Chapter 3 : Youth

Abstract

The lives of young people in Malta are positioned within local and global contexts. Both are intertwined and encompass diverse realities, which occur alongside their personal development. This chapter gives--an overview of some aspects of Maltese young people’s lives. These refer to their health and wellbeing, participation in society and risks associated with their way of life. This chapter also foregrounds their perceptions on family life and politics, as they emerged from a body of research. The years between 13 and 30 are generally considered as encompassing adolescence. In Malta there are 101,476 people between the ages of 13 and 30; of whom 52,288 are males and 49,188 are females (National Statistics Office (NSO), 2014a). The understanding of youth has been mediated by theorists, who have conceptualised the adolescent years as a period of fluidity and postmodernity (Redhead, 1997) marked by consumerism and individualisation (Beck & Beck Gernsheim, 2002; Bauman, 2001) and occurring within the "risk society" (Beck 1999). Due to the "breakdown, especially in Western societies, of previous forms of certainty, stability and community alongside the simultaneous expansion and diversification of media and the consumer culture" (Hodkinson, 2007, p.8), the various transitions that young Maltese people undertake are not linear in general, but they are marked by a sense of exploration and experimentation in various aspects of their lives, including study, work, leisure, friendships and family life.