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Tuuli Pitkänen

Research Manager
+358 41 517 8678
tuuli.pitkanen@youthresearch.fi

Research Manager, Finnish Youth Research Society
PhD, Title of Docent (Adjunct professor) at the Faculty of Education and Psychology at University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Project Leader, CHAT-YOUTH Crisis Help and Assistance for youth during challenging Times (2023 – 2026)
Principal Investigator, Out of Despair – providing solutions to break the pathways leading to violent, suicidal and drug-induced deaths of young people. WP5 Youth as service users (2022 – 2028)
Principal Investigator, Need and Implementation of Social Rehabilitation for Vulnerable Young People (HANSKU 2024 – 2026)
Project Leader, CROSSWAY – enCouRage dialOgueS to Support mental Wellbeing of At-risk Youth with migrant background. ERASMUS+ KA220-youth, starting, 1/2025 -6/2028.
Contact Person, PAGENS – Pathways, Ages, Generation in the Global North and South, MARIE SKŁODOWSKA-CURIE ACTIONS: Staff Exchanges, starting, 1/2026 – 12/2029

Member, the Pool of European Youth Researchers (PEYR)
Trustee, the Addiction and the Family International Network (AFINet)
Member of the Managerial Committee, the COST action: Digital Mental Health for Young People (YouthDMH)

Research to support understanding and well-being of young people

Polarization has increased and some young people are not doing so well: the number of young people who use drugs has increased, the reduction in alcohol use among young people has stopped, and a small number of young people are getting involved in increasingly serious crime. The exceptional circumstances caused by the pandemic have increased the anxiety, depression and loneliness experienced by many young people. There is a continuous need for studying the effects of political decision making on youth and bringing up the points of view of young people themself.

My mission is to conduct high-quality research that produces information for practitioners and decision makers to increase understanding and well-being of young people.

Research Manager at Finnish Youth Research Society since 11/2020

My work includes planning and coordinating research projects, analyzing large data sets, supporting junior researchers, interviewing young people and service providers, and writing scientific papers. My background is in social psychology. The aims of my projects have varied and I have focused, for example, to the needs and psychosocial well-being of young people, methodological issues, improvement of functioning as well as social, mental and addiction services. I like to use both quantitative and qualitative methods as well as different types of data including longitudinal, chat and register data sets and to co-operate with different stakeholders. Before FYRS, I worked as senior researcher at Järvenpää Addiction Hospital and A-Clinic Foudation.

I co-operate with researchers in several national and international NGOs and universities, and in the Finnish National Institute of Health and Welfare. My work includes participation to seminars and meetings, as well as, preparation of proposals and joint applications to external bodies. Several students use data sets under my supervision. 

Publications

Please see the list of my international publications in orcid.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2381-9436

Involved in research publications