Gen Z Wants to Do Good: How Helping Others Supports Meaning and Wellbeing
JUNE 2026
Gen Zers Want to Help Others, Which May Be Key to Their Mental Health
Making Caring Common, in collaboration with Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation, released a new report, Gen Z Wants to Do Good: How Helping Others Supports Meaning and Wellbeing, which 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 Dr. 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.
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.”
“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.”
“We should think hard about who Gen Z are and what they value. 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.”
Excerpts from the report’s foreword
by Making Caring Common
We were delighted to collaborate with Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation on the following report on Gen Z. This generation (those born between 1997 and 2012) has not fared well in the popular press over the past several years. They’ve been described as fragile; self-involved; consumed with their own feelings; prone to constant, mindless self-display; and obsessed with working less and earning more (Berger, 2022; Parks, 2024; Riegel, 2020; Riegel, 2025; The Guardian, 2018).
There may be kernels of truth in some of these stereotypes, but they miss much of what is promising and exciting about this generation, and sometimes they are wildly unfair. Our data suggest that these stereotypes obscure, in particular, that today’s teens and young adults often care a great deal about others and improving the world.
According to the survey we conducted with Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation, 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.
That many young people are interested in helping others is good news for our country’s moral and civic life, but it also may be vital for young people themselves. According to our survey, 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 in their lives, and this meaning or purpose is strongly correlated with lower reported rates of anxiety and depression.
Yet, while the aspiration to do good in one’s career is important to high percentages of Gen Zers, other factors appear to be more important. When selecting their top three future job priorities, 23% choose caring for others, trailing personally fulfilling work (52%), work-life balance (50%), earning enough without enduring excessive stress (50%), and making enough money to be considered financially successful (41%). Similarly, when asked about the obstacles they may face in choosing jobs that mainly focus on helping others, financial concerns (49%) and the stress created by these jobs (46%) — a work-life balance issue — top the list.
There are good reasons for Gen Z to prioritize financial security and work-life balance. This generation is under inordinate financial pressure and, in many cases, wanting downtime and work-life balance in our wired, overstimulating world may be very healthy. But if we want more Gen Zers to pursue helping jobs — and these jobs appear to be important to their mental health and may be crucial to their livelihood in a care economy — these jobs can’t undermine their financial stability or swamp them with stress.
Instead of criticizing Gen Z, we should think hard about who they are and what they value, how we can develop their interpersonal and ethical capacities, and how their aspirations might be harnessed in jobs that work for them and create a better world.
Richard Weissbourd, Milena Batanova, Kiran Bhai, Srushti Jayaramu and Michael McLaughlin
“Young people overwhelmingly want work that helps others, but only about half of those who want such jobs are in them. 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 field. Helping young people see that meaningful work can also be sustainable is a real opportunity for employers and educators.
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