New research from the University of Zurich indicates that positive experiences shape the lives of adolescents and young adults more than crises, challenging the emphasis of many earlier studies on stressful events.
Positive experiences shape youth more than crises.
Everyday milestones dominate young people’s narratives
The study examined open‑ended written responses from 1,442 participants surveyed at ages 15, 17, 20 and 24. Across the four waves, positive experiences accounted for the majority of mentions. School‑related activities, apprenticeships and training made up almost half of all references, while friendships and first romantic relationships comprised roughly 12 % of mentions.
Personal development and mental well‑being contributed about 8 %, and travel or stays abroad added another 7 %.
“Our results show that youth is not primarily composed of crises. Many young people primarily mention positive developmental steps such as education, relationships, and personal achievements,” said David Bürgin, a clinical developmental psychologist and first author of the paper.
These findings differ from classic life‑event research, which often highlights stressors like loss, conflict or illness. The Zurich team argues that the prevalence of positive milestones suggests a need to rethink how support services address youth development.
Stress still influences how events are recalled
Participants reporting higher anxiety or depression scores were more likely to cite stressful relationship experiences, conflicts, loss and personal failures. They also referenced fewer positive events—such as travel, academic successes and sports.
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“Support services should therefore not only focus on how to cope with stress. Stable relationships, positive experiences, and opportunities to experience self‑efficacy are just as important,” added Lilly Shanahan, co‑leader of the study.
Gender, socioeconomic background and migration history produced some variations, yet the overall hierarchy of topics remained consistent across groups. This uniformity suggests that the identified priorities are broadly relevant for policy makers and educators.
Automated language‑processing techniques allowed the researchers to categorize thousands of free‑text answers, turning qualitative data into a structured overview of youth perspectives. “Our analyses show how freely formulated responses from large longitudinal studies can be processed… that they provide a structured picture of young people’s experiences,” explained first author Christina Haag, now at the University of Cambridge.
One plausible implication is that programs emphasizing mentorship, skill‑building and community engagement could reinforce the positive trajectories identified. If institutions invest in these areas, they may help mitigate the impact of stress on how young people view their lives.
Developmental shifts emerged over time. In middle adolescence, school, friendships and leisure activities were most salient. By early adulthood, education, work, relationships and independence rose in importance, while references to sports and social outings declined. Later waves also saw growing mention of housing, employment and, for some respondents, parenting.
The study appears in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and represents one of the first large‑scale, long‑term investigations to apply automated text analysis to open‑ended youth responses. The project was a collaboration between the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development and the Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Prevention Institute at the University of Zurich, with funding from the UZH Population Research Center’s Seed Grants Program.