isfy all of its citizens. At the same time, by collecting taxes and mandatory insurance premiums, it gathers resources, consequent-ly limiting its citizens’ decision-making op-tions with regards to how they fulfi ll their needs. Perhaps, worrying about one’s source of income or children’s future source of in-come, though diffi cult in the times of the risk society, should pose a problem for an individual and his or her family rather than for a career counselor or public institutions supposed to hire them. Looking for a way to popularize this kind of thinking (for in many families it is the case) should be the subject of intergenerational debate before youths change and introduce their own rules of the game. Maybe, when thinking about upbringing and education, in the fi rst place we should induce self-reliant attitudes rather than those where one counts on sup-porting relatives or institutions.
Ewa Narkiewicz-Niedbalec University of Zielona Góra, Poland
Anna Izabela Brzezińska, Tomasz Czub, Anna Nowotnik, Małgorzata Rękosiewicz (rev.): Piotr Arak, Michał Boni, Krystyna Szafraniec, Youth Report 2011
Supporting Polish Youth into Adulthood. Discussion on the Margins of the Youth of 2011 report
1. Introduction
In 2011, the Offi ce of the Prime Minister issued Th e Youth of 2011 Report1. Th e Youth
of 2011 Report was the result of the debate over the current generation of young people at the threshold of adulthood. Young people entering adolescence and adulthood, as well as young adults, were the focus of the re-searchers’ interests. Th e aim of the Report was to fi nd answers to the question about: what the young people are like; what are their values, preferences, and goals in life; and how they diff er, if at all, from previous generations of young people (especially those from the „solidarity” generation) in preparing for an independent adult life.
Heated discussion and analysis of the condition of the young generation is a result of the growing awareness that aft er the po-litical transition in Poland, we are faced by new and difficult challenges in building a modern society. In this context, young people with their natural energy potential, innovativeness, openness, and criticism are perceived by the authors of the Report as
1 K. Szafraniec, Raport Młodzi 2011, War-szawa 2011.
a resource on which a strategy of for the building of a modern state could be based. In addition, understanding the specifi cs of the younger generation may be a kind of barometer of the social consequences of the changes that took place in Poland after 1989, as well as a signpost for the reforms to be carried out in the future.
The author of the Report is Krystyna Szafraniec while Michał Broni scientifi cally edited it. Piotr Arak served in a coordinat-ing capacity for the entire project. Th e fi nal conclusions are the result of meetings and discussions over the period of two years by the Youth Task Force, which consisted of people representing diff erent circles explor-ing and workexplor-ing with youth. Experts from diff erent institutions cooperated with the team. Among the cooperating institutions was the National Bureau for Drug Preven-tion, the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurol-ogy in Warsaw, and the Police Headquarters. Experts from various ministries, experts from the Board of the Strategic Advisors to the Prime Minister, and the very youth (high school and university students, Voluntary Work Corps) and young adults entering the labor market, who were the focus of the Re-port, also participated.
Values; aspirations and expectations; education and work; marriage, family, and alternative choices; consumption; leisure and media; the sphere of public life, health, and risk behaviors were the main areas of analysis connected with the youth and young adults. Th e whole is complemented by a chapter devoted to the demographic situation of Poland compared to other
Euro-pean countries and the world. Each chapter contains a number of fi gures that were prod-ucts of the team’s own research and other studies carried out in recent years, including research works carried out by CBOS2 (the
Public Opinion Research Centre) or SMG/ KRC3. Data from GUS4 (Central Statistical
Offi ce), Diagnoza Społeczna5 (Th e Social
Di-agnosis), the Commission of the European Union6, the Ministry of Science and Higher
Education7, and CKE8 (the Central
Exami-nation Board) was also incorporated into the Report. Th e Report concludes with 35 public policy recommendations.
2. Problem
Th e Youth of 2011 Report presents a rich and diverse set of data, as well as a number of important conclusions and refl ections that constitute a diagnosis of the younger generation. Th e diagnosis can be helpful in identifying and sharing the most important directions of initiatives and activities
un-2 Eg. CBOS, Młodzież 2010, Warszawa 2011. 3 Eg. SMG KRC, Młodzi 2005. Raport z badań
SMG KRC, Warszawa 2006.
4 Eg. GUS, Dzieci w Polsce w 2008 roku.
Charakterystyka demografi czna, Warszawa 2010.
5 J. Czapiński, T. Panek, Diagnoza społeczna
2009. Warunki i jakość życia Polaków, Warszawa
2010.
