New Report Shows that Gen Zers Want to Help Others, Which May Be Key to Their Mental Health

Harvard’s Making Caring Common Project, in collaboration with Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation, today released the report, Gen Z Wants to Do Good: How Helping Others Supports Meaning and Wellbeing. The study explores what Gen Zers prioritize in work, where they find meaning and purpose, and factors influencing their mental health.

“Gen Z adults (ages 18–29 years old) report alarmingly high rates of anxiety and depression and 51% of these adults report lacking meaning or purpose, or both,” says Senior Lecturer Richard Weissbourd, faculty director of Making Caring Common, a program of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “Yet high percentages of Gen Zers want to do good in the world, and Gen Zers who feel like they are needed by others and make a positive difference in others’ lives — through their work or otherwise — are about three to four times more likely to experience meaning or purpose, which are strongly correlated with better mental health.”

In the study, 79% of respondents report wanting a job in the future that is “mainly focused” on helping others or making a positive difference in others’ lives. This desire to help others may not only be key to mental health but is “vital for our country’s moral and civic life,” Weissbourd says, and may be critical to earning a living: Economists suggest that the rapid rise of AI may shift the workforce from a “knowledge” economy to a “care” economy that requires many more workers who are invested in caring for others and have strong interpersonal skills.

Yet there are significant barriers to Gen Z pursuing helping jobs, the survey finds. While Gen Z aspires to do good in their careers, other factors appear to be more important, including financial security and work-life balance. “There’s good reason for Gen Z to prioritize financial security and work-life balance,” says Weissbourd. “If we want more Gen Zers to pursue helping careers, these jobs can’t undermine their financial stability or swamp them with stress.”

"Young people overwhelmingly want work that helps others, but only about half of those who want such jobs are in them," said Stephanie Marken, senior partner at Gallup. "Many assume these careers won't pay enough or will be too emotionally draining, and those perceptions are holding them back before they ever step into the fi eld. Helping young people see that meaningful work can also be sustainable is a real opportunity for employers and educators."

“We should think hard about who Gen Z are and what they value,” Weissbourd concludes. “We should consider how we can develop their interpersonal and ethical capacities, and how their aspirations might be fulfilled in jobs that create a better world.”

The free report is available today at both Gallup.com and MakingCaringCommon.org.

About Making Caring Common

Making Caring Common, a program of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, supports educators, parents, and caregivers in cultivating in children and young adults the capacities to care for others, to act with decency and integrity, and to pursue justice and the common good. Combining research, theory, the wisdom of practitioners, and strategic communications, Making Caring Common provides evidence-based resources and activities to schools and parents that develop in children empathy, self-awareness, a commitment to justice, and other key moral and emotional capacities.

About Gallup

Gallup delivers analytics and advice to help leaders and organizations solve their most pressing problems. Combining more than 90 years of experience with its global reach, Gallup knows more about the attitudes and behaviors of the world’s constituents than any other organization.

About the Walton Family Foundation

The Walton Family Foundation is, at its core, a family-led foundation. Three generations of the descendants of our founders, Sam and Helen Walton, and their spouses work together to lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. We work in three areas: improving education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support, and investing in our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta.