Young folks ages 10-24 rank security as most necessary worth for second 12 months in a row, research finds

This 12 months’s Values Report from the Center for Scholars & Storytellers (CSS) at UCLA has revealed that regardless of navigating excessive climate occasions, international geopolitical conflicts and financial pressure, immediately’s younger folks stay remarkably grounded, with their values reflecting core human wants greater than fleeting desires.

In August 2025, for the second year in a row, CSS requested 1,500 younger folks aged 10 to 24 to charge the significance of 14 priorities from “being kind to others” to “being famous.” Once once more, security topped the listing of most necessary. At the identical time, kindness, self-acceptance and enjoyable rounded out the highest 4, portray a portrait of a era actively curating their inside and exterior lives to seek out stability, connection and pleasure.

“In a world full of uncertainty, young people are telling us exactly what they need — and it’s not fame or fortune,” stated Yalda T. Uhls, founder and CEO of CSS, adjunct professor in UCLA’s psychology division and senior writer of the research. “They want to feel safe, be kind, accept themselves and have fun. These aren’t just preferences — they’re survival strategies for a generation dealing with very real stress.”

Safety is foundational to younger folks 

Safety emerged because the top-ranked worth amongst 10-24 12 months olds for the second consecutive 12 months, signaling that whilst tradition, platforms and preferences shift, safety and stability proceed to anchor their worldview. In an atmosphere formed by international battle, college security anxieties and digital harassment, younger individuals are looking for content material, communities and experiences that make them really feel regular, grounded and guarded.

CSS’s broader analysis reinforces this sample. In one other recent report, the favourite heroes of younger folks surveyed had been those that had been particularly courageous, suggesting that the should be courageous resonates deeply inside the age group.

Kindness and empathy are high values in a polarized world

“Being kind to others” ranked second this 12 months, reflecting each adolescents’ (outlined within the survey as 10-24 12 months olds) want to be handled with empathy and their dedication to treating others nicely. Amid an increase in hostile rhetoric rooted in ideological division and the persistent risk of gun violence in colleges, younger individuals are elevating kindness as a collective response, signaling a want to counter division with empathy, connection and humanity.

“Young people are choosing to lead with compassion at a moment when the world around them often doesn’t,” stated Alisha Hines, CSS vp of analysis and packages and a co-author of the annual survey. “We’ve learned that this generation values sincerity and kindness. They want the same energy reflected in the media they consume and in the real world and digital environments they navigate.”

Young folks prioritize self-acceptance — and media may also help them see themselves clearly

Ranked third amongst values, self-acceptance displays younger folks’s want to grasp and embrace who they’re in a digital world the place they really feel continually evaluated. Developmentally, this is sensible. Youth is a interval of identification formation, and self-acceptance is essential for psychological well being and self-definition.

The want for self-acceptance is mirrored on this 12 months’s recently-released Teens and Screens report, additionally from CSS, which discovered that “people with lives like my own” and “relatable stories” ranked No. 1 among the many matters and forms of tales younger folks wish to see most. 

Fun is a device for coping and connection, not simply leisure

Although “to have a lot of fun” ranked fourth total within the Values Report, it was much more necessary to 10–13-year-olds, teenagers 14–18 and males total, signaling that leisure stays a significant emotional launch and a device for social bonding. Fun is how younger folks cope, join and breathe underneath immense psychological and emotional strain.

“Laughter, play and shared joy are a key part of how young people cope with stress and build meaningful friendships — which are both essential to their development,” stated Matt Puretz, CSS senior researcher and a co-author of the research. ,” stated Matt Puretz, CSS senior researcher and a co-author of the research. “We see this mirrored within the media content material they search out — they usually look for fun content when they’re stressed.”

This 12 months’s research requested 1,500 younger folks (ages 10–24, reflecting the ages of adolescence as outlined by the National Academy of Sciences) about their values, priorities and perceptions of media. The demographic make-up of contributors intently displays the most recent U.S. Census knowledge relating to race and gender. 

For extra details about this report or another work from the Center for Scholars & Storytellers, please go to CSS’s website.