6 Eg. Komisja UE, Employment in Europe,
Raport Komisji Europejskiej, 2010.
7 Eg. MNiSzW, Informacja o wynikach
rekru-tacji na studia na rok akademicki
2010/2011,War-szawa 2010.
8 Eg. CKE, Osiągnięcia maturzystów w 2010
roku. Sprawozdanie z egzaminu maturalnego w 2010 roku, Warszawa 2010.
dertaken in connection with the develop-ment and utilization of the youth’s poten-tial. Recognizing the unique value inherent in the Report, we would like to look at it from the psychological science’s perspec-tive and to emphasize the importance of some fi ndings presented. We would also like to outline a direction of change, the implementation of which would, in our opinion, signifi cantly improve the chances of young people not only in fi nding a satis-factory position the adult world, but also helping young people to actively change the existing circumstances and create condi-tions for the implementation of their own plans for adult life.
While refl ecting on the Youth of 2011 Report, we refer both to its content and to the Recommendation for Public Policies. In our opinion, the study contains a unique set of data on the functioning and the situation of young people in Poland. However, it points out the disproportion between the number of data and analyses of the facts and the range of the refl ection on the mate-rial, as well as on the nature of conclusions and recommendations made on the basis of this study.
In our opinion, the material collected in the Report can become an important incen-tive to improve the situation of young peo-ple in Poland. However, using the knowl-edge from diff erent disciplines, it is worthy of further and a little more profound refl ec-tion in order to elicit the very potential re-siding in this paper. We believe that accurate interpretations and proposals can trigger important changes in the society. We mean
not only those changes that require the au-thorities and politicians to make decisions, but also those (or perhaps especially those) that require changes in public awareness, as well as changes in understanding and evalu-ating behaviors, needs, and situations in which young people in Poland have found themselves.
We believe that change in the way of perception, evaluation, and, consequently, communication and treatment of young people by generations of people in their middle ages and older may be crucial for better exploitation of the potential of the youth, to the benefi t not only for this age group, but also for the entire society. Th ere-fore, we conclude that macro- and micro-systems9 thus far created, as well as the
at-titudes adopted by teachers, parents, and politicians and decision makers at various levels toward the generation of people en-tering adulthood and the labor market helps or hinders that generation’s start in life. On the other hand, it creates a frame of reference for the aspirations and life pro-jects of people younger than them (children and adolescents) and fi nally, it defi nes and stabilizes the position of the middle and older generations, as well as shapes their at-titudes towards young people. Both the ob-jective conditions for entering into adult-hood, created by the state and local govern-ments, as well as the level of acceptance in the immediate environment (familial and neighborly settings), have a stake in how
9 See: U. Bronfenbrenner, Th e Ecology of
young people are treated by the older gen-erations – as competitors for jobs; as poten-tial future guardians; as members of the local community, full of innovative ideas; or as „unknown” and „troublesome”.
Th e Report provides much positive in-formation on the behavior, competencies, values, and ways of coping with life’s diffi -culties and challenges that are typical for young people in Poland. However, we would like to focus on the data that points out the existing problems and worrying phenome-na in their functioning. We pay special at-tention to this category of data mainly be-cause they are progressive by nature. In our opinion, the growth and intensifi cation of negative phenomena in this age group re-quires special consideration and proper ex-planation in order to facilitate a decrease in the level of these phenomena and the use of these young people’s potential in a more comprehensive way.
3. Th e challenges facing young people in Poland
Th e transition from childhood to adulthood is one of the most important milestones that a person has to deal with in his/her life. During this period, the necessary recon-struction does not only concern the chil-dren’s original emotional relationships with their caregivers, mainly parents. Some sub-stantial changes in the self-image and the image of the world are also indispensable, so that the young person may be convinced that he/she understands the basic principles of the social reality within which he/she will
perform his/her “adult” goals. Acquiring a set of competencies, as well as determining the eff ectiveness and success in the process of becoming independent appear to be par-ticularly important. All of these tasks that a young person entering into adulthood faces pose serious challenges – regardless of ex-ternal conditions.
Much of the data presented in the Re-port leads to the conclusion that contempo-rary young people in Poland carry out their basic developmental tasks in particularly complex, ever changing, and increasingly less predictable social and cultural condi-tions. In Poland, the changes are a conse-quence of the “system transformation” over-lapping the changes currently taking place in democratic Western societies. In our opinion, these overlapping changes, which are actually waves of change, signifi cantly alter the conditions for the development and implementation of young people’s natu-ral developmental tasks by setting addition-al chaddition-allenges and obstacles that their par-ents and grandparpar-ents, as adolescpar-ents and young adults, did not have to deal with.
