Environment and Social Psychology

Contextual Perspectives of Life Course Transitions, Health and Well-being of Young People in Times of Uncertainty

Submission deadline: 2024-07-31
Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

In the recent times of growing uncertainty and (social) risks the life course trajectories of young people in different domains became unstable and diversified. Socioeconomic and health crises, climate changes and environmental concerns, military conflicts and wars challenge the experiences of young people for academic achievements and professional realization, family formation and parenthood, achievement of satisfying and autonomous life. The inability to fulfil the social expectations for the role-configured pathways to early adulthood provokes in young people anxiety, disorientation and uncertainty about the occurrence, timing and duration of the passages to adulthood, postponing milestone life events such as family formation, parenthood, establishment of an independent life and achievement of job stability. Uncertainty and (social) risks enforce the development of precarious adult identities and constitute specific socially disadvantaged groups of young people with strengthened need for social support in their pathways to adulthood. The precious life course transitions and multiple adult-role configurations in conditions of uncertainty and accumulated (social) risks have strong implications on adult identity formation, (mental) health and wellbeing of young people, which require contextual perspectives, delineating the specific experienced of young people and identifying the vulnerable groups among them. 

The Special Issue takes a multidisciplinary stance and aims to collect theoretical, methodological and empirical papers on young people’s life course transitions such as family formation, parenthood and partnership, establishment of an independent life, school to work transition, (adult) identity formation, (mental) health and well-being and their psychosocial and contextual determinants in times of uncertainty and increased (social) risks. 

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elitsa Dimitrova

Guest Editor

Keywords

Life Course Approach; Young People; Life Course Transition; Identity Formation; Parenthood and Partnership; Family Formation; School to Work Transition; Establishment of an Independent Life; (Mental) Health; Well-being; (Social) Risks; Uncertainty

Published Paper

Profile and local perceptions regarding domestic violence in Bulgaria

Krasimira Petrova;

Students’ mastery goal orientation, academic achievement and education-to-employment transition attitudes. Evidence from 30 countries

Stoyanka Cherkezova;

Public Employment Services and rural NEETs aged 25-29 in Bulgaria: A case study from the South-West Region

Vladislava Lendzhova;Valentina Milenkova;Albena Nakova;Emilia Chengelova;