Nevin Harper Explores Youth, Risk & Resilience in ‘Kids These Days’, University of Victoria
Nevin Harper, PhD, author, researcher, is a Professor in the Faculty of Health at the University of Victoria and a Registered Clinical Counsellor with more than 30 years of experience guiding individuals and groups through outdoor experiences. An expert professor at the FTHub Summer School and online trainings, Nevin brings an exquisite and often discomforting lens to the complexities of growing up and the sometimes uncooperative systems meant to support the well-being of ‘kids these days.’
Nevin and his colleague, Dr Will Dobud (PhD, Senior Lecturer at Charles Sturt University in Australia and a leading voice in outdoor and adventure therapies and youth psychotherapy) began a deep conversation about the paradox facing today’s youth: despite the growing number of professionals working in mental health, education, and nature-based practices, adolescent well-being appears to be declining. Rates of self-harm and suicide among teens are rising globally.
This concern led them to conduct a series of interviews with experts in psychology, child development, parenting, outdoor risky play, and Indigenous knowledge systems. These conversations gradually took shape as a book: Kids These Days. The title plays on the familiar phrase every generation uses to criticise the next, a pattern that dates back to ancient times. Drawing inspiration from thinkers like Kurt Hahn, founder of Outward Bound, who in the 1920s warned about the decline of youth character due to modern conveniences, Nevin and Will explore how meaningful, embodied, and nature-connected experiences can restore agency, resilience, and purpose in today’s young people.