70 Making Connections (IntroPSYC and SDG 8): Decent Work and Economic Growth

By Meghan E. Norris and Riley J.T. Bonar

In this unit, we explore adolescence, emerging adulthood, and aging. Adolescence encompasses a large age range, generally ranging from age 10-20. If you think of a 10-year-old and a 20-year-old, you’ll notice just how much can change in a relatively short period of time. This is an exciting, and sometimes challenging, time of life. It is a time when children become more autonomous from their parents, and friend groups take on a greater importance. As with previous units, genetic underpinnings of development intersect with environmental factors such as nationality, socioeconomic status, and religious background. We will explore this and more in our unit.

Adolescence is also a time when many individuals first begin to work, leading us to connect with SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth. This goal promotes sustained growth, productive employment, and decent work for all.

Important for young people and their guardians to know, more than 30 000 young Canadian workers are injured at work each year (Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, 2026). Although there are laws to ensure safety at work and volunteer sites, some young workers may not be aware of them.

If you are curious to learn more about safe workplaces with a focus on young workers, we encourage you to explore this resource from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety: CCOHS: Young Workers

As emerging adults enter and learn about the world of work, building financial literacy skills is highly important during this period. A group of students from Queen’s Psychology built an open access (free!) resource called Pay for Post-Secondary: A Student’s Guide for Securing Financial Aid to help remove financial barriers to attending post-secondary. The resource includes free worksheets and helps to demystify financial considerations with respect to funding. You can access it here: https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/payforpostsecondary/

Resources:

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. (2026). Young workers. https://www.ccohs.ca/youngworkers

Nusselder, F., Burrows, H. M. R., Giovannangeli, A. J., Armstrong, A. M., & Xu, Y. (2024). Pay for post-secondary: A student’s guide for securing financial aid. eCampusOntario. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/payforpostsecondary/

United Nations. (n.d.). Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/economic-growth/

How to cite this using APA Style:

Norris, M. E., & Bonar, R. J. T. (2026). Making connections (IntroPSYC and SDG 8): Decent work and economic growth. In PSYC 100: Principles of psychology. eCampusOntario. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/testbookje/chapter/making-connections-intropsyc-and-sdg-8-decent-work-and-economic-growth/