Open research questions in Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

What the literature leaves open

• The annual Icelandic Youth Study offers a unique opportunity to track Grindavík evacuees over time. Continued inclusion of relevant items in future waves, and use of earlier survey years as pre-evacuation baselines, would enable stronger designs to assess the longer-term consequences of disaster-driven displacement (see for example Lai et al., 2018). Such evidence could clarify recovery trajectories and the role of support from family, friends, schools and the counselling and guidance initiatives provided via the Grindavík Committee. The findings could guide future initiatives to further support the affected students and help inform future post-disaster interventions. Additionally, in-depth qualitative research, such as focus groups and interviews with displaced Grindavík youth, as well as their parents and teachers, would yield further insight into the unique experiences of becoming an evacuee and dealing with the integration process at new schools. 12 Volcanic Eruption and Disruption: Youth Well-being After the Grindavík Evacuation in Iceland Conclusion Taken together, the findings highlight the disruptive nature of forced displacement. Evacuation was associated with clear and persistent differences in students’ socio-emotional well-being that were evident 15–17 months after displacement, largely unaffected by family background or age. These results suggest that disaster-driven displacement constitutes a qualitatively different experience from ordinary mobility, with broader and less socially stratified consequences for young people’s well- being. Even in light of otherwise favourable circumstances in the context of the Icelandic welfare state, students experienced considerable declines in well-being. The results of this study can be used to inform policies and the continued strategic support for the school-aged children who lost their homes and school community following the evacuation of their hometown of Grindavík.

  Volcanic Eruption and Disruption: Youth Well-being After the Grindavík Evacuation in Iceland · 2026 · DOI

• To create world citizenship among this younger generation, the LNU argued that ‘new knowledge’ alone was insufficient; a ‘change of feeling and purpose’ was also required.

  ‘Some change of feeling and purpose’: The League of Nations Union, emotions, and world citizenship in Britain, 1919–1939 · 2024 · DOI

• These findings suggest that perceived agency contributes to young people’s ability to maintain their active lifestyles in the transition to young adulthood (at least for the privileged youth in our sample), and point to the need for additional research on how to encourage active youth to choose to continue their active lifestyles.

  “I Actually Have to Decide What I’m Doing:” How Youth Maintain Active Lifestyles in the Transition to Young Adulthood · 2021 · DOI

• Research provided evidence on the immediate effects of voting age reform on young people’s engagement with politics, but little is known about how young people experienced being allowed to vote from the age of 16 years.

  How Young People in Scotland Experience the Right to Vote at 16: Evidence on ‘Votes-at-16’ in Scotland from Qualitative Work with Young People · 2021 · DOI

• Although it is widely recognized that the most marginalized people tend to face extra barriers when accessing mainstream services intended to serve everyone, few studies have dealt with the specific barriers and challenges that immigrant and refugee youth from small, marginalized communities encounter when seeking access to services aimed at facilitating their settlement and integration into Canadian society.

  Bridging the Gaps: Access to Formal Support Services among Young African Immigrants and Refugees in Metro Vancouver · 2016 · DOI

• The author looks at various definitions of CYC practice from around the world, discusses the lack of data about young people's perceptions of professionalization, and interviews practitioners who have chosen to work with street involved and marginalized youth.

  Do Not Enter: What Are the Risks of Gatekeeping Child and Youth Care? · 2013 · DOI

• We address three questions: Do neighbourhoods have an influence on educational attainment? Are ‘community level’ aspirations a mechanism by which neighbourhoods affect individual aspirations? Is there evidence that aspirations are lower in poor neighbourhoods? The article suggests that the available evidence does not lead to firm conclusions; a key problem is that few studies have measured aspirations at a neighbourhood level.

  Can Community-Based Interventions on Aspirations Raise Young People's Attainment? · 2011 · DOI

• In this commentary on the article by Trzesniewski and Donnellan (2010, this issue), I focus on the question of why young people today are viewed so negatively, despite the lack of evidence that they are worse (or worse off) now than they were in decades past.

