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Citation |
Gagné T. Int. J. Public Health 2019; 64(2): 147-148. |
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Affiliation |
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (DEPH), University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, Room 536, London, WC1E 7HB, UK. thierry.gagne@umontreal.ca. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2019, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
30734061 |
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Abstract |
Adolescent research, by definition, focuses on the stage between childhood and adulthood around the second decade of life (Johnson et al. 2011). This definition, which is key in orienting youth policies and interventions, has been challenged on two fronts. First, many of the health-related trajectories emerging in this life-course stage progress beyond the second decade of life and include (1) mortality from accidents and suicide, (2) morbidity from obesity, stress, and mental disorders, and (3) behaviours such as tobacco smoking and problem drinking (PHAC 2011). Second, these health-related trajectories occur within broader social transitions in education, employment, family, and housing arrangements. The traditionally protracted and linear “transition to adulthood” has been elongating and diversifying at an accelerating pace (Furstenberg 2015). This means that, for most, social transitions continue well into the third decade of life. Illustrating this in this issue, Baggio et al. (2018) found that, at the age of 20, relatively few youths perceived themselves as adults and completed adult milestones, i.e. finishing education, leaving parents’ household, gaining financial independence, having a stable relationship, and having children. When followed to the age of 25, the authors found that these perceptions and transitions had still not changed much. Language: en |