By Raushan Zhubanova
Courtesy of Youth Time Magazine

The society we live in that is well into the new millennium started to recognize serious concerns that affect the youth. Some issues have always been there but there have been new obstacles beginning to surface in the eyes of the public. American student news source The Bobcat View made up a list of 10 issues facing the youth today. How you find with them?

Single Parent Households

Since the 1950s, the numbers of the single parent households have significantly increased. Today, 14 million single parent homes are responsible for 28 million children. Raising a child in itself is difficult enough, no matter whether it is a single parent home or not, especially with tough economic conditions.

Drug/Alcohol Abuse

There have been times in history where every actor/actress in a movie was portrayed with a cigarette in hand, as smoking was considered cool. Today, about 21% of high school students admit drug use and 41% report drinking alcohol.

Growing Up Too Fast

There was a time when kids enjoyed being kids. Today, even at the earliest of ages, some children are partaking in adult activities with serious consequences. In many places around the world children are involved in economic activities and bear a burden of responsibility for their families.

Violence in Schools

Schools play a major role in the formation of the young person’s foundation for building a life and it is reasonable to expect that the places for learning should be safe. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, as in many instances, schools can become “war zones”. In the last decade 284 kids were murdered due to school violence – these were shootings, stabbings, fighting and suicides.

Stress & Time Management

Managing the pressure to succeed in every area of life and finding time to do it all seems to be one of the biggest challenges facing the youth today. Young people are expected to be successful, yet few of them are aware of effective time management.

Political & Social Issues

Understanding what goes on around the world and finding one’s own opinion on the social and political issues is a big challenge for the youth, who struggle to differentiate between “good” and “bad” news sources and find their way in the mud of today’s world.

Materialism

We live in a society that promotes materialism and young people are taught to measure success and happiness in life based on how much stuff they have. Materialistic view on life can result in dissatisfaction when one doesn’t have enough and can negatively affect a person’s life.

Obesity

Recent numbers show that more and more children and youth especially in the United States are becoming obese. This is mostly because they prefer to spend more time in front of the TV or laptop and not enough time exercising and leading a healthy lifestyle.

Education Inequality

Different groups of young people seem to have unequal access to proper education and throughout the world, there have been continuous attempts at reforming education at all levels. Still, according to the World Inequality Database on Education, more than 25% of children worldwide have never been to primary school.

Shifting Economy

In today’s society, the open markets and globalization result in laying off workers and outsourcing work to the countries where it is cheaper. This makes it more difficult for the young people to find jobs and further complicates the already problematic lives of the youth.