I can confirm that us Brits do like to have a good old whinge ;) A national trait that's for sure. Personally, I don't notice people whinging quite as much as they did as when I was younger, I feel possibly we've absorbed a bit of the American positive thinking mentality. But certainly wonder how this shows itself on surveys. Its quite possible that Brits when asked in a survey, say their life is "s**" then having had the fantastic privilege that day, of whinge-ing in a survey as well as to anyone around them who fancies listening, they go on their merry way, quite cheerful for having told someone extra how terrible everything is. ;)
But its not all about economic pressure, right? Poor countries with high sense of community and looking out for one another, are often happy. As for the UK, I heard the stats suggest older people are happy while younger people and teenagers in particular are not. My personal belief, as a Brit, is while social media probably doesn't help, a big reason for unhappy teenagers is that secondary schools have been effectively privatised. They're run by "Academy chains" - essentially big business , which pushes teenagers very hard to have high attendance rate , come to school when ill, push them to do well on exams. Not actually learn useful things, but learn how to game the system to get the high scores. Its very corporate, and ultimately about maintaining the image of the corporation not the well-being of teenagers. One can dispute this, and say other stuff is upsetting teenagers e:g news about wars and climate breakdown, but "twas ever thus" e:g my Mum was preparing for O-level exams (yesterday's GCSEs) during Cuban Missile crisis. People point at economic issues but that's very inconsistent - there are some teenagers in poverty, some rich, some in the middle, we're a divided society that's for sure.
