Why Britain's bullied teenagers are so unhappy with their lives

It reveals that the nation is lagging behind other countries including the US, Germany and Latvia when it comes to young people’s social and emotional lives.

And there is a major gender gap, with girls less likely to be satisfied with life than boys, and more likely to worry about their exams, according to the latest report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The study - based on the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests, which are taken by 15-year-olds around the world - found that, on a scale of one to 10, British pupils had an average satisfaction of 6.98, compared with the OECD average of 7.31.

This puts the UK behind nations such as France (7.63), Germany (7.35), Spain (7.42), Latvia (7.37) and the US (7.36), but ahead of others such as Japan (6.80), Turkey (6.12) and Korea (6.36).

Among those with the highest ratings were Mexico (8.27) and Finland (7.89).

Overall, the UK took 38th place for life satisfaction, out of 48 OECD countries, and partner nations. Among OECD countries alone, it was 23rd out of 28. UK boys had an average score of 7.31, compared to 6.64 for UK girls - a gap larger than the OECD average, and bigger than that in 17 other countries.

Gabriela Ramos, OECD chief of staff, said that the report showed some “worrisome” results for gender that need to be tackled. Again, we confirm, and this is evidence, that girls report lower levels of satisfaction, that they are subject to a lot of pressures, from social media, that they are less happy with themselves,” she said.

Around 540,000 students took part in the latest Pisa tests, representing around 29 million 15-year-olds in 72 participating countries and economies. The findings show that British pupils’ time at schools is more regularly marred by bullying, with almost a quarter of British students having fallen victim to any type of it, compared to 19 per cent across OECD nations and economies.

Anxiety was also found to be permeating the British classroom, where 72 per cent of students reported worrying about tests even if they were well-prepared, compared with 55 per cent on average.

Again, a gender breakdown shows that three quarters of UK girls say they worry about getting poor grades, compared to 58.6 per cent of their male class mates.

Girls were also more likely to say feel very anxious before a test. The report says: “Pisa 2015 does not collect data on students’ body image, but other research suggests that exposure to images of overly thin girls and young women in traditional media and to photo-sharing in new social media has a significant negative impact on adolescent girls’ satisfaction with themselves.”

An NSPCC spokesman said: “The OECD report highlights the huge bullying problem we have in the UK, with almost one in every four 15-year-olds having to endure this deeply hurtful and harmful experience.

“For over 30 years bullying has been among the top problems young people have contacted Childline about and, worryingly, an increasing amount of this behaviour is now taking place online with many victims left feeling like there is no escape from their tormentors.”