  Oh, Grow Up! Generational Grumbling and the New Life Stage of Emerging Adulthood—Commentary on Trzesniewski & Donnellan (2010) · 2010 · DOI

• Through a review of the key literature on this subject, we will demonstrate the critical link between participation and citizenship, as well as the diverse ways these two concepts are limited by adult-centered power relationships and situations of social disadvantage that produce "denied" or "second-class" citizenships.

  Adolescent Participation in Impoverished Urban Communities: The Case of the Jvenes de la Cuadra Group · 2007 · DOI

• Using data from a little known project, ‘ Adjustment of Young Workers to Work Situations and Adult Roles’, carried out in Leicester between 1962 and 1964, this article aims to re-examine the extent to which transitions during this time were complex, lengthy, non-linear and single-step and explores the assumed linearity and uncomplicated nature of school to work transitions in the 1960s.

  Exploring Complex Transitions: Looking Back at the ‘Golden Age’ of From School to Work · 2005 · DOI

• While building on methodological approaches and findings of the author's previous Anglo-German research, this research is new and distinctive in its theme of control in the under researched ‘young adult’ phase (up to 25) and in the inclusion of the post communist society of eastern Germany in the selected localities.

  Taking Control of Their Lives? The Youth, Citizenship and Social Change Project · 2002 · DOI

• Though a precise definition remains elusive, practitioners have reached consensus that the development of young people should be seen as an ongoing and inevitable process in which all youths are engaged and invested [Lane 1996].

  Walking the Talk: Organizational Modeling and Commitment to Youth and Staff Development · 1997

• Findings are discussed with references to the idea that negative public perceptions of adolescents, while nothing new, may function in a different and more detrimental manner in a society in which there is an increasing lack of consensus about ‘correct’ socialization practices, and in which unemployment increasingly impedes the transition from ‘reckless youth’ to independent adult status.

  Barbadian Adolescents in 1991: Adult Perceptions of Change over a Decade · 1993 · DOI

• In June 1969—to cite but one example— there were in Morocco export volunteers of eight programmes from seven industrialized countries; the organizations' policies and practices regarding requirements made of host countries varied widely.

  Aims and Organization of Voluntary Service by Youth · 1972 · DOI

• The nature and stages of the &dquo;environmental learning&dquo; process and factors which influence the process should be studied. The influence of residential mobility specifically and, more generally, physical mobility should be studied for their effect on the content and quality of maps. The phenomenon of the development of map-making conventions and the influence of cultural differences on map-making conventions should be studied.

  Black Youths View Their Environment · 1970 · DOI

• Consequently, such results problematise the lack of institutional awareness of the unique circumstances faced by student-parents, made evident by the lack of data collected on the diversity of the student population.

  Parenting by day, studying by night: challenges faced by student-parents in the COVID-19 pandemic · 2024 · DOI

• Research framework: Although the family is typically the place where socialization and learning begin, and where values, practices and cultures are handed down, the ways in which eco-citizenship is taught within the family remain underexplored in current research.

  Family and Eco-citizenship · 2023 · DOI

• While significant attention has been devoted to juvenile antislavery literature produced by adults for children, little is known about the juvenile antislavery societies that sprang up in the 1830s.

  “Anti-Slavery success to the Juniors!”: organizing juvenile abolitionists · 2023 · DOI

• Whilst the consequences of these actions can be fatal, surprisingly little is known about the motivations for young people who engage in these behaviours.

  “They are kids, they’re making bad choices, but they are not bad kids”: motivations and deterrents for joyriding amongst Australian youth · 2023 · DOI

• Studies have shown the value of youth organizing for Black and Latinx populations but there is limited knowledge of how members navigate their differences to deepen solidarity efforts.

