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Today's teenagers face pressures that their parents probably never experienced - such as the availability of drugs and the decline of the nuclear family. So they need more support, says Young Mind's Peter Wilson.

What is it that we value and want to promote for future adulthood? As Adam Phillips has put it: "Increasing technological expertise and knowledge about human development makes our lives more comfortable but can also conceal the daunting moral question about what kind of people we want to be and therefore might want our children to be."¹ It may well be the case that today, perhaps more so than in the past, we as adults are in danger of retreating from our positions of authority in relation to the young. Confronted by so much bewildering change, and out of fear of adolescent scrutiny, we may all too readily avoid our responsibility and instead resort to condemnation and punishment.

In the face of this alarm, it is as well to remember that a great diversity exists within the adolescent population at large. There are 7.5 million teenagers aged between 10 and 19 living in the UK and another 3.5 million aged 20 to 24.² There is much to suggest that the majority of these young people have no great problem with growing up, encountering new experiences and relationships and dealing with the adversities that face them with curiosity and resolution. Most get along well enough with their parents.³

However, a significant proportion do not find life so agreeable. About one in five have mental health problems - and a smaller but sizeable number suffer serious mental disorders.⁴ Many of these young people are at risk of falling into the ranks of those variously described as socially isolated or disaffected or as young offenders.

Adolescents have some important things to do in their business of growing up. Adjusting to puberty and establishing a sense of identity are of crucial developmental significance. Much of this proceeds internally, within a private, personal world, but of course all the time couched within the family and social context. A great deal depends on the quantity and quality of support that young people receive as they find their own way towards some kind of adult status. Family stability, housing support, employment opportunities - these are just some of the basic ingredients that add to the overall nourishment of the growing young.

All the information that we have now about factors that are likely to put young people at risk of developing mental health problems or antisocial behaviour (as well as the "protective" factors)⁵ underlines the basic fact that all young people need encouragement and affirmation from a wide range of people - parents, neighbours, teachers, employers - in their communities. Those who are vulnerable are those who, by and large, have not and do not receive this kind of support. Arguably, however, even the more robust need as much back-up as they can get in the face of the technological and cultural changes and challenges they all face. The indications are that psychosocial problems have increased substantially during the past 40 or 50 years in Western Europe and the US.⁶

As we know, the structure of family life has undergone considerable change in recent years. The divorce rate, for example, increased six-fold during the past 30 years of the 20th century; a similar increase occurred in the number of births outside marriage. The result has been major differences in the way an increasing proportion of families organised themselves - with different kinds of parenting, re-parenting, step-families, and reconstituted families. A great deal depends on how well parents communicate with their children and adolescents about these new arrangements - how well they inform those that are dependent on them of what's going on and how well they hear their views and responses. Too often children and teenagers are overlooked in the midst of family change - and the effects of divorce and separation are not on the whole favourable. A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report,⁷ reviewing approximately 200 research studies concluded that there were significant differences between those young people who had undergone a divorce and those who hadn't - children of separated parents having a higher probability, for example, of living in poverty, being poorer as an adult, having behaviour problems and performing less well academically.

In practical, everyday terms it is increasingly apparent that the family's capacity and willingness to support their adolescents is of critical importance to their adolescents' future adult lives. Many changes have occurred, again in the past 30 years or so, in the area of young people's work. Largely due to the dramatic reduction of the manufacturing industry in the UK, the youth labour market more or less disappeared in the late 1970s. At that time the majority of young people went to work after leaving school. There was a clear pattern to their lives: leaving school, starting work, establishing an independent income, leaving home and starting a family. Today, pathways towards adulthood are more complex and varied. Very few young people now go on to work at the age of 16 or indeed 18; most now go into vocational training or further education. There is now a much higher premium on obtaining qualifications - a greater emphasis in education on testing and exam success. Young people are now under greater pressure to perform well and an increasing number of young people are falling by the wayside without qualifications, without the wherewithal of skills to obtain jobs or even part-time work. Even for those who are able to more or less keep up with the pace, the pressing demand to achieve and to strive harder in a highly competitive and changing employment market is causing a great deal of stress.

Inevitably, in this context of extended education and precarious employment, financial pressures are uppermost in most young people's minds. Housing too is a major problem. There are no social security benefits, for example, to aid independent housing for 16 to 18-year-olds. The fact of the matter is that more young people are financially dependent on their parents for longer. Recent studies have indicated strongly that families play a pivotal role in providing accommodation and financial support for their children in education or training.

Entering the adult world is, at whatever level of socio-economic experience, an exhilarating yet daunting experience. Experiencing personal possibilities yet limitations, entering an exciting yet bewildering realm of virtual communication - none of this is straightforward. The pervasive impact of the media, the unrelenting drive of commercialism and the ever-widening availability of drugs - all of these are broad cultural factors that impinge on today's growing minds in a way that it is as yet difficult to measure.

There can be no doubt that as a society, we need to do much more to support our young through the transition into adulthood. Many opportunities are now arising for more education and vocational training, but the question remains; with what financial resource, with what size of student grant? Independence is generally hailed as a virtue, but without housing or social benefits, particularly for the most needy, how is this to be fully achieved? The government needs to recognise the implications of its education and employment policies, and in particular extend greater support to parents and families in providing the assistance their growing children need. It also needs to invest more in specialist and primary care services, bridging child and adult mental health services, to reduce the level of mental health problems among the young and to help them through the threshold towards adulthood.

¹ Young Minds magazine, April 1996

² Office for National Statistics, Mid-1999 Population Estimates

³ Youth at Risk, A national survey of risk factors, protective factors and problem behaviour among young people in England, Scotland and Wales, Communities that Care, 2002

⁴ Office of National Statistics, Mental Health of Children and Adolescents, 2000

⁵ Youth at Risk, A National Survey of risk factors, protective factors and problem behaviour among young people in England, Scotland and Wales, Communities that Care, 2002

⁶ M Rutter, D Smith, Psychosocial Disorders in Young People, John Wiley, 1995

⁷ The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Divorce and Separation, 1998. Peter Wilson is director of Young Minds.