One of such challenge results from the gap between the rapidly changing political, legal, and economic conditions, as well as norms and values, such as freedom, prag-matism, and success that have become natu-ral for the younger generation born aft er 1989, when Poland opened up to the West. Furthermore, the changes in the education-al system are much slower than the trans-formations taking place in Poland. Th e edu-cational off er, poorly adapted to the require-ments of modern times, does not create an
optimal and supportive environment for young people who are trying to implement the developmental tasks they face. As one could expect, the weakening of the support from the education system in preparing young people for adult roles and in building their own life projects allowing to satisfy personal aspirations is compensated for, in the fi rst instance, by the family environment but with its increasingly limited capacity, the costs of development are being imposed on young people themselves.
Other specifi c to the present day chal-lenges facing the young generation are due to the changes occurring in the societies of Western democracy, which have entered a phase of development known as postmo-dernity or, in Bauman’s terms, the second, late or “liquid” modernity10. Preparation for
adulthood in a world that has ceased to be strongly and clearly structured, predictable, and permanent, in which it is diffi cult to identify permanent and “anchor” points of reference is particularly diffi cult and so it is associated with a high level of uncertainty, especially in life decision-making moments. As emphasized by Zygmunt Bauman, al-though the excess of order, so characteristic of modern societies, limited the personal freedom of individuals, it also provided them with a certain degree of security11.
And, therefore, it set them free from the dif-ficulty of defining their own self and, in some sense, also from the full responsibility
10 Z. Bauman, Liquid Modernity, Mal-den 2000.
11 Z. Bauman, Postmodernity and Its
Discon-tents, Malden 1997.
for their own decisions. However, currently – the times of postmodernity – we have the opposite problem. It is not only the young people who are dispossessed of the basic sense of security by the excess of freedom. It makes the “recipes” of the social roles im-plementation, norms and values more liq-uid, relative, vague, and fuzzy12.
Under such conditions, when it is not always readable and clearly moving in a particular direction as a result of continu-ous changes and the traditional patterns and authorities cease to prove correct, the development of effective and rewarding strategies for the fulfi llment of adulthood, especially at its threshold, requires a greater than ever before commitment from the de-veloping people. Th e lack or instability of anchor points, an occasional hesitation to take risks, and the necessity to take on greater responsibilities connected with the construction of one’s own life make up an-other set of serious challenges that the young people of today are forced to con-front.
An additional obstacle noted by the au-thors of the Report is the fact that, while implementing a diffi cult task in preparation for adult roles, young people face a lack of understanding form the older generations. Rapid change within the values, preferences, and aspirations of the young generation is a result of the opening Poland to Western in-fl uences. It is associated with the increasing mobility of younger generations both real
12 Z. Bauman, Liquid Modernity, Mal-den 2000.
(travelling around the world for education-al, commercieducation-al, and tourism purposes) and virtual (e.g. on the Internet) very oft en caus-es some reproach towards the young people who “want too much” and who “do too well.” Th e world in which the current generation of adults grew up, young people listened to their parents, respected teachers, set more modest demands, and did not seek help from a psychologist13.
Today’s adults of the middle and older generations oft en do not understand the changes taking place in the modern world and their impact on the life situation of the younger generations entering into adult-hood. As the authors of the Report note, the lack of understanding is not only evident in parent-child relationships, but also in ac-counts from teachers as well as in those of representatives working with the youth and for the youth14. As a result of the lack of
ac-ceptance of the changes, along with the lack of understanding of the causes of the diff er-ent behavior of young people who, from the very beginning of their life, “have been liv-ing in the state of change,” the actions taken towards the younger generation are marked by “moral panic.” Instead of obtaining eff
ec-13 Th e Report…, op.cit., p. 384.
14 Today only 35% of young people are not critical towards their parents. What upsets young people in their parents most is “lack of under-standing”, “excessive interference”, „being con-frontentional”, “mentality and outlook”, „overpro-tection”, “conviction infallibility.” more than half of young people complain on these parental char-acteristics. Even worse is the evaluation of teach-ers – about 70% of the youth complain on the mental wall in contact with them (Th e Report…,
op.cit., p. 385).
tive support, many young people become receivers of more and more sophisticated “repair,” “modifi cation-correctional,” “psy-cho-educational,” or “stimulant-optimiza-tion” actions.
