Young people require the necessary personal and social ‘assets’ & ‘opportunities’ to make a successful transition to adulthood.
Young people require structure & guided experience. Those that have no control over the pace of change & transition are highly susceptible to developmental problems occurring (Coleman and Hendry, 1990).
Without the necessary experiences young people’s development can become out of sync with the general population.
Young people in the process of developing their own identity can:
- Be very impressionable (strong likelihood that values, attitudes, ways of understanding and behaviours will be modeled from and to others)
- Have a strong desire to “fit in” and be accepted by peers
- Be very sensitive about being misinterpreted or misunderstood
- Find trusting adults or authority figures difficult
- Have a strong need for privacy
- Young people learn through doing
- Risk taking and sensation seeking is essential for healthy development but young people are in the process of acquiring the experience & cognitive ability required for planning and ‘mature judgment’.
