As data continues to show that young people are reporting increasing rates of despair, experts say that a renewed focus on the happiness that marriage, raising children, and church attendance bring can help reverse the trend.

New statistical analysis published earlier this month revealed some sobering facts, including the overall trend that unhappiness is peaking among the young (those aged 18-24) and then declining with age in 44 countries, including the U.S. and the U.K. Particularly in the U.S. over the last roughly quarter century, the rate of young people who say they are in despair (defined as those who say their mental health was not good for the last 30 consecutive days) has risen sharply. For men, it has more than doubled since 1993, rising from 2.5% to 6.6% in 2024. For women, the outlook is even more dire, almost tripling from 3.2% to 9.3%.

As to the causes behind the rising rates of despair among the young, analysis authors Alex Bryson (professor of Quantitative Social Science, UCL), David Blanchflower (professor of Economics, Dartmouth College), and Xiaowei Xu (senior research economist, Institute for Fiscal Studies) say that research into the reasons behind the surge remain “inconclusive,” while acknowledging that excessive screen time is likely a “contributory factor.”

But sociologists like Brad Wilcox, a professor at the University of Virginia and a senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, say that the cultural deemphasis and ridicule of marriage and family life is likely a prime culprit in the surging rates of unhappiness among the young. As he wrote Monday, “Data consistently show that marriage and children confer compounding benefits to both men and women. Married men and women ages 25 to 55 are almost twice as likely to report they are ‘very happy’ with their life than their unmarried peers, according to the 2022 General Social Survey.” In addition, “Married people enjoy more financial stability and better emotional and physical health outcomes.”

Wilcox went on to observe that data from a recent survey of 3,000 American women revealed that “married mothers are among the happiest in the country,” reporting “less loneliness, more physical touch and deeper meaning and connection in their relationships than their unmarried and childless peers.”

As for men, Wilcox noted a theme particularly keyed in on by the late Charlie Kirk, who Wilcox credits with ushering in a new era of popular acceptance of marriage and family among young men, who crave a mission, “grounding their lives in responsibility and meaning in something bigger than themselves.” Wilcox pointed to a recent NBC survey, which found that young men who voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election ranked “having children” as “the highest marker of personal success, followed by financial independence, a good job and marriage.”

In an Instagram post shortly before his death, Kirk wrote, “Having a family will change your life in the best ways, so get married and have kids. You won’t regret it.”

Wilcox also highlighted a speech that Kirk gave at a church, where he emphasized church attendance as the third key element to giving meaning to the lives of young men alongside marriage and raising children. “What young people are screaming is, they say, ‘Give me a structure that I can live my life by,’” Kirk remarked. “Especially young men … [they want] more saying, ‘Stop being a boy and become a man.’”

There are, in fact, indications that Millennials and Generation Z are leading the charge in a new surge in church attendance. According to recent research from Barna Group, Gen Zers now lead older generations in church attendance, averaging 1.9 weekends per month. Millennials are a close second, with an average of 1.8 weekends per month. Barna’s report notes that these numbers represent “a steady upward shift since the lows seen during the pandemic” and “are easily the highest rates of church attendance among young Christians since they first hit Barna’s tracking.”

This upward shift in church attendance among the young could mark a turning point in the dire mental health data that continues to surface. Research shows that those who attend church regularly report higher rates of happiness and civic engagement than those who are religiously unaffiliated or are inactive members of religious groups.

Still, it remains to be seen whether surveys indicating renewed interest in having children among young men will translate into more marriages and more children, with both marriage and fertility rates currently at or near record lows. The jury is also out on whether young people who are newly attending church will become church members for the long haul.

“Discipleship is absolutely essential,” Family Research Council’s David Closson told The Washington Stand earlier this month. “Jesus’s Great Commission was not simply to make converts but to ‘make disciples’ — to teach people to obey everything He commanded.” It’s good to see young people returning to church, Closson noted, but “that’s only the beginning.”