CONCEPT
Adolescent Flourishing
The developmental application of the continuum model to children and adolescents — establishing flourishing as foundation rather than outcome and identifying the conditions AI disruption threatens.
Adolescent flourishing is the application of Keyes's continuum model to children and young people, establishing that flourishing in adolescence is not an outcome of good development but a foundation for it. Adolescents who meet criteria for flourishing show measurably better outcomes across the lifespan: lower rates of future mental illness, higher educational attainment, greater civic participation, stronger relationships, and reduced vulnerability to environmental shocks. Adolescents who are languishing show elevated risk for a cascade of negative outcomes that compound over time. The AI transition creates specific conditions that affect adolescent development in ways the research is only beginning to map.
In The You On AI Field Guide
Keyes's research on adolescents — along with broader work on youth mental health by collaborators including Jonathan Haidt — establishes that the mental health continuum operates similarly in young populations, with some developmental adaptations. The diagnostic categories are the same. The predictive validity holds. And the consequences of adolescent languishing are particularly severe because they compound across the remaining lifespan.
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