La voce degli adolescenti: legami e condizioni di vita

In Italy, poverty rates for young people, and particularly for adolescents, are much higher than those recorded for the overall population: data from the major sources of statistical information point out that income poverty and material deprivation affect especially younger generations and, above all, adolescents. In addition, in recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of how many young people also suffer from educational poverty, in terms of both academic attainment and achievement, and of participation in social, cultural and recreational activities. Material and educational deprivation have clearly consequences for well-being of youth in the present but also for the future life and outcomes of adolescents and young people. In the framework of a wider research project on poverty in a local area, a questionnaire was administered to a sample of 200 students aged 15-17, belonging to different tracks of secondary education and vocational training system, in order to investigate the living conditions of adolescents in the province of Piacenza. Data collected allow to shed light on situations of socio-economic vulnerability of young people (and their households), levels of participation in extracurricular and leisure activities, values and orientations, self-confidence and trust in the institutions. The aim of the paper is to present the main results of the investigation, focusing especially about differences among students from distinct socio-economic family background, and about possible effects of stratification and inequality associate with educational tracking.