What Young People Are Telling Us and Why We Need to Act Now: A review of two major research reports on youth and childhood
Across Australia, children and young people are doing their best to get by. Even when things are tough, they show up and push through. Two national reports, the 2025 Youth Barometer from Monash University and UNICEF’s State of Australia's Children Report reveal what many young Australians’ are thinking about their experiences.
The Scope of the Reports
A total of 2263 children and young people participated in the reports. The Youth Barometer surveyed 623 young Australians aged 18 to 24 and conducted 30 in-depth interviews with young people. The State of Australia’s Children’s Report presents an overview of the wellbeing and development of children and young people across the country. Ten children aged 3 to 11 engaged in participatory workshops and over 2,000 12 to 17-year-olds completed an online survey. Both reports included children and young people with diverse lived experiences.
Shared Messages
While the resilience of many young Australians in overcoming the range of challenges detailed in the reports is admirable, both suggest more needs to be done to act in their best interests to support their long-term development. The Australian Government can do more to ensure that all children and young people experience conditions they need to thrive in every aspect of their lives. The themes of economic insecurity, belonging and connection, mental health, and being heard by those in positions of power recur across both reports. You can find a summary of some key findings concerning each theme below.
Cost of Living and the Economy
Both reports highlight economic insecurity as a core concern shaping wellbeing among young people. With the increasing cost of living, young people who are financially independent are often left to fend for themselves, sacrificing their health and livelihood just to get by. The State of Australia’s Children report revealed that children are acutely aware of financial stress within their families, and recognise when basics such as food, school supplies, or stable housing are at risk.
When asked what they would change if they were in charge of Australia, children prioritised:
Making housing cheaper and easier for young people to afford (41%)
Ensuring fairness, respect and equity regardless of background or identity (37%)
Providing more financial support to struggling families and remove communities (34%)
Creating safer, violence-free neighbourhoods. (31%)
Mental health support often comes too late
Both the Children’s Report and Youth Barometer identify increased mental distress associated with financial pressure and social disconnection. Rather than seeking support from family, friends or professionals, many young Australians cope with the hardships, which reinforces the idea of resilience as endurance, rather than wellbeing through support. In the past year, 23% of young people received mental health support, 9% sought but did not receive such support and 65% did not seek mental health support(Walsh et al. 2025). Alongside this, out-of-pocket costs for youth mental health services increased by 79 per cent between 2020 and 2023, placing professional support out of reach for many, particularly in rural and remote communities where services are limited and wait times are longer (Walsh et al., 2025)
Belonging makes a big difference
A strong sense of belonging is repeatedly identified as fundamental to wellbeing among young Australians. Both reports indicate that young people value being a part of group activities, such as sports and community programs because they foster relationships, teamwork, communication and social skills – all key aspects of child development.
Two thirds of surveyed children and young people report feeling like they belong in their community. Children articulate belonging in inclusive terms.
“[If kids feel they don’t belong] we could go everywhere with them… we can make sure people don’t feel left out” – (Participant ages 5-7, The State of Australia’s Children Report.)
Both reports also highlight the importance of being involved with decision-making on national levels for young people. The Youth Barometer indicates how interviewees felt that young people were only taken seriously on youth affairs, but not on broader issues, and that representation of young voices remain inadequate. The State of Australia’s Children report emphasised how even young children demonstrate a clear understanding of social issues (O’Connell et al. 2025).
Insight to Action as Youth Workers: What can we do more often?
Youth workers need to design support that is early, consistent, and centred on each child’s needs. This means building strong, trusting relationships with young people and their families so they feel safe seeking help.
Here are some recommendations from the reports:
Establish an Early Intervention Investment Framework, supported by a National Children’s Data Strategy: This would look like combining both data that we have from conversations with young people and reliable National children’s data. With shared information youth workers can provide more targeted support for young people.
Establish a National Early Childhood Commission to ensure timely, cohesive reform: A dedicated Commission would bring early childhood services, governments and community organisations to reform the current systems in place, allowing for stronger support systems around young people and children. This recommendation will encourage children and young people to influence the system that shapes their lives rather than having the current, almost outdated systems influence how involved and willing young people are for decision making.
Elevate children’s voices in decision making for meaningful co-design: Youth workers already prioritise listening to young people and this recommendation will strengthen this practice on a national level. There are already programs which allow young people to voice their opinions and views in decision making, however not all children are equally represented.
Increase the number of mental health and wellbeing professionals in early childhood education and care services and schools: More mental health staff means youth workers gain additional partners who can support early identification of challenges – this could be councillors or mental health workers in the childhood education or online services such as headspace, kidshelpline etc. This expands the network of care around children and helps prevent issues from escalating.
The implementation of a National Children’s Act, overseen by a National Ministerial Council for Children: Ensures that governments are legally accountable for children’s wellbeing. For youth workers, this ensures children’s needs remain a national priority and that children feel like their opinions and concerns will be heard and acted upon.
This summary was written by Jessica, a young person who completed a placement at AYAC through Univerity of South Australia. The AYAC team would like to thank Jessica for her contributions throughout the placement.