The achievement society: youths too good for their own good?

The concept of “the achievement society” is a framework that has often been used for explaining and addressing an increase in psychological distress among Nordic teenagers, particularly in girls. This article provides an historical account of how “the achievement society” became influential in countries like Norway and Denmark, even giving birth to a generational label (“Generation Achievement”). We show how this framework can help us comprehend why adolescents often struggle to become the right kind of subject in order to live up to the idealised norms, and examine the possibility that this perspective also might lead to overly individualistic framings of youths’ mental health, and correspondingly alluring societal demands for resilience training as a necessary prevention. Finally, we discuss the class implications of this framework. To the extent that achievement is associated with ambitious upper-middle class children, it is vital to show extra awareness of the people who fall outside this description, so that intervention based on this analytical framework does not inadvertently further enhance social inequality under neoliberal rule.