The mental well-being of children and adolescents in the Czech Republic is deteriorating, as only around half of them feel happy, a decrease of eight percentage points from 2024, according to the Young Voices survey by the Czech United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The survey, in which 1,012 children aged from nine to seventeen participated, also found that more than 60% of children spend more time online than they would like.
Compared with the previous survey from 2024, the number of children who feel happy decreased by eight percentage points, said Czech UNICEF director Pavla Gomba.
According to the survey, there are various causes of children’s unhappiness. Over the long term, it has become clear that school is a key factor in their psychological distress, Gomba said.
The children mentioned the pressure to perform well, their relationships with classmates, and fears of failure. They are happy, for example, when they are with their family or friends.
If children face problems, they generally prefer to discuss them with their parents or classmates. About 12% of those surveyed would seek help from professionals. About 10% said they did not want to talk about their problems at all.
At school, two-thirds of those surveyed felt they could confide in someone about their mental health issues. The largest group, around a half, would confide in their friends, and three out of ten in teachers.
According to the survey, social media, time spent online and negative comments are significant factors contributing to mental distress. About 63% of respondents said they had spent more time online in the past two weeks than they would have liked. According to Jiri Horacek, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, there is a need to start regulating the digital world. He said it is also necessary to build resilience.
Children agree with age-based restrictions on social media access, but differ on where to set the age limit. A survey showed that children aged 13 to 15 would allow the use of social media starting at age 13, while children aged 16 and 17 consider 16 to be an appropriate age limit.
The survey also focused on family relationships. About 77% of the children surveyed described their relationship with their father as good or very good. For their mother, this figure was 92%. More than half of the children reported that their family members argue or yell at each other. Compared to surveys from 2024 and 2022, the proportion of such families has increased. Of the children who admitted that there are arguments at home, three out of five said they are the ones being yelled at.
The survey also focused on children’s ideas about what the Czech Republic should be like. Most often, they expressed a desire to live in a country free of wars, armed conflicts and violence. Two-thirds of the children want to stay in the Czech Republic, while 27% said they don’t know yet. About one-tenth said they would like to move abroad. This is the lowest percentage since the Czech UNICEF surveys began in 2001. This April and May, it was conducted for the eighth time, in cooperation with the STEM/MARK polling agency.
The results of another survey by the STEM/MARK agency were presented at the conference yesterday. Analyst Radek Pilecek said it showed that about one-third of parents notice mental health issues in their children, and most of them are actively trying to deal with issues. He said mental and emotional problems were more common in households in larger cities than in small towns.
Pilecek said problems with classmates and bullying were markedly more frequent in Prague than in other parts of the country.
Children’s problems are rarely short-lived, he said. About three-fifths of parents reported that when they had noticed mental health issues, they had lasted longer than a year. The survey found that about three-quarters of parents monitor how their children use social media.