A deep economic crisis, which most western economies are currently experienc-ing, is another major obstacle on the way to adulthood. Firstly, this crisis is causing dif-fi culties for young people with entering the labor market, fi nding the most appropriate opportunity, and stabilizing one’s position within it. It also makes designing one’s own career path increasingly diffi cult, since, as the Report authors put it, “Th e work has be-come scarce and uncertain”15. More
gener-ally, the confusion in the labor market sig-nifi cantly hampers the building of one’s life. Under these conditions, obtaining fi nancial independence, which is one of the most im-portant attributes or markers of adulthood, becomes, objectively, a very diffi cult task. Th ese objective diffi culties are another ma-jor obstacle for the young people on the way to ‘a happy adulthood’, as Erik H. Erikson and Robert J. Havighurst16.
4. How do young people cope with enter-ing into adulthood?
However, the extensive data collected in the Report allow to us state that young people in Poland, despite a number of pressures and diffi culties, mostly do well with the
dif-15 Th e Report…, p. 38.
16 See: A. Brzezińska, Social Developmental
Psychology, Warsaw 2007, p. 235 – Fig. 7.4.; see
fi cult task of entering into adulthood. In-vesting in education is a profi table thing, which, in the face of rapid social change and the increasing difficulties for this group with fi nding oneself in the labor market, is one of the main strategies of coping with the instability in their lives. Th e value of this strategy is confi rmed by the high employ-ment rates among young people with high-er education – in OECD membhigh-er countries, 85% of graduates get employed; in Poland, that fi gure is 88% of graduates fi nd employ-ment17.
On the other hand, the Report provides information indicating that an increasing number of young people do experience se-rious diffi culties in the process of entering into adulthood. Among the most disturbing, in our opinion, are symptoms of emotional and health problems, as well as behavior on the verge of law breaking.
The fact that a growing number of young people cannot cope with passing the threshold of development, consisting of the transition from the role of a child to the role of an adult and implementing the project of one’s life, is evident in the data on emotion-al and mentemotion-al heemotion-alth presented in the Re-port. An increase in the number of teens diagnosed with elevated levels of psycho-logical stress as well as the frequency of headaches and feelings of fatigue, exhaus-tion, and feeling were some of the disturb-ing phenomena that were reported. A few years ago, a minority (30-40%) experienced these problems. Nowadays, the minority is
17 Th e Report…, p. 112.
composed of people not complaining about these problems18. Recently (since 2005),
there has been a noticeable growth in the proportion of young people seeking treat-ment in treat-mental health facilities.
Mental health problems increase with age; it was observed that twice as many 19 to 29 year olds sought treatment than did children and young people aged up to 18 years. And, since the population of young people aged 19-29 is much less numerous than the group aged 0-18, it becomes apent that the group of young adults is par-ticularly at risk19. In addition, an increase in
the number of suicides and attempted sui-cides in the group aged between 15 and 29 years of age can be seen. Th e number of suicide attempts in this group increases with age20.
The second area of problems in the functioning of young people in Poland is in behaviors verging on criminality. Since the early nineties, police statistics have recorded a growing number of crimes and acts of violence in various forms, an increase in their brutalization, a trend that younger in-dividuals are perpetrating crimes, and a growing susceptibility of young people to behaviors related to aggression.
In the past ten years, the percentage of young people suspected of violence and ag-gression, in comparison to all suspected criminals in this category, has signifi cantly increased. Th e largest increase occurred in
18 Th e Report…, p. 310. 19 Th e Report…, p. 312. 20 Th e Report…, p. 317–318.
children and adolescents under the age of seventeen. In the same period, there was also an increase in the percentage of people suspected of committing murder – the highest increase was among those aged be-tween 25 and 29 years. Young people are increasingly becoming the perpetrators of violence in the family and school. Th is vio-lence is not directed just at their peers, but also towards their teachers. Th e rise in ag-gressiveness and hostility among young people on the Internet is clearly observable; the Internet is full of sharp statements, com-ments, and ratings that oft en express envy and contempt toward others and are written with taboo words21.
