The current volume presents new empirical data on well-being of youth and emerging adults from a global international perspective. Its outstanding features are the focus on vast geographical regions (e.g., Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America), and on strengths and resources for optimal well-being. The international and multidisciplinary contributions address the complexities of young people’s life in a variety of cultural settings to explore how key developmental processes such as identity, religiosity and optimism, social networks, and social interaction in families and society at large promote optimal and successful adaptation. The volume draws on core theoretical models of human development to highlight the applicability of these frameworks to culturally diverse youth and emerging adults as well as universalities and cultural specifics in optimal outcomes. With its innovative and cutting-edge approaches to cultural, theoretical and methodological issues, the book offers up-to-date evidence and insights for researchers, practitioners and policy makers in the fields of cross-cultural psychology, developmental science, human development, sociology, and social work.

"Roma ethnic minority, also called the Romani people and sometimes as gypsies (usually in derogatory way), have one of the most dramatic histories in Europe and worldwide. The Indian origin of Roma as advocated by linguists since the 18th century, based on similarities between the Romany language (referred also as Romanes or Romani) and the Sanskrit (Achim, 2004), is now widely accepted. Although the precise region of the Indian sub-continent which Roma originated and migrated from to Europe remains elusive, genetic linguistic, historical and anthropological findings suggest that their migration started from Central India, to the Northern India, then transiting Persia and Armenia and travelled towards the Byzantine Empire and Asia Minor, and finally to Greece (Kenrick, 2007). The precise time when the journey started is also uncertain. Historical records indicate that Roma first came to work in Persia sometime between 224-241, and were either brought or deported to the Arab Empire at the start of 661, reach Constantinople in 1050, and then were in Greece in 1290. They then continued to Eastern Europe and Balkans (arriving in Serbia in 1348, Croatia in 1362, Bulgaria in 1378, Romania in 1385), followed by Central and Western Europe (arriving in Germany in 1407, France and Switzerland in 1418, Belgium in 1419, Holland in 1420, Italy in 1422, Spain in 1425, Hungary in 1489, and England in 1513; see Kenrick, 2007, for a comprehensive chronology of Roma history)"--

This volume addresses important questions related to the well-being and quality of life of emerging adults during crisis periods. It discusses the particular challenges that emerging adults face during a global or local crisis, the psychosocial resources they mobilize to overcome them and to flourish, the well-being indicators pertinent to youth development across various life domains, and the strategies to promote positive youth development and well-being under conditions of crisis. The volume examines these questions from an international and interdisciplinary point of view, collecting contributions mainly from psychology, but also education, economics, and sociology. It includes novel quantitative and qualitative research, intervention studies, critical reviews, and conceptual chapters. This makes it an essential read for scholars of positive development in emerging adulthood under crisis, as well as a relevant and accessible source of information for discerning lay readers. The specific focus of the majority of contributions on the Covid-19 pandemic makes this volume highly topical. Its focus on both well-being dimensions and problems related to crises offers a deeper understanding of the cultural similarities and differences in individual and collective challenges and resources across world regions. The volume investigates various facets of well-being, including daily experiences, relationships, purpose and growth, learning activities, and achievements. Evidence derived from the contributions to this volume can prove valuable for handling future crises through targeted interventions and programmes in different contexts and life domains.

This handbook examines positive youth development (PYD) in youth and emerging adults from an international perspective. It focuses on large and underrepresented cultural groups across six continents within a strengths-based conception of adolescence that considers all youth as having assets. The volume explores the ways in which developmental assets, when effectively harnessed, empower youth to transition into a productive and resourceful adulthood. The book focuses on PYD across vast geographical regions, including Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, North America, and Latin America as well as on strengths and resources for optimal well-being. The handbook addresses the positive development of young people across various cultural contexts to advance research, policy, and practice and inform interventions that foster continued thriving and reduce the chances of compromised youth development. It presents theoretical perspectives and supporting empirical findings to promote a more comprehensive understanding of PYD from an integrated, multidisciplinary, and multinational perspective.

The parameters within which young people live their lives have changed radically. Changes in education and the labour market have led to an increased complexity of the youth phase and to an overall protraction in dependency and transitions. Written by leading academics from several countries, this Handbook introduces up to date perspectives on a wide range of issues that affect and shape youth and young adulthood. It provides an authoritative and multi-disciplinary overview of a field of study that offers unique insight on social change in advanced societies and is aimed at academics, students, researchers and policy-makers. The Handbook introduces some of the key theoretical perspectives used within youth studies and sets out future research agendas. Each of the ten sections covers an important area of research – from education and the labour market to youth cultures, health and crime whilst discussing change and continuity in the lives of young people. This work introduces readers to some of the most important work in the field while highlighting the underlying perspectives that have been used to understand the complexity of modern youth and young adulthood.

