More than three quarters of a million young people in the United Kingdom feel they “have nothing to live for,” according to a YouGov poll for the Prince’s Trust Macquarie Youth Index published January 1.

The study, based on interviews with 2,161 people aged 16 to 25, also shows that over 2.1 million British youth (more than one in four) have considered committing suicide. And more than 1.5 million (almost one in five) have self-harmed.

Why are so many hundreds of thousands of young people living in the affluent UK waking up every day believing life is not worth living? Why have over 2 million of them thought seriously about taking their own life? Why have over 1.5 million deliberately harmed their bodies by cutting their skin with blades and other perverse methods?

Most analysts discussing the study blame long-term unemployment for the maladies. But while unemployed youth are more likely to be in each of these categories, the figures include significant percentages of job-holders, students, etc. Unemployment exacerbates hopelessness and self-destructive thoughts and tendencies, but it is by no means the only cause.

Alongside unemployment, we could also point to the UK’s failing school systems, its entertainment and music industries, pornography, drug pushers, violent video games and a host of other aspects of its lawless modern culture.

But the far bigger cause of the increasing hopelessness of youths originates in the home—with poor parenting.

Increasing numbers of parents in the UK are unstable and self-absorbed. They are often too mired in personal crises of their own to be active in the lives of their children. Many have been hoodwinked by the deception that upholds permissiveness in childrearing as the paragon of parental love.

But what does the God who created mankind, and who designed us to reproduce and live in the structure of family, say?

“The one who spares his rod hates his child, but the one who loves his child is diligent in disciplining him” (Proverbs 13:24, Net Translation).

The Creator inspired that clear instruction to be written down so that the men and women He created could follow it and build healthy, stable families! It makes plain that parents who fail to properly discipline their children actually hate them.

That proverb and hundreds of other biblical passages revealing how to build healthy families are largely ignored. Whether unqualified or unwilling, too many parents are not fulfilling their God-given responsibility to love, nurture, teach, lead, correct and discipline their children. In these vital areas, many parents have abandoned their children. The result is the millions of troubled youth revealed by the YouGov poll.

For information about how to help your children build lives of positivity and hope, read “Parents: Why Teens Rebel.”

If you are among the growing number of youth and other people that feel they have little or nothing to live for, read “A Fresh Look at Depression.” It can change your life!