All these phenomena, in our opinion, indicate that the process of passing the threshold of adulthood is becoming more and more diffi cult for young people in Po-land and is associated with increasing per-sonal and social costs. Alarmingly, these data suggest that the eff ective and satisfac-tory entrance into the role of an adult for a young person is increasingly turning out to be too diffi cult. In these symptoms, the au-thors of the Report recognize signs of the eff ect of “psycho-wave”, which is well known in Western societies. Th is is defi ned as the negative phenomena in the psychological functioning of young people. It seems to be a consequence of the negative relationship between environmental requirements of life – treated more oft en in terms of the risks and burdens, and not attractive challenges,
21 Th e Report…, p. 347–354.
social expectations and aspirations as well as expectations posed to oneself and the available social resources and skills, which they could use in the process of dealing with the diffi cult situation in which they has found themselves.
5. How (or what?) to support the young people in entering into adulthood? For the sake of the natural potential of juve-nility, which is an important social resource in dealing with current and future chal-lenges facing the Polish society and coun-teracting the eff ect of “psycho-wave”, it is important to implement eff ective strategies to support young people in the longer and more difficult process of entering into adulthood22. A number of important
sug-gestions of changes are presented in the form of Public Policy Recommendations. From our psychological point of view, how-ever, the authors of the recommendation understand the conditions necessary to deal with entering into adulthood nowadays too superfi cially. Th ey outline a very short and direct way from the problems of the young generation described in the Report to their solution. In our opinion they cherish a na-ive, hope that the creation of “laptop
class-22 See for: Konrad Piotrowski’s research on the processes of entering into adulthood of young people with disability – Piotrowski, 2010; see also: A.I. Brzezińska, T. Czub, M. Czub, R. Kaczan, K. Piotrowski, M. Rękosiewicz, Postponed or
De-layed Adulthood? [in:] Educating Competencies for Democracy, E. Nowak, D. Schrader, B. Zizek
es”; career counseling; scholarships; tax credits; programs, such as ALMP (Active Labour Market Policy); etc. will soon lead to the expected solutions.
Th ese are very important suggestions, but we believe that their eff ectiveness may be severely limited; even an unfavorable im-balance of benefi ts and costs may be ex-pected. Without changes in other areas, changes of a fundamental nature and intro-duced well before the implementation of these proposals, it is diffi cult to expect the results in the form of reducing the eff ect of the “psycho-wave” and to facilitate young people into starting adulthood. In our opin-ion, in the current discussion on the prob-lems of the young generation too little space is devoted to personal, profound, and seem-ingly minor aspects of preparing young people for a delayed, due to external causes, entrance into adulthood and then for a good start in the adult world.
Based on the results of studies we have analyzed, which have been conducted over much of the last thirty years on the Self-Determination Th eory by Ryan and Deci23,
23 E.L. Deci, R.M. Ryan, Intrinsic Motivation
and Self-Determination in Human Behavior, New
York 1985; R.M. Ryan, E.L. Deci,
Self-Determina-tion Th eory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Moti-vation, Social Development, and Well-Being,
“American Psychologist” 2000a, Vol. 55, pp. 68– –78; R.M. Ryan, E.L. Deci, Th e Darker and Bright-er Sides of Human Existence: Basic Psychological Needs as Unifying Concept, “Psychological
In-quiry” 2000b, Vol. 4, pp. 319–338; E.L. Deci, R.M. Ryan, Th e “what” and “why” of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Be-havior, “Psychological Inquiry” 2000, Vol. 11,
pp. 227–268; E.L. Deci, R.M. Ryan, Facilitating
Optimal Motivation and Psychological Well-Being
we can say that one of the key, non-specifi c (e.g. not related either to age or external cir-cumstances) human resources to cope with diffi cult situations are personal competenc-es, which are the result of satisfying some of the basic and inalienable human psycho-logical needs. According to Ryan and Deci, development and maintenance of self-de-termination; the ability to act on the basis of permanent autonomous motivation, which is accompanied by a genuine desire and commitment; the ability to be creative and productive in the operation and the main-tenance of one’s well-being and mental health is largely determined by the satisfac-tion of three basic psychological needs: (1) the need for relatedness, (2) the need for autonomy, and (3) the need for competence. Th e authors clearly identify that the basic condition for the proper functioning of a human is to satisfy all three needs; meeting just one or two of them is insuffi cient. Th e needs form a kind of triad, which makes up the basis of good, sustainable development, implementing both personal aspirations and plans, as well as meeting social expecta-tions and standards.
