Young Adults Failure to Thrive Syndrome
Keywords:
young adults, poverty, career developmentAbstract
Many young working age adults in developed countries are failing to thrive in economic,
demographic and social terms. Their failure to thrive is a relatively new phenomenon
that has not been widely recognized, but it affects young adults in virtually all the
more developed countries for which we have relevant data. Young adults nowadays
are more often in poverty. They are leaving their parental homes at ever later ages and
in some countries the frequency of psychological problems increased. The seriousness
of failure to thrive syndrome is reflected in the relationship between relative economic
conditions and increased suicide rates. The syndrome is important because young adults
are at the prime ages for finding employment, establishing long-run career paths and
building an economic basis for founding a family. Developing strategies to arrest the
spread of failure to thrive syndrome among young adults, in order to keep them vibrant
contributors to our societies, should be a priority for policy makers.