Changing Lifestyles And Values Of Young People

Changing lifestyles and values of young people Helena Helve University of Tampere

The paper will be multi-disciplinary taking a comparative approach to the empirical studies of values and life-styles of young people. It will discuss recent European youth research as reflected in the findings of two Finnish research projects about social and identity capital and changing lifestyles and values of young people in Finland. The aim is to relate the results of these research projects to local, European and global youth research and policy perspectives. The paper will consider in particular: (a) global changes and the range of institutional and other factors (such as education, social relationships, the media etc.) that mediate the values and lifestyles of young people; (b) the transition to adulthood including the role of personal agency, structural factors including gender age , socio-economic status and cultural factors; (c) polarization of young people.