These things happen because adults let tamariki down – adults in their whānau, adults at school, adults in the community and kaimahi as well. We don’t notice they are missing out on chances to be tamariki. Or, if we notice it, we often don’t do anything about it. There may have been many missed opportunities for adults to do something positive to change this.
Many of the rangatahi we work with have to grow up quickly. When this happens, their transition to adulthood is accelerated; they have to grow up faster than they should. This happens when they have to take on adult responsibilities while still young. For example, they may have to care for siblings or other relatives.
Caring responsibilities get in the way of typical childhood experiences such as going to school, playing with friends and joining in things such as sport, recreational and cultural activities in their neighbourhoods. This means their childhoods are compressed – they miss out on chances to be young (Stein, Ward & Courteny, 2011; Rogers, 2011).
Compressed childhoods also occur in situations where tamariki experience a lot of disruption within their whānau, where they are exposed to violence, abuse, and neglect. Unpredictable support from caregivers, frequent moves that disrupt relationships and stop them participating in the life of their neighbourhoods also create compressed childhoods. All of these factors disrupt positive development.
We can think of it like this:
Accelerated and compressed development can have serious impacts on all aspects of rangatahi lives. When we understand these impacts our support is more effective.
Accelerated and compressed development can have serious effects on the rangatahi we try to support. We may notice that they don’t believe us when we say we want to help. Because other adults have promised to help in the past and let them down, they have good reason not to trust us until we prove ourselves. Keeping our word, giving them time to learn to trust us, and being straight up while also showing we care about them are important ways of proving we are worth their time (see Building trust).
Rangatahi often cope with accelerated and compressed transitions by being very independent. They may not seem to need or want any help. Being self-reliant is a way to cope with having to grow up too quickly. They learn how to find money, food, and shelter and to care for themselves. Sometimes they learn to rely on safety-net service providers to support them through a crisis and they may also supplement this with offending (Sanders et al., 2014). At other times adults exploit rangatahi offering food and shelter in exchange for sex, for example.
When things go wrong their ‘go-to’ coping strategies are more likely to increase their risks than protect them. We may see that their friends are more important to them than adults. Their friends may not have let them down, but their friends may also normalise risk-taking. While these strategies towards independence can protect them, they also limit their exposure to positive opportunities. These strategies can also open them up to risks.
"…even rule-breaking, which is among those limited options available to them (vulnerable youth), may be intertwined with attempts to cope with, to escape from, or to respond to difficult circumstances" (Aaltonen, 2013, 387).
As kaimahi we want to support the growing independence of rangatahi; making their own decisions and learning from experience are important to positive development. Rangatahi will often seem older than their years. Because of the responsibilities they have carried, we may need to relate to them partly as if they are adults. But we also need to remember that they have missed out on a lot of growing up. So, while they may seem like adults, there will be some gaps in what they know.
By asking careful and respectful questions rangatahi can discover what sits behind the decisions they make, and kaimahi have the opportunity here to validate them and gently work with them to explore alternatives. Rangatahi have their own wisdom, their truth and a multitude of experiences which they draw on to manage their lives. Kaimahi can support them to widen their world views on how things can be different. Kaimahi also have access to resources rangatahi need to make positive changes happen. Supporting them to adapt their coping skills to more positive solutions is an important and privileged role for kaimahi (see The helping alliance).
First though, we need to ensure we don’t fall into the trap of exploiting their skills in coping by fast tracking rangatahi into adulthood. Rather, we need to look for opportunities to ease their acceleration. We do this by working with rangatahi in ways that respect their knowledge and abilities and find ways to include them in youth activities that sit outside of their norm and that can hold restorative benefits. For example, one rangatahi told of their kaimahi taking them to a playground to have fish and chips. The rangatahi said that this was the best day they had had in years. Simple actions can have big effects.
How do I use these ideas in my mahi?
Our programme leader facilitated a meeting to help kaimahi explore our understanding of the accelerated and compressed transitions rangatahi had experienced. We talked about rangatahi missing their childhoods and having to grow up fast; the kaimahi shared examples of rangatahi early experiences and how this impacted on their current experiences. For example, being exposed to substance abuse from a young age, moving between foster parents, not being in mainstream education and as a result missing out on learning and also social, cultural, sporting opportunities. This also included taking on care responsibilities from a young age (for siblings and in some instances, for parents).
Many of the rangatahi who came to our agency remained in these situations and found it difficult to believe that their lives could be different. Learning about these childhoods helped us understand why it might be difficult for the rangatahi we support to trust that they could form meaningful partnerships with kaimahi, could make decisions and have real choices that would make a positive difference. We talked honestly about how, because of what rangatahi bring to the agency, we need to keep supporting them to believe that they are worthy of support and that we will hang in with them to support them to achieve their goals.
