This group is multi-disciplinary, comprising mostly sociologists, anthropologists and psychologists. Empirical research on adolescents is based on local and regional qualitative and quantitative studies, as well as national representative surveys.
Main research topics are youth culture and leisure activities, social inequality, school adjustment, alcohol and drug use, sexual culture and risk, digital lives, delinquency and conduct problems, intergenerational relations and issues concerning ethnicity and the multi-cultural society.
Head of research group
Members
Large data-sets
Large-scale ongoing data collections – both quantitative and qualitative – with young people as informants constitute a focal point of NOVA's youth research.
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Ungdata
Ungdata is a cross-national data collection scheme, designed to conduct youth surveys at the municipal level in Norway. NOVA administers the national database which is used as a basis for many research projects.
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Ungdata plus
Ungdata plus will collect data on what children and young people in Vestfold and Telemark (Norway) do in their leisure time and examine how this is related to their health and quality of life, and important life outcomes as adults – such as education, work and family life.
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Young in Norway
Young in Norway is Norway's first major longitudinal study of youth. It follows people from adolescence to adulthood. The last data collection was carried out in autumn 2020 and spring 2021.
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Inequality in Youth – A Qualitative, Longitudinal Research Database
Inequality in youth is a qualitative, longitudinal research database on youths in Norway, intended to be a parallel to the quantitative Ungdata surveys.
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Young in Oslo 2026
Young in Oslo is a unique Ungdata-study that has been conducted since the mid-1990s. The survey provides important information about what it is like to grow up in Oslo, and how this has changed over time.
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UngVold 2023 – Trends in Exposure to Violence
In 2023, NOVA collected new data for the Youth Violence survey from more than 16,000 Norwegian youth, mapping Norwegian children and adolescents’ experience of violence and abuse during their upbringing.
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National Safety Survey
The project will map concern for crime and victims of crime in Norway.
Research projects
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Youth Sexuality and Sexual Risk in a Digital Era (DIGISEX)
The project will shed light on how digital media has created both new opportunities and new forms of risk concerning youth sexuality.
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Sexual Culture in Youth
The project will investigate how young people negotiate, experience and handle issues related to sexuality, sexual health and risk - in light of both contemporary youth culture, and other social and societal conditions.
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Tomorrow’s Inequalities in the Making
In LIFECHANCES we investigate how differences between young people may become inequalities in life chances over time.
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The Future of Nordic Youth in Rural Regions
The research project aims to understand the experiences of rural youth, their sense of belonging and hopes for the future. It will study similarities and differences between the Nordic countries.
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The Potential of ‘GameChange’: Supplementary Educational Measures to Facilitate Secondary Education Completion Among At-Risk Youth (GameChanger)
What can be done to enable more students to complete secondary school? The project GameChanger focuses on the impact that initiatives outside of school can have on students when they are in school.
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Young in Oslo 2026
Young in Oslo is a unique Ungdata-study that has been conducted since the mid-1990s. The survey provides important information about what it is like to grow up in Oslo, and how this has changed over time.
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A Boost for Youth Clubs – A Research Project for Better Youth Services
How can youth clubs be strengthened to provide better services for young people? From 2025, we will follow the five-year initiative "A Boost for Youth Clubs" to develop knowledge about quality, framework conditions, and the club’s role in the local community.
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The Domestic Violence Research Programme
The programme studies time trends in the prevalence of violence and assault, violence as phenomenon, and how violence is approached by the welfare- and justice systems.
Publications
- Vehkalahti, K., Eriksen, I.M. & Østergaard, J. (red.) (2025). Growing Up Rural. Qualitative Longitudinal Explorations of Young People Living in the Nordic Countries. Palgrave Macmillan
- Tokle, R., & Stefansen, K. (2025). Sexual Debut Projects: Navigating Identity, Desire, and Risk in Youth Sexual Culture. Sexuality & Culture
- Eriksen, I.M.; Persson, M.F. & Rogstad, J. (2025). Navigating critical phases in adversity in youth: identification and reorientation. Journal of Youth Studies
- Stefansen, K. & Strandbu, Å. (2025). Social Closure in the Youth Sport Field: The Pull of the Game on Class-Privileged Parents. Sociology
- Løvgren, M. & Hyggen, C. (2025). Belonging matters: a scoping review of survey. Social Psychology og Education
- Rogstad, J.; Eriksen, I. & Moberg, K. (2025). The Reproduction of Wealth Inequality: How Middle- and Upper-Class Parents Instil Financial Orientations in Their Children. Sociology
- Frøyland, L.R. m.fl. (2025). School party culture as a driver of cocaine use among Norwegian adolescents: A cross-classified multilevel analysis. Drug and Alcohol Dependence
- Heggebø, K. & Ljunggren, J. (2025). Are there gender differences in mental healthcare utilisation preceding deaths of despair? A retrospective cohort study of Norwegian register data (2008–2017) BMJ Open
- Aarset, M.F. & Rosten, M.G. (2024). Stuck in Representation. Muslims Participating in the Norwegian Public Sphere. Journal of Extreme Anthropology
- Holmarsdottir, H.B. et al. (2024). Understanding The Everyday Digital Lives of Children and Young People. Springer Nature
- Johansson, S. et al (Eds.) (2024). Justice and Recovery for Victimised Children Institutional Tensions in Nordic and European Barnahus Models. Palgrave Macmillan
You will find more publications on the researchers' employee pages.
