The role of social changes to the youth and the adulthood was very important in the post 1970s period. The sector which was more affected by the social changes during this period was the employment. It should be noticed that the standardisation of employment was an achievement of the post 1945 period which was characterized by high growth. However, the globalisation (which followed that period and is constantly developing until today) has led to the deregulation of the labour market and as a result to the collapse of standard (and of teenage) employment (Burgess & Campbell, 1998:15).

It should be noticed though that the youth transition of the post 1970s period involved to more elements than employment, like family and education. The results of relevant studies have shown that there is also a differentiation regarding the gender and the social ‘classification’ as well as the general environment of the young people.

Under these terms, the main question is not whether the youth transition is faulty or not but if the environment of young people has the necessary willing to understand the constantly changing social conditions and to cooperate with them in order to achieve a more integrated adaptation in the society.

The content of social change has been examined by an important number of researchers. The relevant studies have shown that ‘individualisation’ is the most important of its elements. Individualisation has been explained as ‘a process that relates to the disintegration of traditional structures in people’s lives so the inherited recipes for living and role stereotypes fail to function’. Moreover, according to this view ‘there are no historical models for the conduct of life’ .

Hide