ABSTRACT

Young people are increasingly lamented as unable to cope with ‘everyday realities of life’ with educational institutions and parenting styles accelerating what some refer to as the ‘snowflake generation’. This paper addresses confusion that exists in the framing of social and emotional wellbeing, delineating three competing perspectives: (1) ‘skills and competencies’, (2) ‘morals and ethics’ and (3) ‘capital and identity’. Embedded within each perspective are distinct notions of the ‘self’ and processes of socialisation and identity formation. The competency-based perspective shifts attention towards the individual and is reliant upon universal skills. This contrasts with a morals and ethics-based perspective on social and emotional wellbeing which is seen to be contingent upon the values that guide our moral and ethical frameworks, and informs how we relate with others. A capital and identity perspective does not speak of ‘wellbeing’ per se, but rather places emphasis on the different sets of resources available to children. These perspectives offer fundamentally distinct framings of the ‘crisis of youth’ and we draw out the implications for current and future policy development they imply.

摘要

越来越多的年轻人感到遗憾的是，他们无法应对“日常生活中的现实”，教育机构和育儿方式加速了一些人所说的“雪花一代”。本文解决了社会和情感幸福框架中存在的混淆，描绘了三个相互竞争的观点：（1）“技能和能力”，（2）“道德和伦理”以及（3）“资本和身份”。嵌入在每个视角中的是“自我”的不同概念以及社会化和身份形成的过程。基于能力的观点将注意力转移到个人上，并且依赖于通用技能。这与基于道德和伦理的社会和情感福祉观点形成对比，后者被视为取决于指导我们的道德和伦理框架的价值观，并告知我们如何与他人相处。资本和身份的观点并不谈论“幸福”本身，而是强调儿童可用的不同资源集。这些观点为“青年危机”提供了截然不同的框架，我们得出了它们所暗示的对当前和未来政策发展的影响。