STUDY SHOWS YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE STRONG FAITH IN THE FUTURE
LET'S MAKE THE MOST OF IT!
Young people have strong faith in the future and in their own abilities, according to a meta-study commissioned by Stena Fastigheter. The study also shows that faith in the future is strong regardless of socio-economic background, gender and ethnicity.
In addition to the study, Stena Fastigheter has interviewed young people who have worked in the company’s neighborhoods during the summers about their faith in the future. They have openly and generously shared their goals and thoughts on the future.
Young people have always had faith in the future. When it’s broken, it’s easy to end up on the wrong track in life and this has a negative impact on them as well as on our society as a whole. Naturally, our job is to never to let young people down.”
Dan Sten Olsson, CEO, Stena AB.
Stena Fastigheter’s neighborhoods in Sweden are home to 15,000 young people under the age of 25. The company has a clear mission from Dan Sten Olsson, CEO of Stena AB, to safeguard young people’s faith in the future – and to nurture it. To increase the company’s knowledge of young people, and to target initiatives where they will do the most good Stena Fastigheter turned to the researchers with the following question:
Do young people have faith in the future? And the response was both surprising and inspiring, as the general image of young people can be perceived as gloomy: Young people have strong faith in the future, despite all the challenges we are facing today.
“The studies we’ve seen show that young people’s faith in the future has never been stronger,” says Peter Majanen, trend researcher and CEO of Quattroporte, which conducted the study on behalf of Stena Fastigheter. “It is also evenly distributed. Regardless of socio-economic background, ethnicity or gender, faith is strong. There is a mixture between faith in the future and concern about the development of society in general. If you ask young people if they think they will do well in the future, most of them do. However, if you ask them if they are worried about climate change or racism, then they are very worried.”
INITIATIVES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN RESIDENTIAL AREAS
In Stena Fastigheter’s overall work with social sustainability, work is carried on the basis of four focus areas: safety, work, school and leisure. To create better life opportunities for young people living in Stena Fastigheter’s neighborhoods, the company is investing in homework help, internships, vacation jobs and summer jobs, with a focus on harnessing young people’s entrepreneurial skills, where they are given the opportunity to develop their ideas. But Stena Fastigheter wants to do even more – together with others.
“We are pleased with the results of the study, since we can also see that young people in our neighborhoods have strong faith in the future,” says Cecilia Fredholm Vaarning, who heads the department for sustainable business operations at Stena Fastigheter. “We are encouraged by what we are already doing, but we want to do more together with others. Based on the study, we will be arranging more opportunities to talk about faith in the future, to create inspiration, to deepen the conversation and find more ways of collaborating. Let’s join together in working with young people’s faith in the future.”
CONCLUSION – META-STUDY
Young people have strong faith in the future and are confident in their own abilities to create their own future. They have confidence and motivation, regardless of gender, ethnicity or socio-economic background. There is a mixture of individual faith in the future and a general concern for the development of society. The meta-study and analysis were conducted by Quattroporte.
METHOD
Quattroporte has gone through a large number of sources and added its own analyses of existing data and big data, to find out about young people’s faith in the future and urban development. Work encompassed:
- More than 50 scientifically published articles on faith in the future, youth and urban development.
- Over 1 million interviews in big data, raw data format consisting of 3 billion web pages. 25 examples focusing on urban
development and youth. - Together, this meta-study produced an analysis grounded on broad empirical evidence. The research area is relatively new, but interest has increased in recent years. Prior to 2010, research was mainly conducted in the United States. The majority of the analyses have been carried out in socially deprived areas. In 2010, the CILS4EU study was launched to investigate confidence in the future based on the latest research. The studies have been conducted in Sweden and a number of other EU countries.
