Young People in Denmark – 18 Year and Heading for Adulthood

This anthology gathers the results of the sixth questionnaire data collection in the longitudinal study of Danish children born in 1995. Researchers have been following 6,000 children of Danish mothers for almost 20 years, from birth until the children turned 18 in 2014.

The report provides new knowledge about early factors that have a decisive impact on how children develop into young adults.

As the children born in 1995 turned 18 in the most recent round of questionnaires, it was obvious to ask a number of questions about life as a young person in general (e.g. educational pathways and choices, expectations of the future, and family relationships) and on the risks that can arise in this life phase (crime, health, drugs, psychological vulnerability and sexual experience). A number of themes have been in special focus in the latest round, and these are described in separate chapters in the report:

• Parental upbringing
• Parental conflicts and the self-esteem of young people
• The health of young people
• Psychologically vulnerable young people
• The intimate environment of young people
• Educational patterns and choices
• Young people at the edge of the educational system
• Crime
• Drugs