Growing Up: How Young People Find Their Way
Context: The Emergence of Adolescence
Psychologist G. Stanley Hall published a book titled "Adolescence” in 1904, which argued that the time between childhood and adulthood was a distinct phase of life. The book catalyzed a growing awareness, and adolescence as a concept and the category of people who would eventually be called “teenagers” gained acceptance in the United States.
Prior to this time, teenagers were often viewed as miniature adults, but the early 20th Century saw the emergence of institutions that would carve out a space for activities we now view as critical to adolescent development. By the end of World War I, approximately 30 percent of teens were enrolled in high schools and all 48 then-states had some form of compulsory education law. Just as important, all states had enacted child-labor protections of some kind.
As a result of these reforms, more young people were able to stay in school and delay entering the workforce, which created more time and space for learning and new experiences. The stage was set for youth culture and growing autonomy. High schoolers created new traditions, centered on sports and clubs. Dancing flourished, including dances choreographed to the emerging popular art form that was coming to be called “jazz.”
My Perspective
Growing up has never been a straight line. Each generation faces its own challenges, but the fundamental needs of young people have remained constant across time, place, and circumstance: safety, connection, learning, agency, and possibility.
At its core, growing up requires safety and stability - not just physical security, but the emotional stability that creates space to look beyond survival and imagine a future. For many young people, their immediate family provides this safe haven. For others, safety comes through additional or different channels: teachers, neighbors, mentors, and other caring adults.
The journey to adulthood demands connection and belonging. Our brains are wired for relationship, particularly during the critical transition between childhood and adulthood. These bonds take countless forms - the guidance of parents, the loyalty of friends, the encouragement of mentors who recognize untapped potential. The source matters less than the substance: young people need people who show up, who notice, who care.
Learning stretches beyond classroom walls. Growing up means developing skills and wisdom: understanding not just how things work, but how to work with others. This knowledge comes through formal education but also through early work experiences, service to others, creative pursuits, and opportunities to try and fail.
Adolescents crave opportunities for agency, chances to shape their world. These chances may be offered, or taken. Some find these opportunities naturally within their family of origin. Others discover their voice through youth leadership programs, part-time jobs, or community activism. Agency also means the chance to make mistakes, to experiment, and to learn lessons on one’s own time. It’s through these opportunities that young people begin to author their own life story.
Perhaps most crucially, growing up requires a sense of possibility, an orientation toward the future. Young people need to see bridges between their present circumstances and future opportunities. They need examples of different ways to build a life, exposure to diverse careers and lifestyles, and concrete pathways to economic stability. They need adults who can them see setbacks as temporary and illuminate multiple routes forward.
Communities and institutions play a vital role in this developmental journey. Communities wrap supportive institutions around young people – schools, faith communities, libraries, afterschool programs, workplaces, and countless others – where young people find chances to learn, experiment, and find belonging.
The transition to adulthood has grown more complex in our rapidly changing world. Economic uncertainty, technological transformation, social division have upended assumptions that predominated in America’s postwar period. For millions of children and adolescents, the COVID-19 pandemic was a years-long disruption to schooling and even developmental milestones. Yet beneath these shifting circumstances lie enduring human needs - for stability and connection, for growth and purpose, for chances to contribute and belong.
The task of all those who work with and advocate for young people is not to prescribe a single path to adulthood, but to ensure that multiple pathways exist. This means honoring that while all young people share certain developmental needs, the contexts and relationships through which these needs are met are varied. It means maintaining high expectations while providing flexible, responsive support that meets young people where they are.
This is how growing up happens: not in isolation, but in community. Not through a single relationship, but through a web of connections. Not by following a predetermined script, but by writing new stories of possibility, one chapter at a time.
A Policy Framework that Supports Growing Up
The United States needs - but lacks - a cohesive set of policies that will enable all young people to grow up and thrive as adults. A set of interrelated policies, such as those identified below, would enable a healthy transition to adulthood for all. However, policies on their own will fail: They must be supported by a new, shared cultural understanding that all young people need access to the same kinds of resources and experiences.
Safety and Stability
Every young person needs a foundation of physical and emotional security from which to build their future. This encompasses:
Financial stability, such as access to banking and income (antipoverty programs and guaranteed-income schemes address this).
Safe and stable housing, such as through Housing First policies for those experiencing homelessness and social housing to increase affordability for all.
Reliable access to food and basic necessities, such as through expanded SNAP benefits and universal school-meal programs.
Healthcare, including mental health support, such as through expanded community health clinics, Medicaid expansion, and mental-health parity in insurance markets.
Protection from exploitation and harm, including systems that help children heal from harm, such as through multidisciplinary team (MDT) models for child-welfare systems, multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) at school, and trauma-informed approaches across systems.
Learning and Skills
Development requires sustained engagement with meaningful learning experiences:
Multiple pathways to educational advancement, including models such as career academies in high school, career and technical education, dual enrollment, ASAP-style bridge and support programs, and all manner of work-based learning.
Career-exploration experiences that create opportunities try new things, beginning in middle school and progressing along a career development continuum.
Work experiences that progressively build skills and confidence, such as through work-based learning, internships, and apprenticeships.
Resources to overcome barriers to accessing learning and skills, including tutoring, guidance counseling, career navigation, and wraparound services and supports.
Agency and Choice
Young people need opportunities to develop and exercise autonomy:
Genuine decision-making power over their path.
Chances to fail safely and learn from mistakes.
Recognition of their expertise and lived experience.
Progressive responsibility with appropriate support.
Platforms to influence systems that affect their lives.
Possibility and Future Orientation
Success requires the ability to envision and work toward future goals:
Exposure to varied pathways.
Connection between current actions and future outcomes.
Sense of contribution to community.
Development of hope and aspiration.
Tools to navigate systems and overcome barriers.
Connection and Belonging
The adolescent brain is uniquely attuned to social relationships, making human connection essential for development. While policy can incentivize mentorship programs and other programs that increase social capital and access to caring caring adults, support the creation of afterschool programs and “third spaces”, and cultural institutions that assist in identity formation, the actual work of connection and belonging must happen within communities and among people. Young people need:
Sustained relationships with caring adults, which may include family members, mentors, tutors, and coaches.
Peer networks that provide support and understanding.
Cultural connection and identity development.
Social capital that opens doors to opportunity.
Community membership that provides purpose and meaning.