Life skills and hope in times of polycrisis: a developmental perspective on youth agency and future orientation

Abstract

Young people are growing up amid interacting crises, including climate disruption, war, economic insecurity, democratic strain, and rapid technological change. This condition, often described as polycrisis, may weaken future orientation, agency, and confidence in the link between effort and outcome. This Hypothesis and Theory paper argues that rising youth distress should be understood as a developmental problem involving disrupted future formation. Drawing on hope theory, Positive Youth Development, relational-developmental systems theory, and related work on self-regulation, meaning, and resilience, the paper proposes that life skills moderate the relationship between polycrisis-related instability and hopeful future orientation in youth. The hypothesis suggests that structural uncertainty has weaker negative effects on hope when emotional regulation, adaptive coping, relational competence, flexible goal adjustment, and meaning-making are cultivated within supportive ecological contexts. The paper advances a conceptual model linking systemic instability, developmental strain, life skills, and youth hope, and outlines alternative explanations, boundary conditions, and directions for empirical testing across diverse settings.

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