Argentine Youth: An Untapped Potential

Applying the framework of the World Development Report 2007,this report examines the five life-changing transitions that all youth confront: leaving school and continuing to learn, starting to work, developing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, forming a family, and exercising citizenship. Identifying risk and protective factors associated with these behaviors—individual, interpersonal, community, and societal characteristics—can inform prevention programs (World Bank 2008). Certain risky youth behaviors and negative outcomes are of particular concern: • Early school dropout. • Unemployment, inactivity, and informality in the workplace. • Substance use and abuse and traffic accidents. • Risky sexual behavior, early parenthood, and HIV/AIDS. • Low levels of civic participation and problems of crime and violence.