Puzzling over the riddle of teens and happiness

Grade 9 students in the Collective Voice program at Aden Bowman Collegiate share their lives and opinions through columns. Selected columns run each Monday in The Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

Do teens overcomplicate happiness? Do they disregard true joy and give in to trends that give them a false sense of pride and contentment?

Think of some words you would use to describe a teen. Grumpy, maybe? Irresponsible, annoying, lazy? Are teens ever described as being cheerful or happy? Not really.

According to psychologist Ed Diener, five factors contribute to happiness: social relationships, temperament/ adaptation, money, society and culture, and positive thinking styles.

Other lists compiled by psychologists offer different compositions of factors, so clearly there is no set recipe for happiness.

With these factors in mind, there’s a good chance that I will be happy in the future. However, there are people in totally different parts of the world who have very little, but still manage to be happy.

People find happiness in different places, and sometimes one can have access to a source of happiness but still be unhappy. Money is a good example of that.

Teens have the ability to make money and the freedom to spend it. In a lot of cases, they can still rely on the support of parents, so they have no bills to pay.

They tend to spend large amounts on material things, such as clothing, which aren’t all that exciting after the initial purchase. This may be a reason for some dissatisfaction among teens.

Money is not on many happiness factor lists. Yes, you can be happy with billions of dollars, but you can also be happy with very little. This is especially the case if you have a strong sense of community.

In a study conducted by Diener, the happiest people were found to have strong social connections.

In developing countries, especially in smaller communities, people tend to be close-knit as they often rely on each other.

If you can get along with mostly everyone, it relieves a lot of stress and provides constant support.

What does this have to do with me, a teen far from places such as those? Well, teens aren’t always perceived as being the happiest people.

There are reasons teens may be unhappy, some of which are linked to the fact that their brains are still developing. However, if we think about the factor of money, we might find there is more than a developing brain and school stress to blame for the unhappiness of teens. A study conducted by the American Psychological Association found gratitude to be linked with teen happiness. Frivolous spending of money really does not promote gratitude.

The complexity of a teen’s social life and pressure to follow trends will contribute to this spending of money and may hinder the growth of a sense of self. All of this may cause stress and unhappiness.

Happiness is not always where you expect it to be. There are some factors that we cannot change, but I think that overall, teens can learn something from the simple happiness we find in gratitude and strong, supportive social connections.

Is happiness simpler than we think it is?