Teenagers may worry that they are facing a worse life than their parents – but they “have so much more” than the generations before them ever had, according to Shane Coleman.

New research from Barnardo’s in the UK has found that teens aged 14 to 17 now believe their generation will have a worse life than their parents enjoyed.

The study found that money, jobs and the climate crisis are some of the top concerns among teens today.

Asked to imagine themselves at the age of 30, some 55% said they would be worse off than the previous generation, with a further 34% believing the generation below them would fare no better.

One in ten meanwhile said they feel ‘hopeless’ about the future.

'They have so much more'

'They have so much more'

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, presenters Shane Coleman and Ciara Kelly asked whether they were right.

“First of all, it's too early to tell,” said Shane.

“Like when we came out of college or when I came out of college in 1990, I think you were a few years after that, there was no jobs available and it looks like the future was incredibly bleak.

“Within a few short years, things had turned around, so it is possible to solve problems.

“I think what we have at the moment is, in terms of consumer goods, in terms of clothes, in terms of eating out, in terms of holidays, in terms of beauty treatments, kids nowadays have so much more than we had – like so much more.”

Spending power

He said there are legitimate concerns around housing, but when it comes to spending power there is no comparison between today and the way things were when he was younger.

“When I came out of college, I was a mad Ireland fan, a mad football fan – but it never crossed my mind to go to Italia 90,” he said.

“I just would not have had money to do it.

“That would be unthinkable now. If I was a 21-year-old and Ireland qualified for the World Cup now, you would be there.”

“I'm sorry, I'm not saying this to say that they have it easy but in terms of spending power, they have much more spending power.”

Housing

He said people’s concerns about housing are understandable – but it is possible to solve the housing crisis.

“It's taking too long and we need to be much better at it … but what I would say to young people listening today - and this is no consolation if you're 30 and trying to buy a house - but things change,” he said.

“We are too slow at solving problems but I think it will be solved.”

Ciara Kelly in the Newstalk studio. Image: Newstalk

Fellow presenter Ciara Kelly said the climate crisis is a very present issue for many young teenagers.

“I think that they do worry about that and that it's going to impact on their generation in a way that it won't have impacted on older generations,” she said.

“They may well be right on that, I don't know, but a bit like you, I have great optimism around us problem solving.

“The human race is resilient like you wouldn't believe and we're going through a kind of a lack of resilience phase at the moment because I think we've mollycoddled ourselves and maybe we have a sense that there shouldn't be problems anymore, but we're animals living on a planet and I think actually we do a reasonably good job at making that planet bend to our will.

“Maybe too good of a job, that could be part of the problem.”

She said recent studies have predicted that ‘Generation Alpha’ - children born between the early 2010s and mid 2020s - will be the richest generation ever.