Adolescence in times of social-ecological crisis. Crisis experience and dealing of adolescents in the context of open child and youth work

• Applicant: Dr. Marie Frühauf
• Subject Area: Educational Research on Socialization, Welfare and Professionalism
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 563041186

Adolescence is currently characterised by the experience of multiple crises. The social-ecological crisis plays a special role here, as it is considered unprecedented in its (anticipated) effects and the necessary economic and cultural transformation processes. Current youth surveys indicate that young people are very concerned about the climate crisis. Beyond the quantitative youth surveys, however, there is a research gap with regard to the qualitative question of how the social-ecological crisis is experienced by young people and how they deal with it. The surveys also indicate that crisis experience and dealing with it vary according to socio-economic status and other dimensions of inequality. In particular, little is known about young people from socio-economically marginalised milieus. The planned research project starts here by firstly investigating the question of how the social-ecological crisis is experienced and dealt with by young people from socio-economically marginalised milieus and how this is shaped by social inequalities. With this the study aims to contribute to qualitative adolescence research by analysing the role of social inequalities for adolescence in the social-ecological crisis. Secondly, the research project explores the question of how this is dealt with in socio-pedagogical contexts, more precisely in open child and youth work (or OKJA) from the perspective of young people. With this second research question, the research project aims to gain insights into the significance of social-pedagogical offers for young people with regard to their support in dealing with crisis experiences. In order to answer both questions, group discussions and narrative interviews with young people in the OKJA will be conducted, in which the young people talk about their experiences of and dealing with the crisis. In order to generate insights into the interplay of psychological and social dimensions of adolescence, the analysis method of in-depth hermeneutic approaches will be applied.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants