Growing Up & Being
Adolescents and young adults find themselves in a particularly intense phase of their lives, which is characterised by a variety of physical, psychological and social changes. These upheavals can lead to moments of learning and reorientation.
During this time of growing up, young people develop their own identity with values, preferences, and behaviours, in exchange with their environment. Once found, their identity remains relatively stable. Our topics in this regard are:
Participating & Engaging
Young people are agents of all areas of their lives. This is particularly evident in areas of societal life that young people choose freely. These areas are less determined by rules and norms.
Typical examples are leisure activities and youth work. Here, young people can pursue their interests and learn in social groups how they can be involved in society. Our topics in this regard are:
Learning & Working
In adulthood, young people should become active citizens of their communities who take on an important function within society by pursuing a profession. Formal and non-formal educational institutions should support young people in their learning and provide them with the necessary knowledge and skills.
In the realm of this overarching theme, we describe in which settings young people succeed best at formal and non-formal learning and how they follow their career paths. Our topics are:
Caring & Supporting
There may also be moments in young people’s lives when they need the support of external aid. Society supports its members, especially those who are considered vulnerable, through a variety of material and social services.
State support works in a complementary way when a family’s or person’s own resources are not sufficient. We see young people not only as recipients of assistance, but also as carers who look after other people. Our topics in this regard are:
Why predefine topics?
There is an infinite number of topics on children and young people. In order to make it easier to get started with this diversity, we propose four different overarching themes here, at which we also take a comprehensive look through our projects: Growing Up & Being, Participating & Engaging, Learning & Working and Caring & Supporting. The sub-topics and keywords that fit each of the top themes are presented in four sections on this page.
Versatile entry points into youth research
- Themes give you a bird’s eye view of selected aspects of young people’s lives: here you will find more suitable keywords, projects and news.
- Use keywords to approach an individual aspect of young people’s lives from the ant’s perspective: definitions and suitable publications are hidden behind them.
- Would you like to find out more about a particular term? With a bit of luck, we have listed it in the glossary!
Suggest a topic
Just like youth research, our topics are constantly evolving: youth lifeworlds look different today than they did ten years ago. Would you like to point out an important perspective? Should we consider a particular piece of content? Feel free to contact us!
All photos from unsplash.com