← All stories
Psychology

Lisa Damour says teens report high stress but also widespread happiness

Big Think · How to break the spell of powerful emotions | Lisa Damour: Full Interview · August 14, 2026
Lisa Damour says teens report high stress but also widespread happiness
Big Think
Big Think
How to break the spell of powerful emotions | Lisa Damour: Full Interview
"So, 45% of them said, "I felt a lot of stress." And 38% of them said, "I felt really anxious." And 23% said, "I felt sad." On top of that, 94% of them said they felt happy on the previous day as well."
Clinical psychologist Lisa Damour says a Gallup poll she conducted of teenagers found many reported negative emotions the previous day, while an even larger share also reported feeling happy. Damour argues the combined results suggest adolescents can experience multiple, conflicting emotions in the same 24-hour period, and cautions against treating teen mental health as uniformly deteriorating based on anxiety and sadness measures alone.
From this episode
Big Think
Big Think

How to break the spell of powerful emotions | Lisa Damour: Full Interview

August 19, 2026 · 1h 6m · 4 Egleze moments
Read episode summary and key points →

More moments from this episode

PsychologyDamour warns against blaming phones alone for teen mental-health distressPsychologyLisa Damour says today’s teens are best-behaved, citing safer choicesPsychologyDamour cites teen survey: most want adults to listen, not advise
More stories More from Big Think