Young New Horizons - The Youth Challenges of Today, the Opportunities of Tomorrow

Abstract

Finland is presently affected by personal, social and cultural challenges pertaining to their youth populous. A deductive research approach forms the research strategy, along with the use of desk research and the analysis of qualitative data collected from a small sample of New Horizons game facilitation participants representing varying cultural backgrounds. The philosophical stance of the research is interpretive; the researchers acquired insights and developed themes from the data.

Analysis of the data, supported by archival research, helped to illuminate the behaviours and social interactions of youth in Finland. The research approach succeeded to identify themes surrounding the current challenges of youth in Finland. The six major themes identified were Education, Culture and Empathy, Self-Awareness, Communication, Interest and Participation in Social life and Social Media. These themes were then compared to the theoretical framework in order to propose ways to improve social inclusion, develop inter- and multicultural competences and foster personal growth among youth.

Through uncovering the challenges associated with youth, the research provides a part of The results provide insights into changing socio-cultural trends among youth in Finland. Contributions are made to content development for a new game, Young New Horizons, targeting youth between 14 and 25 years of age, and suggestions are made to the digitalization of the new game to encourage online play. Limitations of the research are presented and recommendations concerning further research and development are suggested to foster a resilient Finnish youth society of the future.