Th e studies conducted on the basis of the concept of self-determination provide a number of very important data that show the importance and long-term consequenc-es of satisfying or the failure to satisfy the three basic needs. These studies include some important facts:
Across Life’s Domains, “Canadian
– It has been shown24 that the
satisfac-tion of these three basic psychological leads not only to development, but also to the maintenance of intrinsic motivation, which consists of a curi-osity and a tendency to seek out nov-elty and challenges, a willingness to extend and practice one’s own capac-ities, as well as a tendency to explore, to take risks, and learn;
– It has been found that specifi c pat-terns of frustration of these needs is one of the key psychological factors involved in the development of vari-ous forms of mental disorders, such as depression25; conduct disorder26;
eating disorders, such as anorexia, bu-limia, and obesity27; and fi nally
obses-sive-compulsive disorder28;
24 R.M. Ryan, E.L. Deci, Self-Determination
Th eory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being, “American
Psychologist” 2000a, Vol. 55, pp. 68–78.
25 T. Kasser, R.M. Ryan, Further Examining
the American Dream: Diff erential Correlates of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Goals, “Personality and
So-cial Psychology Bulletin” 1996, Vol. 22, pp. 80–87. 26 Ibidem.
27 J. Strauss, R.M. Ryan, Autonomy
Distur-bances in Subtypes of Anorexia Nervosa, “Journal
of Abnormal Psychology” 1987, Vol. 96, pp. 254– 258; G.C. Williams, V.M. Grow, Z. Freedman, R.M. Ryan, E.L. Deci, Motivational Predictors of
Weight Loss and Weight-Loss Maintenance,
“Jour-nal of Perso“Jour-nality and Social Psychology” 1996, Vol. 70, pp. 115–126.
28 R.M. Ryan, E.L. Deci, E.L. Grolnick,
Au-tonomy, Relatedness, and the Self: Th eir Relation to Development and Psychopathology [in:] Develop-mental Psychopathology, D. Cicchetti, D.J.
Co-hen (eds.), New York 1995, Vol. 1, pp. 618–655.
– It has been found that satisfaction of the need for relatedness (experienc-ing genuine acceptance) and the need for autonomy (the ability to making choices) signifi cantly supports the in-ternalization of the values represent-ed by the environment29;
– It has been established that meeting each of the three needs independent-ly aff ects the daiindependent-ly sense of well-being, which is defi ned as a feeling mentally well and satisfi ed with life30;
– It has been shown that the unsatisfi ed needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness lead to feelings of help-lessness, weakness, and even loss of intrinsic motivation31.
In our view, undertaking large-scale ef-forts to transform this environment of both primary and secondary socialization in or-der to make it consciously and deliberately support the satisfaction of these needs could make a signifi cant contribution both
29 R.M. Ryan, Agency and Organization:
In-trinsic Motivation, Autonomy and the Self in Psy-chological Development [in:] Nebraska Symposi-um on Motivation: Developmental Perspectives on Motivation, J. Jacobs (ed.), Lincoln 1993, Vol. 40,
pp.1–56; R.M. Ryan, E.L. Deci, Th e Darker and Brighter Sides of Human Existence: Basic Psycho-logical Needs as Unifying Concept, “PsychoPsycho-logical
Inquiry” 2000b, Vol. 4, pp. 319– 338.
30 H.T. Reis, K.M. Sheldon, P.L. Gable, J. Ro-scoe, R.M. Ryan, Daily Well-Being: Th e Role of Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness,
“Person-ality and Social Psychology Bulletin” 2000, Vol. 26, pp. 419–435.
31 A.K. Boggiano, Maladaptive Achievement
Patterns: A Test of a Diathesis-Stress Analysis of Helplessness, „Journal of Personality and Social
towards improving the social conditions for the development and improvement of the younger generation’s mental health. Here we are concerned not only about the natural environment (family and peers), but also about the institutional environment, which, in the case of children and young people, is primarily associated with the process of education and apprenticeship or the fi rst job.
It can be assumed that the actual sup-port for the basic needs for relatedness, au-tonomy, and competence enable changing a now clearly negative relationship between the older generations and the younger gen-erations. Meeting the most important needs experienced by the younger generation in the psychological environment created by the older generation, or even better – cocreated by both generations, could signifi -cantly contribute to the restoration and strengthening of the real relationship be-tween the generations. Later on, this could also counteract the processes of social ano-mie. Furthermore, not only could the younger generation see that they are under-stood and accepted by the older generation, but it would also be important for the expe-rience for older generations by allow them to see that they are understood better and accepted by the younger groups.