It was very helpful for us to name and talk about the situations rangatahi had experienced so we could keep reminding ourselves of how difficult it might be for rangatahi to believe that positive change was possible. It also reminded us to understand that rangatahi had learned to be independent, to take care of themselves and had developed many strategies for doing this. They had learned to make decisions by themselves and to make the best of challenging circumstances. It was important for us to learn how to acknowledge this and to use their coping strategies in goal setting and change processes. We knew that given their ‘back story’ there may be many stumbles along the way for these rangatahi; however, it was important for them to know that we would walk alongside them. We could also help rangatahi find other trusted adults who could become a key support for them now and into the future.
Here are some places to look for more information
- Aaltonen, S. (2013). Trying to push things through: Forms and bounds of agency in transitions of school-age young people. Journal of Youth Studies, 16, 3, 375-390. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2012.733807
- Appleton, P., Hung, I. & Barratt, C. (2021). Internal conversations, self-reliance and social support in emerging adults transitioning from out-of-home care: An interpretative phenomenological study. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, https://doi.org/10.1177/13591045211005827
- Munford, R., & Sanders, J. (2020). Shame and recognition: Social work practice with vulnerable young people. Child and Family Social Work, 25, 1, 53-61. doi: 10.1111/cfs.12652
- Munford, R. & Sanders, J. (2019). The youth transitions study: Final report. Massey University, Palmerston North.
- Munford, R., & Sanders, J. (2019). Transformative social work practice in community-based organisations. In R. Munford, & K. O'Donoghue (Eds.), New theories for social work practice: Ethical practice for working with individuals, families and communities (pp. 139-156). Jessica Kingsley, London.
- Munford, R., & Sanders, J. (2017). Harnessing resistance in interventions with young people. Journal of Social Work Practice, 31, 1, 79-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2016.1164127
- Munford, R., & Sanders, J. (2016). Understanding service engagement: Young people's experience of service use. Journal of Social Work, 16, 3, 283-302. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017315569676
- Munford, R., & Sanders, J. (2016). Foster parents: An enduring presence for vulnerable youth. Adoption & Fostering, 40, 3, 264-278. doi:10.1177/0308575916656713
- Munford, R., & Sanders, J. (2015). Young people's search for agency: Making sense of their experiences and taking control. Qualitative Social Work, 14, 5, 616-633.https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325014565149
- Munford, R., & Sanders, J. (2014). Negotiating and constructing identity: Social work with young people who experience adversity. The British Journal of Social Work, 1-17. doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcu059
- Munford, R., & Sanders, J. (2010). Embracing the diversity of practice: Indigenous knowledge and mainstream social work practice. Journal of Social Work Practice, 25, 1, 63-77. doi:10.1080/02650533.2010.532867
- Rogers, R. (2011). I remember thinking, why isn’t there someone to help me? Why isn’t there someone who can help me make sense of what I’m going through?: ‘Instant adulthood’ and the transition of young people out of state care. Journal of Sociology, 47, 4, 411-426. https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783311420793
- Sanders, J., & Munford, R. (2019). PARTH practices and better outcomes: Creating 'lucky' encounters between social workers and vulnerable youth. In R. Munford, & K. O'Donoghue (Eds.), New theories for social work practice: Ethical practice for working with individuals, families and communities (pp. 27-43). Jessica Kingsley, London.
- Sanders, J., Munford, R., Ballantyne, R., Henaghan, M., Allison, R., & Jackson, R. (2017). Conditional openness: young people define practices for successful child protection interventions. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 1-18. doi:10.1080/09649069.2017.1351738
- Sanders, J., Munford,R., Liebenberg, L., & Henaghan, M.(2014). Show some emotion? Emotional dilemmas in undertaking research with vulnerable youth. Field Methods, 26, 3, 239-251. doi:10.1177/1525822X13516842
- Stein, M., Ward, H., & Courtney, M. (2011). Editorial: International perspectives on young people’s transitions from care to adulthood. Children and Youth Services Review, 33 12, 2409–2411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.08.012
We thank the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for funding the research that created this resource (MAUX2006).
This resource was developed by Professor Jackie Sanders. It was refined with input from Donna MacNicol, Te Aroha Noa Community Services, Justina Webster, Dr Linda Liebenberg, Professor Robyn Munford, Dr Jayne Mercier, Davinia Abbott and the team at Dingwall Trust Launch Programme
Citation: Sanders, J. with MacNicol, D., Webster, J., Munford, R. Liebenberg, L., Mercier, J., Abbott, D. and the Dingwall Trust Launch Team (2023). Accelerated and compressed transitions. Relational Resources for Change, https://youthsay.co.nz/rbp-theories/accelerated-and-compressed-transitions/
CC BY-NC-ND Licensed using Creative Commons Licensing. Relational Resources for Change Project. You are welcome to use this resource individually, in your teams and in supervision/coaching/critical reflection, you should acknowledge the source using the above citation. You may not change this document, use it to develop your own external training, or for commercial purposes (e.g by charging a fee).
