RESOURCES AND DEMANDS
YOUTH WORKERS’ PERSPECTIVES ON THE IMPACT OF YOUNG PEOPLE ON PROFESSIONAL WELL-BEING
Keywords:
youth work, well-being at work, education, emancipationAbstract
Youth work operates in close interaction with young people. In this article, I examine the perspectives of youth workers on the impact that the youth they encounter at work and youth on occupational well being in 2020s youth work. I explore this from a social pedagogical perspective and as part of professional well-being. In the analysis, I utilize the JD-R model of well-being at work, where well-being is viewed from the perspective of job demands and job resources. Based on my analysis, factors that strengthen resources include young people as the starting point of the work, their progress, and feedback received from them. Job demands are increased by expectations of integrating young people into society, working with increasingly youth, and the pressure of changes affecting young people. In the article, I argue that the demand factors in youth work undermine occupational well-being, disrupt the effort to adapt tasks to the needs of young people, and challenge the positive perspective on youth. Youth work should reinforce educational objectives alongside the demands, viewing young people as a resource and supporting youth work as a means of emancipation.
