Chief Executive Officer of Mission Australia.
This piece was published in the Newcastle Herald on 19th November 2010
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