According to a Cambridge University report, British children at primary school level are experiencing stress due to factors such as terrorism, pressures from school and society, global warming, crime and the breakdown of family life.

The report, “Community Soundings,” found that the majority of children interviewed had a “pervasive anxiety about the current educational and social contexts…and a deeper pessimism about the world in which [they] are growing up.”

The release was the first part of a larger review, the most extensive in 40 years, intended to take Britain’s “educational temperature.” The findings will also serve to shape the future of the nation’s educational system.

The study—consisting of 87 interview sessions across a number of regions of Britain—revealed a national feeling of “deep anxiety” among children.

The Howard League for Penal Reform reported that 95% of 10- to 15-year-old British youth have been crime victims at least once.

An early-2007 UNICEF report graded the United Kingdom worst in terms of children’s well-being among 21 industrialized nations. Despite this, the report also found that children were more hopeful about the future when they were offered opportunities by their schools to make a difference in their community or city.