The challenges associated with this period are magnified when the youth negotiating this transition are dealing with adjustment difficulties, such as antisocial behaviours, that hamper their capacity to cope with change.
What about the adjustment of young adults who displayed externalized behaviour problems in secondary school?
Longitudinal studies of antisocial and deviant behaviours have greatly improved our knowledge of their developmental sequences and our ability to identify youth who are most likely to maintain these behaviours into adulthood. However, the majority of such studies have focused on the development of severe antisocial behaviours in a clinical, psychopathological or criminological context. The study of antisocial behaviour pathways in an educational context, which most often take the form of externalized behaviour problems (opposition, fighting, intimidation, etc.), is much more recent.
What about the adjustment of young adults who displayed externalized behaviour problems in secondary school? Do they experience different personal and educational situations than those without behaviour problems? Do young men and women with this type of problem adjust to adulthood in a similar manner? These are some of the questions that are addressed by the present research.
Main researcher
Julie Marcotte, Université de Sherbrooke
Deposit of the research report: August 2007