YOUTH 2020 - The position of young people in Slovenia

Health and wellbeing of young people  233 At the top of the eighteen factors or statistically significant correlates of health satisfaction are the feeling of parental love and stress. And al- though causality cannot be inferred from the connections found, it is nevertheless evident in some cases. For example, it can be said with con- siderable certainty that a lack of parental love and a poor relationship with parents (lack of understanding) cause “emotional discomfort” such as stress – all three measures of the relationship between young people and their parents are statistically significantly (p < 0.01) associated with feelings of stress. The absence of love is also statistically associated with feelings of fear of unemployment and failure, including loneliness, which is also identified as an important factor in mental health. The opposite explanation seems relatively unlikely in this respect (i.e., that parents, for example, would love a less healthy child less). Furthermore, all elements of the relationship with parents are signifi- cantly related to the third factor of health – ‘joy at work’ (0.16 <r <0.23; p <0.01) and to factor no. 5 – ‘I have/had a good time at school’ (0.15 <r <0.21; p <0.01). These relationships are also significantly associated with the use of all substances except alcohol (0.09 <r <0.26; p <0.01). These findings allow us to conclude that health satisfaction is crucially related to the family, not only in terms of what the family does (relationships), but also in terms of what the family has. As can be seen in Table 6.1, health satisfaction is also significantly related to the family’s financial situation and living conditions. A longitudinal analysis of the data (2010–2020) does not reveal major shifts in family relationships. The same applies to the subjective and ob- jective assessment of the material condition. However, contrary goes for factors of mental health, namely ‘loneliness’ and ‘stress’. The share of young people who perceive loneliness as a problem increased by 76% in ten years, and the share of young people who feel stress a few or most days a week by 110%.