YOUTH 2020 - The position of young people in Slovenia

Health and wellbeing of young people  241 the young people’s psychophysical health, which is not offset by healthier lifestyles or better objective living factors (e.g. relatively lower unemployment rate, higher disposable income); 6. The main predictors of higher levels of stress include being a woman, the amount of time young people spend in front of smart- phones and computers, a negative climate at school or at work, and the family having a lower financial status.; 7. The elements of mental health problems can also be inferred in the context of the adaptation strategies that young people adopt when they face problems. It is worrying that as many as 14% of them turned to alcohol or drugs due to the aforementioned problems. What appears as crucial for the implementation of youth policies is the realization that the Slovenian youth increasingly faces the problem of mental health as a cost of a performance-oriented society. Changes in the labour market and the glorification of competition on the one hand, and increased uncertainty and demands on the other also affect sociali- zation patterns or the functioning of families and the broader environ- ment. In this respect, it is necessary to boost efforts to strengthen young people’s adaptive capacities (e.g., introducing mental health training in the workplace and education) and to popularize methods that strength- en this ability (e.g., introducing meditation in education). It is also nec- essary to strengthen the public debate or reflection on the costs and ben- efits of a performance society or on the current model of development, which is clearly not in favour of young people’s mental health.