14 2GM Friday August 28 2020 | the times
News
Teenagers in Britain have the lowest
life satisfaction in Europe, according to
a study that has found they have a
“particularly British fear of failure”.
A ranking of 24 European countries
found that Romanian, Finnish, Croa-
tian, Swiss and Spanish 15-year-olds
scored highest for their general sense of
wellbeing. British teenagers came last,
just behind their counterparts from
Malta, Poland and Ireland.
Eighty-five per cent of 15-year-olds in
Romania rated their “life satisfaction”
at a six or more out of ten compared
with 64 per cent in Britain.
The study, by the Children’s Society
charity, found that 40 per cent of British
teenagers said they “rarely” or “never”
felt sad, coming 23rd out of 24 coun-
tries. Slovenia came top at 66 per cent.
British 15-year-olds also scored
bottom for feeling that they had a “posi-
tive sense of purpose”, with 57 per cent
agreeing or strongly agreeing, com-
fear of failure could be partly to blame”,
adding: “The report highlights the rela-
tively high levels of ‘fear of failure’
among 15-year-olds in the UK com-
pared with other countries. These find-You are almost three times more likely
to lose weight if your partner is also
trying to, according to a study of efforts
by heart attack survivors.
Researchers analysed the success of
those trying to lose weight alone
compared with those whose spouses
adopted the same regime.
The subjects of the study, presented
at the European Society of Cardiology
ISTOCKPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES; MARTIN KUNDRAT/PAVOL JOZEF SAFARIK UNIVERSITYA
n incredibly
rare dinosaur
embryo has
revealed how
some of the
largest animals to walk
the earth began as tiny
hatchlings with
rhinoceros-like horns
(Rhys Blakely writes).
The egg in which the
embryo was found was
laid some 80 million
years ago in what is now
Patagonia, Argentina. It
belonged to a titanosaur,
a long-necked herbivore
that may have been 40m
long and weighed about70 tonnes. By contrast,
the embryo skull
measures about 1.5cm.
It was part of a group
known as sauropods
made famous by the film
Jurassic Park.
The discovery of an
intact embryo has
shown that these
creatures were born
with stereoscopic vision,
allowing depth and 3D
perception more usually
associated with
predators. It also
revealed that they had a
horn on the face that
was lost in adulthood.The best guess is that it
was used by a hatchling
to escape the shell.
The embryo was sold
at a dinosaur fair in
Arizona years ago,having been illegally
exported. It has been
returned to Argentina.
John Nudds of
Manchester University
said: “ Imagine the hugesauropods from Jurassic
Park and consider that
the tiny skulls of their
babies, still inside their
eggs, are just a couple of
centimetres long.”Stephen Brusatte, a
palaeontologist at the
University of Edinburgh,
who was not involved in
the research, said: “It’s
remarkable that theworld's largest-ever land
animals grew from such
tiny, weird looking
hatchlings.”
The study is published
in Current Biology.Tiny hatchling that
turned into a titan
News
Ti
The brachiosaurus is
a sauropod, like the
titanosaur, whose
tiny embryo, left,
shows its vast growthBritish teenagers crippled by fear of
failure are least satisfied in Europe
pared with 79 per cent of those in
Romania in first place, 72 per cent in
France, in sixth place, and 67 per cent
in Italy, in 14th place.
Low wellbeing was more pro-
nounced among girls, according to the
Good Childhood Report, finding that
23 per cent of girls in Britain had low
scores in at least three of the four meas-
ures — happiness, sadness, life satisfac-
tion and sense of purpose — compared
with 14 per cent of boys. The gender gap
was less pronounced in other countries,
with 8 per cent of girls and 6 per cent of
boys returning low scores in France,
Portugal and Spain.
The study found that “changes in
child poverty within countries were
linked to life satisfaction”. The report
said: “Between 2015 and 2018, the UK
had the largest increase in relative child
poverty — around four percentage
points, while on average levels of child
poverty fell by around two percentage
points across the 24 countries.”
