The risks of increasing generational and social divides in Germany
by Christoph Döbele, Senior Consultant and Dr. Sophia Schmid, Senior Consultant – Kantar Public, Germany
In June 2021, Kantar Public published the findings of a study conducted in ten countries to assess the collateral impacts of COVID-19 on public health, and understand the many ways in which the pandemic had affected our lives and health – possibly with long-lasting consequences.1
While the pandemic placed unprecedented levels of strain on the physical, mental and emotional health of people across the world, our study showed that young people had been particularly affected: the closure of schools and universities during lockdown led to concerns about their education and career prospects, while decreased physical activity, increased food consumption, feelings of loneliness, and increased family conflicts were also reported.
This study highlighted one of the paradoxes of the policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis: measures that aimed to protect older and more vulnerable people from the virus, have caused severe collateral damage for the younger generation.
In this article, Christoph Döbele and Sophia Schmid focus on the German youth through a comparative analysis of two studies commissioned by the Federal Press and Information Office (BPA) before and during the pandemic.2 As well as corroborating the findings of the aforementioned study, this analysis reveals further impacts of the pandemic on young people’s daily lives, values, future perspectives, and political attitudes in Germany.
Dramatic changes in young people’s everyday life in Germany
Unsurprisingly, young people’s lives have significantly changed in the wake of the pandemic, especially in terms of educational and leisure activities. Most noticeably, they spend much more time online than before the pandemic – both during their free time and study time.
As schools and universities shifted to online learning during the pandemic, two thirds of German students reported that online learning worked well thanks to a variety of digital platforms. However, 83% mentioned that they missed the direct contact with their peers, and found learning a lot more demanding than before the pandemic.
Young people from lower socioeconomic groups were hit the hardest by the pandemic.
Those with a low or medium educational attainment level much more regularly complain about distance learning not working well or teachers not being available, leading to worse grades for almost half of those of in the low educational attainment category.
This finding is reflected in the decrease in young people’s level of satisfaction with their life as a whole: 77% of young Germans said they were satisfied/very satisfied with their life in 2021 vs 85% in 2019. This decline is significantly sharper among young people receiving state support: only 57% reported being satisfied / very satisfied with their life in 2021 vs. 73% two years earlier – representing a dramatic 16-percentage point decrease.
This impact held true among young people in employment: those with lower levels of education were significantly more likely to suffer from income losses as a result of the pandemic (35% vs. 21% of those with a high education level).
Level of satisfaction with current life among young Germans aged 14 – 24 years old
Financial security has become even more important to young people
Perhaps unsurprisingly then, when asked about their goals in life, young Germans were significantly more likely to cite financial security as their top concern in 2021 (68%) compared to 2019 (59%). Goals such as sustainability (19%) or healthy living (17%) were slightly less often mentioned in 2021, with a decrease of five and four percentage points respectively.
Conversely more German youths seem to aspire to a hedonistic lifestyle: for instance, slightly more young people reported that they just do and buy whatever they feel like, with little concern over the fact that these behaviours or purchases might not be sustainable.
Otherwise, there were few changes in the goals and concerns reported by the young generation, suggesting that apart from the need for greater financial security, the pandemic has so far had little impact on the youth’s long-term goals.
Top 3 most important goals in young Germans’ life
A less optimistic outlook for the future of young people, and the risk of intergenerational and social conflict
In contrast to its limited effect on the youth’s goals in life, the pandemic has had a profound impact on their expectations for the future. Two fifths of young Germans expect that qualifications and degrees gained during the pandemic are likely to be less valued by future employers. Again, this finding was more pronounced among young people from the lower socioeconomic groups, with more than half expressing this concern.
In addition, almost three quarters of young people stated that future employment opportunities for their generation had worsened during the pandemic, leading them to conclude that the pandemic will harm their prospects in the long term, leaving them with a bleak outlook for their generation’s future.
German youth’s perceptions of future opportunities
Therefore, it is not surprising that a large majority of young people feel that their generation has been particularly affected by the Corona pandemic – more so than their older counterparts.
Four out of five (82%) agreed that politicians did not take their concerns seriously nor addressed their generation’s needs sufficiently during the pandemic – both in terms of their general interests and their financial security.
Consequently, many demanded that the State align its policies more closely with the priorities of future generations, rather than focusing on the national economy and the needs of the older generation.
Our study revealed that 48% of young people perceived this potential intergenerational conflict in German society as (very) strong. This sentiment was particularly prevalent among young people from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, who, to a certain degree, perceive themselves in competition with their older counterparts for political attention and state benefits.
In addition to giving rise to intergenerational tensions, the pandemic has exacerbated a social conflict between rich and poor, with four in five young people mentioning that this divide is of great relevance in Germany. It is also worth noting that these complex intersectional issues are prevalent across society, as they affect all socioeconomic groups.
German youth’s perceptions of politics during the pandemic
Increased trust in political institutions
Despite feeling that their entire generation has been disadvantaged or even sacrificed during the pandemic, young people reported a higher level of trust in political institutions in 2021 compared to 2019.
In particular, the Federal government and the Bundestag (the German parliament) recorded substantial increases in trust (+ 11% and + 13% respectively) with 46% of young people stating that they had a very/rather strong trust in both institutions.
One possible interpretation is that, from the perspective of the German youth, for the first time, politics have had a direct and immediate impact on their lives.
German youth’s trust in public institutions
However, this level of trust varies significantly across young people of different levels of education: respondents with a high level of formal education placed twice as much trust in political institutions compared to young people with a low level of formal education.
While young people’s trust in democracy and the desire for fundamentally different policies did not change significantly between 2019 and 2021, the same differences by level of formal education emerged here.
Overall, satisfaction with the Federal government in the 2021 federal election year was lower among young people (36%) compared to the general population (45%).
German youth’s trust in public institutions by level of education
Conclusions
The Covid-19 pandemic has put a disproportionate amount of stress and pressure on Generation Z compared to other age groups, and created a profound impact on many aspects of their lives and prospects. Drawing on the results from our analysis, we would propose the following conclusions and recommendations:
• Distance learning was significantly more difficult for students in the lower and medium educational attainment groups. These schools need both financial and practical support to ensure that their students are not left behind.
• To mitigate the risk of social divide and provide equal opportunities to all young Germans, measures need to be implemented to provide young people from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds with fair and easy access to both financial support and information about the different support available to them.
• In the wake of the pandemic, the focus of public policies must now be shifted from older age groups to the younger generations. This would include initiatives designed to encourage and facilitate greater participation of young people in politics.
German policymakers should therefore demonstrate their willingness to pay more attention to the expectations of the youth and incorporate a range of ideas that already have support from the German youth: for instance, the consultation of the Federal government by citizens' councils, population representative composition of the Parliament using quotas, more popular referendums, and the possibility of online voting.
References and notes:
1. A multidimensional crisis: the collateral impacts of COVID-19 on public health – Kantar Public’s global public health study, June 2021.
2. Young people living in Germany between the ages of 14-24 years, recruited through an online panel. Studies conducted in July 2019 and July 2021.
