Pressure on children to have the latest designer clothes and computer games is making them miserable, according to a study of modern childhood.

It concludes that the consumer society and failure to protect children from commercial pressures is partly to blame for deteriorating mental health among young people. Rates of depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses have risen in the past two decades with one in ten children now suffering from a diagnosable condition.

The report, published today by the Good Childhood Inquiry, conducted by the charity The Children’s Society, said that children from poor backgrounds were the main victims of con-sumerism, with many becoming distressed at the prospect of falling behind the latest trends.

A report submitted to the inquiry by the National Consumer Council found that children in deprived areas were more obsessed with money and shopping than youngsters from better-off homes. More than two thirds (69 per cent) of poorer children said that they only wanted a job with a high salary compared with 28 per cent of children from affluent areas.

A study conducted by the Office for National Statistics found a strong link between low household income and mental health problems. In households with a weekly income of £100 or less 16 per cent of children had mental health problems compared with 8.6 per cent in households earning £300-£499 a week and 5.3 per cent in homes with £700 a week or more.

Hundreds of submissions from children showed that they felt overwhelming pressure to keep up with trends in clothes, music and computer games.

Philip Graham, of The Institute of Child Health, London, who led the study for the inquiry, said that parents, schools and the government should make sure children valued who they were rather than what they had.

Bob Reitemeier, of The Children’s Society, said: “Unless we question our own behaviour as a society we risk creating a generation who are left unfulfilled through chasing unattainable lifestyles.”

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