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Special Lecture 2

The Mental Health Growth Trajectory of Taiwanese Youth: Longitudinal Effects
of Social Mechanisms from Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood

Chin-Chun Yi

Distinguished Research Fellow; Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

This speech will use data from the “Taiwan Youth Project” (TYP), an on-going longitudinal
panel study which was launched in 2000 and surveyed 5000 adolescents with an average age of 14 in
junior high schools. The project argues that significant social context, particularly family, school,
community as well as the interplay of these three dominant institutions, accounts for various growth
trajectories of the youth. To investigate the process of transition, we believe that beyond biological
and psychological traits, important social structural and personal resources factors need to be
emphasized in order to provide a fuller picture of the social field where Taiwanese youth is situated.
Hence, an attempt is made to explore and to specify the indigenous developmental pattern of
Taiwanese youth with the following main research goals:

1. To examine youth’s developmental process by emphasizing the interplay of family, school
and community.

2. To explore possible linkages between adolescence and young adulthood from the life course
perspective.

3. To delineate diverse growth trajectories of Taiwanese youth during the transitional period.
Conclusions from TYP Phase I (2001-2009) confirm that the educational competition and the
normative expectations associated with it accounted for the diversified growth trajectory of
Taiwanese youth (Yi, 2013). Specifically, strong patriarchal values remain strong and failure to
attain the expected educational achievement affects the psychological well-being from early
adolescence to young adulthood.

TYP Phase II (2010-2016) intends to capture various experiences of these young adults (an
average age of 28 in year 2014) by linking earlier effects of significant social mechanisms. Three
main aspects will be focused:
1. Parental divorce and children’s developmental outcome

Timing of parental divorce influence late teen’s romantic involvement.
2. Pre-marital sex and its antecedent factors

School/peer effects and depressive symptoms overtime will be discussed.
3. Early Marriage in Taiwan

I will present the unique pattern as well as social factors explaining early marriages in Taiwan.