Immigration in the Circumpolar North: Integration and Resilience explores interconnected issues of integration and resilience among both immigrants and host communities in the Arctic region. It examines the factors that inhibit or enable the success of immigrants to the Arctic and the role of territoriality in the process of integration. This book showcases a variety of perspectives on circumpolar immigration, and includes insights from eight Arctic countries as well as thirteen ‘observer countries’ such as China, India, Singapore, Poland, Germany, France and Japan. It considers the solidarities and engagements of indigenous and other local peoples with the new coming immigrants and refugees, and the impact of immigration on the economic and societal life in the Circumpolar Arctic. The book will be of interest to researchers, teachers, professors, policymakers and others interested in migration issues, Arctic issues, international relations, law, and economic integration.

In this Research Topic, our aim is to examine how personal resources related to competencies, skills, and self-perception as well as environmental, contextual, and relational features of the social contexts of diverse youth, directly or indirectly are important to mental health and psychological well-being. As previous research on young people has mainly focused on youth’s weaknesses rather than their strengths, our use of Positive Youth Development (PYD) in working with culturally diverse youth and their well-being in this Research Topic is novel. We invite contributions from researchers that were initially presented their papers in a meeting that was held by research partners of the Cross-National Project on Positive Youth Development (CN-PYD), and who represent an international and multidisciplinary panel of experts on PYD. The CN-PYD was initiated in 2014 at the University of Bergen and has an ongoing data collection that involves approximately 10,000 minority and majority youth and emerging adults (ages 16 to 29) living in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, New Zealand, and South America. CN-PYD uses a strengths-based approach to the conceptualization of youth as resources and agentic, which is in opposition to the view of the developmental period of adolescence as being a period inherently fraught with problems and risks. The goal of the cross-national project is to assess personal strengths and contextual resources, considering how these resources come together to facilitate youth thriving and to document how young people make positive and valued contributions to themselves and others. We also advance research on the complex interplay between personal and contextual resources and their connections with risk behaviors and problems, in essence, taking a perspective of the whole child, both in terms of strengths and problems.

The youth of today is confronted with a myriad of challenges of living in a world that has never been more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. These multifaceted challenges compromise their well-being. Fostering the well-being of young people across sociocultural boundaries, rather than of the select groups of privileged individuals, is a timely and worthy endeavor and should not take a back seat. The advent of Positive Education, which is an educational paradigm that emphasizes the goal of developing both cognitive abilities and well-being skills in students and young people in general, has offered a promising generic approach to promoting the well-being of young people. The twin goals of Positive Education are indeed aligned with two major views of well-being: eudaimonia highlighting the importance of one’s engaged pursuit of meaningful goals, and hedonia stressing the importance of one’s positive emotion and life satisfaction in one’s well-being. Their combination – that wellness is achieved when a person is feeling good and functioning well – has often been termed ‘flourishing’. Unfortunately, scholarly discussions on sociocultural influences on flourishing or well-being and ways of promoting it have been scarce. This volume addresses such a gap in a rigorous and timely manner. International scholars from culturally diverse backgrounds put together their thoughts and ideas in their respective chapter contributions that, collectively, invite us to mindfully take into account youth’s sociocultural and sociodemographic backgrounds in promoting their flourishing. This book, which embodies the ‘who’, ‘what’, when, ‘where’, and ‘how’ of youth well-being, will be extremely insightful and useful for scholars and researchers as well as policy makers and practitioners (teachers, interventionists, counsellors, youth mentors) who seek to promote the well-being of young people in their respective contexts and beyond.

Identity is a construct strongly rooted and still predominantly studied in Western (or WEIRD; Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) contexts (e.g., North American and Western European). Only recently has there been more of a conscious effort to study identity in non-Western (or non-WEIRD) contexts. This edited volume investigates identity from primarily a non-Western perspective by studying non-Western contexts and non-Western, minority, or immigrant groups living in Western contexts. The contributions (a) examine different aspects of identity (e.g., personal identity, social identity, online identity) as either independent or interrelated constructs; (b) consider the associations of these constructs with aspects of intergroup relations, acculturative processes, and/or psychological well-being; (c) document the advancement in research on identity in underrepresented groups, contexts, and regions such as Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and South America; and (d) evaluate different approaches to the study of identity and the implications thereof. This book is intended for cultural or cross-cultural academics, practitioners, educators, social workers, postgraduate students, undergraduate students, and scholars interested in studying identity. It provides insight into how identity in non-Western groups and contexts may both be informed by and may inform Western theoretical perspectives.

The second and completely revised edition of the Routledge Handbook of Youth and Young Adulthood draws on the work of leading academics from four continents in order to introduce up-to-date perspectives on a wide range of issues that affect and shape youth and young adulthood. It provides a multi-disciplinary overview of a dynamic field of study that offers unique insights on social change in advanced societies. It is aimed at researchers, policy-makers and advanced students on a global level. The Handbook introduces the main theoretical perspectives used within youth studies and sets out future research agendas. Each of the ten sections covers an important area of research – from education and the labour market to youth cultures, health and crime – discussing change and continuity in the lives of young people, introducing readers to some of the most important work in the field, while highlighting the underlying perspectives that have been used to understand the complexity of modern youth and young adulthood.