Based on the research results, it can be assumed that the satisfaction of basic psy-chological needs could lead to greater in-ternalization of social norms and values, which, given the sharp decline in young people’s willingness to respect the norms, would be an extremely desirable eff ect. On the other hand, only someone who has also
met the needs for relatedness, autonomy, and competence can become a creative person in pursuing the life project, or as Kazimierz Obuchowski32 described it
many years ago: a man creatively adapting to the modifi cation of the environment in which he lives, adjusting the environment to his long-term goals and plans, not only to the current needs and emergency action plans.
6. Summary 1: Diagnosis
Th erefore, in our opinion, it is possible to reduce and minimize the eff ect of the “psy-cho-wave”, which progressively disturbs the process of entering into adulthood for sub-sequent age groups of young people. A lack of action, which would eff ectively allow to minimize this eff ect, should be treated as particularly threatening to the health of the younger generation. Negligence in this re-gard may lead to a signifi cant loss of social capital and the emergence of a widening gap between the generations. In our opin-ion, the sources of this eff ect are located in several areas.
Firstly, the very course of the process of an identity crisis in adolescence is a diffi cult matter. How diffi cult the process is today can be seen in the formation of – thanks to J.J. Arnett33 – a new term for this stage of 32 K. Obuchowski, Creative Adaptation, War-saw 1985.
33 J.J. Arnett, Emerging Adulthood. A Th eory
of Development from the Late Teens through the Twenties, “American Psychologist” 2000, Vol. 55,
Transi-development, which is “emerging adult-hood.”
Secondly, nowadays, the conditions for experiencing cognitive work out and seek-ing ways to resolve the identity crisis are diffi cult. First of all, the lack of consistency in values and patterns that make up frames of reference for one’s choices is a burden factor. Additionally, adolescents oft en objec-tively present a signifi cantly limited ability to make choices about their own “here and now” existence, namely meeting their cur-rent needs. At this developmental stage, it is strongly related to the exploration and risk taking (and this, according to Ryan and Deci’s conception, means the frustration of the needs for autonomy and competence).
Furthermore, they do not always get on well with their elders – namely parents, teachers, and other adults – causing the frustration of the need for relatedness, the third of the fundamental needs according to Ryan and Deci. Here we set forth a hypoth-esis that problems in interpersonal relations between younger and older generations is to a large extent related to the fact that it is the representatives of the middle and older gen-erations who have not yet coped with the social change that has affected them. As children and teens, they probably did not master (because did not have to) such pow-ers, which would allow an eff ective meeting of their needs in rapidly and unpredictably changing life conditions. Th erefore, parents
tion to Adulthood: Perspectives From Adolescence Th rough Midlife, “Journal of Adult Development”
2001, Vol. 8, pp. 133–143.
and teachers who are have gone astray would not be a good source of support for children and students looking for their own way in life.
Th e relevant external circumstances that hinder solving the crisis of identity and the building multi-variant projects of life in-clude, among others, the specifi c modern cultural and social pressures, even those as-sociated with the omnipresent consumer-ism that objectifi es individuals and induces specifi c needs in them, or those associated with the promise of quick and easy success.
Th e third factor, which in our opinion may exacerbate the eff ect of the “psycho-wave”, is a lack of personal resources, espe-cially those related to establishing and maintaining deep emotional bonds with other people, a sense of autonomy along with simultaneous willingness to bear the consequences of own choices, as well as a sense of competence and conviction of self-effi cacy, by young people. Unfortunate-ly, we do not have any results from system-atic research that would confi rm our as-sumptions, but we believe that children and young people in Poland may have experi-enced considerable frustration with relation to the needs for relatedness, autonomy, and effi ciency since the early years of life.
In our opinion, the social neglect in this area shows itself indirectly in the fact that no research estimating the percentage dis-tribution of the various patterns of attach-ment that children create towards their car-egivers in the early years of life has yet been conducted in Poland (such studies have been conducted since the early 1980 around
the world). Th e HBSC34 international report
results may indirectly provide information on the state of children’s competence to cre-ate social relationships. Children at the ages of 11, 13, and 15 from 39 countries have been tested. In the ranking of the children that declared they had three or more friends of the same sex, Poland only takes the 36th position. Th e percentage of our children who agree with the statement that most of the schoolmates in their classes are nice and helpful is almost the lowest in the chart: among the 11-year-olds Poland comes in at 39; among 13-year-olds Poland ranks 37th; and among the 15-year-olds Poland takes the 38th position.
