Teen Quiet: How Choosing to Stop Trying Affects Young Minds

A growing trend in China sees many young people decide to “lie flat, ” a choice that means stepping back from the race for success. Researchers have talked about how this decision can change mental health, but no one had put all the studies together in a single systematic review. To fill that gap, a team used two big guides – one for reviewing studies and another for looking at who the studies cover, what they ask, and where they happen. They searched three main sources of academic papers: the Chinese CNKI database, Google Scholar, and Scopus. Out of 973 hits, only 27 studies were relevant after careful screening.The findings show that “lying flat” is not a single action but a range of ways people cope with social pressure. Some of the mental health effects are bad: many teens report feeling anxious, depressed, or emotionally upset. Others find relief and a better way to manage feelings when they stop chasing goals. The balance of outcomes depends on the context – for example, students in school may experience different stresses than young workers outside school. A key theme is that the feeling of losing control and seeing effort not matched by reward drives many to quit. The stress builds up when people feel they cannot influence their future or that the system is unfair. This “effort‑reward imbalance” explains why many feel stuck and decide to step back. The review gives researchers a clearer map of what is known. It highlights that future work should look deeper into how social surroundings shape the decision to lie flat and what supports can help young people find balance without giving up entirely.