It added that a “particularly Britishings highlight the need to reset the edu-
cation system to promote both good
attainment and wellbeing.”
One unnamed British respondent
told the authors: “There is a lot of pres-
sure on young people to succeed at
things in life. But what I would like
young people to know is that if you
don’t succeed the first time, you are
learning, and by learning you are suc-
ceeding.”
Mark Russell, chief executive of the
Children’s Society, said: “We all want
our children to grow up happy, and as a
society we can’t be content with child-
ren in the UK being the most unsatis-
fied with their lives in Europe. It has to
change. Even before the pandemic,
which we know has taken a huge toll on
our children’s wellbeing, many felt their
life didn’t have a sense of purpose. We
believe it is not only a fear of failure,
which in previous research we found
was higher amongst those living in
poverty, but also rising child poverty
levels that could partly be to blame.”Kaya Burgess
Napping too
long ‘is bad
for health’
Kaya BurgessHaving a mid-afternoon snooze may
sound like a luxury, but too long a nap
could increase your chances of dying
young.
Researchers have found that dozing
for more than an hour a day may be
harmful, although taking shorter naps
could be good for your heart if you do
not get enough sleep at night.
More than 20 studies involving
313,651 people, 39 per cent of whom
took regular brief sleeps, were analysed.
Napping for more than 60 minutes was
associated with a 30 per cent higher risk
of an early death from any cause and a
34 per cent higher risk of cardiovascu-
lar disease compared with those who
did not nap at all.
The increased risk was evident in
those who took long naps and slept for
more than six hours per night, but not
in those who slept for less than six
hours at night. Even those who take
shorter naps could be at a higher risk,
with those of any length associated
with a 19 per cent chance of early death.
Female nappers had a 22 per cent
higher risk.
There did not appear to be a link
between naps of less than an hour and
higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
Zhe Pan, from Guangzhou Medical
University, southern China, said: “Day-
time napping is common all over the
world and is generally considered
healthy. A common view is that [it] im-
proves performance and counteracts
the negative consequences of sleep
debt. Our study challenges this.”
His research was published at the
European Society of Cardiology Con-
gress this week.Couples who diet together have more success
Congress yesterday, were heart attack
survivors who had been urged by doc-
tors to improve their lifestyle.
Lotte Verweij, a PhD student at the
Amsterdam University of Applied Sci-
ences in the Netherlands, said: “Our
study shows that when spouses join the
effort to change, patients have a better
chance of becoming healthier, particu-
larly when it comes to losing weight.”
Previous research shows that living
with a partner, even if they do not joinyour weight loss regime, can boost your
chances of success. Researchers
wanted to find out what extra benefit
might come if a partner joined in with
efforts to lose weight.
They looked at 824 patients who
were divided into two groups, with 411
joining lifestyle programmes on top of
their normal care and 413 having care
only. Participants in the lifestyle
schemes were urged to lose weight,
boost activity and stop smoking. Theirpartners were encouraged to partici-
pate and almost half, 48 per cent, took
up the offer.
Patients were 2.71 times more likely
to succeed if their partner joined in and
they lost more weight compared with
those whose partners did not take part.
Partner participation did not boost
success rates when it came to giving up
smoking or increasing exercise levels,
however, and Ms Verweij said the rea-
sons why were not yet clear.Kaya Burgess
Young and happy?
15-year-olds who rate their life
satisfaction at 6/10 or betterRomania 85%
Finland 84%
Croatia 82%
Switzerland 82%
Spain 82%
Lithuania 81%
Iceland 81%
France 80%
Portugal 78%
Estonia 78%
Latvia 78%
Austria 77%Slovakia 77%
Hungary 76%
Italy 76%
Sweden 76%
Greece 76%
Luxembourg 76%
Czech Rep 73%
Slovenia 72%
Ireland 72%
Poland 72%
Malta 69%
UK 64%