So, three factors are to be taken into ac-count: (a) the natural “developmental” dif-fi culties associated with an identity crisis, (b) the diffi cult external circumstances as-sociated with a poor support system for adolescents, and (c) the shortcomings in the field of personal development from previous periods. Interaction between them results in a signifi cant imbalance be-tween (1) the challenges facing young peo-ple today (interpreted in terms of risk); (2) their personal resources (lack of core per-sonal competencies); and (3) social re-sources (social support deficits), which leads to a signifi cant mental overload and
34 Social Determinants of Health and
Well-Being among Young People. Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) Study: Internation-al Report from the 2009/2010 Survey, C. Currie,
C. Zanotti, A. Morgan, D. Currie, M. de Looze, Ch. Roberts, O. Samdal, O.R.F. Smith, V. Barne-kow (eds.), Copenhagen 2012.
the long-term functioning of the various disorders described as a result of “psycho-wave”.
7. Summary 2: Help
Th e outline of risk factors, such as low per-sonal resources of young people, low social resources in their environment, inadequate support, as well as a number of challenges, which are, because of a lack of adequate competences often interpreted by young people and their immediate surroundings as a threat, allows us to see a few areas that, if appropriate action is taken, may become the beginning of a “newness”.
The first one is help for parents and teachers, who are “support providers”. Th ey like like those that they support, must have their fundamental needs met – needs for bond, autonomy, and competence. It is a task for the teachers themselves (e.g. self-help group workshops, self-study) and edu-cators (animate support groups for parents of students), their directors (organizational and fi nancial decisions), and higher-level decision makers in the educational system (conceptual decisions related to the vision of education and vision of psychological and pedagogical help also for teachers, not only for students). Only when the personal foundation – on the adults’ part – is slight-ly strengthened, does it make sense to think about the tools (e.g. “a laptop for every teacher”, school e-registers, laptop classes, e-books, interactive whiteboards, various workshops such as assertiveness for
stu-dents, professional counselors in schools, etc.).
Th e second area is the competence of adolescents and young adults. Th is means a return to broader thinking about educa-tion and the socio-cultural formative role and functions of school, not only in terms of teaching, development of knowledge and skills, implementation of the “canon”, “minimum” or “core curriculum”, prepara-tion for a particular profession, meeting the immediate unsatisfi ed expectations of employers and politicians frustrated by the lack of success, but also, in terms of educa-tion, the creation of a collaborative learn-ing social environment of people of diff er-ent ages and in diff erer-ent areas of compe-tence.
Today, the key indispensable and funda-mental personal skills include the willing-ness to make choices; to take risks and to take responsibility; the ability to make deci-sions in not entirely defi nite conditions; the construction of a fl exible action plan and multi-variant projects of action with diff er-ent time limits, including the project of one’s own life; establishing relationships based on emotional contact with diff erent people, regardless of how “diff erent” that person is; the ability to co-operate with oth-ers, regardless of personal likes and dislikes; and organizing the operating conditions for oneself and others. However, according to Ryan and Deci’s concept, these powers will be shaped and developed only in people who have met their basic need for related-ness, autonomy, and competence.
Th ese necessary competences, in what is nowadays such a long and arduous process of entering into adulthood, can be therefore be formed only in the social environment (family, peer, as well as neighborly and insti-tutional social environments, including school), in which adults themselves have the resources, on the one hand, and, on the other, they can organize the social learning environment so that it is possible to acquire and develop the competences. Th is means that the home educational environment or the socio-educational environment of the school and “around the school” (the local community, but also the media of various types) should create the conditions – mu-tual respect and the idea of cooperation, rather than competition, on actions towards achieving a superior order, such as the com-mon good – for meeting the needs for bond, autonomy, and competence. Th is also means that the particular institutional environ-ment should be, from this point of view, organized in such a way that it respects the principle of empowerment and the principle of subsidiarity. It should also facilitate all the members of the institutional commu-nity (e.g. at school: students, teachers and parents) to take actions according to the principle of active social participation, re-lated to sharing the values underlying se-lected objectives and methods of achieving them, and – as a consequence – to sharing the responsibility for the consequences of such actions.
Like the author of the Report, we are convinced that today we stand before the
great and diffi cult task to create a “new con-cept of community.” In our opinion, stimu-lating public awareness and building readi-ness to create the conditions for meeting the triad of the basic psychological needs can be helpful in creating a community in which autonomy and competence of individuals, as well as pro-socialness and responsibility
for the lot of the others, are values that are equally valued and are not mutually exclu-sive values.
Anna Izabela Brzezińska, Tomasz Czub, Anna Nowotnik, Małgorzata Rękosiewicz
