Changing contexts of youth development: an overview of recent social trends and a psychological model

Abstract

Developmental contexts play a pivotal role in shaping the psychosocial adaptation and development of young people. Family, school, peer groups, and community provide the opportunities and constraints for the attainment of major developmental tasks of adolescence, and changing relations between the individual and these contexts constitute the basic process of human development. Furthermore, it is primarily through these immediate developmental contexts (microsystems in terms of ecological systems theory) that macrolevel trends such as globalization influence youth development. In this article, we illustrate how globalization and economic change have been reshaping the central microcontexts of adolescence. We then argue that the individual differences in the way youth perceive these changes and cope with themthat is, the active role individuals play in their own development - are the key to understanding the psychological consequences of social change.