Where are the most optimistic young people? In the poorest nations.

Md. Rafaiat Ullah, 24, a student at Chittagong University in Bangladesh, said he believed he would be in better financial condition than his parents because of the education. “My parents weren’t fortunate enough to be educated to this point,” he says. “But even though they didn’t, they educated me. Education creates opportunities.

In developing countries, priority is increasingly given to education as a means of progress; in the United States, universal education has been around longer and higher education has become a dividing line, said Dr Robert Blum, principal investigator of the Global Study of Young Adolescents at Johns Hopkins.

“In low- and middle-income countries,” he said, “it’s seen as, ‘What’s my ticket to doing better? I don’t have a lot of tickets. I don’t have a rich family, my social capital is really limited. So my ticket is going to be education if I have anything at all. ‘ “

In his research, Professor Swartz found that young people in poor countries often derive their optimism from religious faith as well as strong family and community ties.

“When people write about southern countries and young people living in poverty, they often overlook this kind of faith in a higher being and the faith that older brothers and sisters are leading the way for them,” she said. declared.

Around the world, the dream of a better life for the next generation persists, even if it is increasingly elusive in some places.

“I want to be optimistic and think that one day the world will open its eyes and let everyone be what they want, helping to have better access to school and to work opportunities”, said Angela Bahamonde Ahijado, 24 years old, from Cetina, Spain. “That’s what I would ask for my daughter, and I know my parents in their day asked for it for me.”