Rethinking journeys to adulthood

Introduction

Focusing on 14–24-year-olds living in the UK today, the Grown up? Journeys to adulthood programme responds to the changing opportunities and challenges today’s young people face on their pathways to independence.

Our starting point has been to ask: what socio-demographic data is collected to understand journeys to adulthood and are we focusing on the right things? We begin by exploring the five ‘traditional’ markers of adulthood[ref] These key milestones to adulthood are widely used in official statistics, see Office for National Statistics (2024). Milestones: journeying through modern life. Available from: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/articles/milestonesjourneyingthroughmodernlife/2024-04-08.[/ref]: finishing education, starting work, leaving the family home, getting married and having children.

We foreground these markers because they feature prominently in the official data used to measure journeys to adulthood[ref] For example, see: Office for National Statistics (2019). Milestones: journeying into adulthood [online]. Available from: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/articles/milestonesjourneyingintoadulthood/2019-02-18.[/ref]. They also help us understand how some aspects of young people’s lives today are changing, and they continue to influence young people’s and societal expectations. We find that in some cases these milestones remain relevant, while others are less so and there are better ones available – and some aspects of young people’s transitions are not captured at all. We go on to explore the challenges that encourage us to rethink how we understand journeys to adulthood and the implications for social policy and service reform.

Drawing on research, our Expert Advisory Group and, importantly, young people themselves, we explore to what extent these markers illuminate contemporary journeys to adulthood. The issues that were identified with these markers include:

1. The diminished relevance of some markers
2. Limitations of the data
3. The need to account for the diversity and complexity in young people’s lives
4. The importance of the psychological, personal and relational aspects of journeys to adulthood

These insights shape the work of the Grown up? programme, focusing particularly on what matters most for today’s young people. An up-to-date, youth-informed understanding of the markers is needed to ensure that policy and practice are effective in supporting young people to achieve positive outcomes. This reflects the Nuffield Foundation’s long-standing interest in young people’s development – funding more than 100 grants over the last 10 years in this area – and its focus on research and practice to improve lives[ref] We cite a wide range of sources, including Nuffield Foundation-funded research; this Data Commentary is an introductory piece and not intended to be a research synthesis.[/ref].

Grown up? builds on this legacy, taking account of the new insecurities and opportunities faced by young people across different dimensions of their lives. Our specific focus is on three interlinked topics: education to work, digital lives and mental health.

The impetus for rethinking journeys to adulthood has stemmed from the research, but in particular from the youth engagement work that is a core part of Grown up? This introduction draws on the experiences and perspectives of the programme’s Youth Insight Group (YIG) (see box). While the voices in this report are not intended to be representative, they illustrate many important aspects of ‘growing up’[ref] The voices we draw upon in this report are not intended to be representative. The youth engagement work is distinct from qualitative research with young people, where attitudes, views and experiences are gathered and analysed through a range of robust methodological approaches.[/ref].