  Navigating Intersectionality and Positionality Within Black and Latinx Youth Organizing Spaces · 2023 · DOI

• It does not account for the temporal fluidity of how young people's realities are future impacted by slow crises and challenging daily life experiences as they grow towards adulthood.

  Crisis temporalities and ongoing capabilities in the lives of young people growing up on the streets of African cities: An ethnographic longitudinal perspective · 2023 · DOI

• While the numbers of newcomer youth continue to grow in Canada, few studies have sought to critically capture experiences of school integration and access to school-based psychosocial support services during their transition.

  Access to Support Services for Newcomer Youth Through the Process of School Integration: A Critical Narrative Literature Review · 2022 · DOI

• Roma Minority Youth across Cultural Contexts: Taking a Positive Approach to Research, Policy, and Practice is an important academic resource that has added to the scarce literature base on Roma culture.

  Book Review: Roma Minority Youth across Cultural Contexts: Taking a Positive Approach to Research, Policy, and Practice · 2021 · DOI

• Yet, little is known about how the practices of YPAR facilitators enable or constrain intergroup contact, particularly in racially diverse groups.

  Using Intergroup Contact Theory to Understand the Practices of Youth-Serving Professionals in the Context of YPAR: Identifying Racialized Adultism · 2021 · DOI

• However, early adolescent learning in organized youth programs is an under-researched area of learning, which may limit the ability of youth development practitioners to respond appropriately to early adolescent learning needs.

  The Experience of Learning: Early Adolescents in Organized Youth Programs · 2020 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

• Arrival of Young Talent: The Send-Down Movement and Rural Education in China · American Economic Review · 2020 · 567 citations
• The Significance of Students: Can Increasing “Student Voice” in Schools Lead to Gains in Youth Development? · Teachers College Record The Voice of Scholarship in Education · 2004 · 324 citations
• Rethinking Youth Political Socialization · Youth & Society · 2010 · 170 citations
• A Grounded Theory of the Development of Noble Youth Purpose · Journal of Adolescent Research · 2011 · 127 citations
• Disappearing youth: Youth as a social shifter in Botswana · American Ethnologist · 2004 · 124 citations
• “I Hesitate but I Do Have Hope”: Youth Speculative Civic Literacies for Troubled Times · Harvard Educational Review · 2020 · 114 citations
• No future, no kids–no kids, no future? · Population and Environment · 2021 · 97 citations
• Exploring Complex Transitions: Looking Back at the ‘Golden Age’ of From School to Work · Sociology · 2005 · 91 citations
• Critical Positive Youth Development: A Framework for Centering Critical Consciousness · Journal of Youth Development · 2020 · 87 citations
• Response to Review of How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas · Children Youth and Environments · 2005 · 85 citations

Most recent work

• A systematic narrative review of the methodologies used in research with excluded children and young people in alternative provision in England · Educational Review · 2026
• Youth Work Practice in South Africa’s Non-Profit Organisations Through the Lens of Self-Determination Theory · Youth · 2026
• Co-Constructing Third Space with Asian American and Migrant Youth Through Youth Participatory Action Research · Educational Studies · 2026
• Unveiling the Youth Worlds and Future: Methodological Experiences of Applied Anthropology in Youth Educational Contexts · World Futures · 2026
• Young women’s living arrangements in Mexico: Diversity, stability, and social stratification · Advances in Life Course Research · 2026
• Youth transition, mobility, and intergenerationality: parental support and the school-to-work transition of Chinese returnees · Asian Population Studies · 2026
• Drive for equity: the impact of youth-generated evidence on transportation policy · Evidence & Policy · 2026
• Adolescence: A Critical Media Review · Journal of Family Theory & Review · 2026
• Emerging adulthood development in South Korean students: individualism and collectivism in a cultural context · The Educational and Developmental Psychologist · 2026
• A socio-legal inquiry through awards: the “China model” of positive youth development · Frontiers in Psychology · 2026

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