The health crisis “created an extremely strong swing, a loss of confidence and quite considerable psychological damage” among young people aged 15 to 30, says Monday, December 6 on franceinfo the director general of the Foundation of France Axelle Davezac, on the occasion of the publication of the annual study of the foundation on the feeling of loneliness and isolation des Français, produced by Crédoc.
franceinfo: Do many French people feel isolated?
Axelle Davezac: That was the sad discovery of the loneliness barometer that we published this year.
“This is an indicator that we have been following at the Fondation de France for 10 years now and this year all the figures have unfortunately exploded since, in our country, 24% of the population is in a situation of relational isolation.”
Axelle Davezac, Managing Director of the Fondation de Franceto franceinfo
That represents an increase of 10 points in one year, which is quite colossal. This means that there are no longer any of the five social networks, whether it is family, friends, neighborhood, professional network or associative network. There is no longer any contact or network in which one can very simply talk and exchange with others.
Is the health crisis the cause of this increase in isolation?
The health crisis really triggered relational isolation. It was an indicator which, statistically, moved relatively little from year to year. On the other hand, what happened with the health crisis, the successive confinements and all the closures, led people who were in a situation of relational fragility, that is to say people who no longer had that one or two networks but in which the links were rather tenuous, to be brutally cut off from any social relation. So they really plunged into isolation.
One in five young people said they were lonely in January 2021. This is double the number of January 2020. Is this new?
This is unfortunately one of the even sadder difficulties. Isolation mostly affected the elderly and people in fragile situations, but less young people in our country. But this year, the isolation of young people has exploded since 21% of 15-30 year olds are in a situation of isolation. This is a number that has doubled in a year and it is an age that one would not expect in isolation. Young people are happy, festive, have friendship networks, jobs. They have a whole bunch of social networks that were brutally cut off during the confinement and, to that, were added financial difficulties, which helped to isolate them even more since they found themselves, for many, without capacity. to study and without the capacity to pay for their accommodation, their food. It created an extremely strong change in them, a loss of confidence and quite considerable psychological damage. When you are young, when you are a student, you tell yourself that you are going to build your life, study, work, be able to have projects. However, for these young people, to say to oneself at 15, 20 or 25 years that you are facing a wall because you can no longer study, you can no longer work, you can no longer pay for your accommodation – like the says the dreadful expression young people say – “you are useless”.
“While society expects young people to build, to move forward, it sends them back something very gripping and distressing, which is to finally say to themselves I can’t do it and therefore they shut themselves up in an extremely strong way. . “
Axelle Davezacto franceinfo
Have the economic consequences of the health crisis on young people contributed to this isolation?
They found themselves in an extremely dire financial situation. At the Fondation de France, we had never provided food aid for young people but since last spring, we have set up a ‘student solidarity’ program to very simply help young people to be able to pay their rent and their bills or to distribute food packages. When you do not even know if you are going to manage to have a roof at the end of the month, of course the situations of dropping out of studies multiply. We helped 3,000 students. We have relied on student associations, either existing or which have been set up in universities to reach out among peers to bring in young people. Another difficulty is the feeling of shame among young people, which prevents them from going to ask for help, so it was also important to rely on other young people, whom they could ask, who could accompany them. and help those who were less well.