Between Emptiness and Connection: How Adolescence Challenges Our Collective Responsibility

“This evening is intended as a space for listening, sharing and questioning. A moment to step back – and, perhaps above all, to reconnect.”

These words from Valérie Oberlé, Chief Executive Officer, set the tone from the outset for the opening of the Fondation Lëtzebuerger Kannerduerf’s 2026 annual conference. The aim is not simply to introduce a speaker, but to affirm an intention: to create a collective space in which to reflect on what adolescents are experiencing today – and what this reveals about our society.

For several years now, the Foundation has observed in its fieldwork an evolution in the forms of distress affecting young people. Less visible, sometimes less outwardly expressed, yet deeply rooted: a sense of loneliness, a feeling of inner emptiness, a weakening of relationships, a loss of reference points. These are realities that cannot be reduced to isolated individual trajectories.

It is precisely this perspective that Dr François‑Xavier Polis, a psychiatrist specialising in adolescence at the Athanor care unit of CNP Saint‑Martin (Belgium), invited speaker at this conference, develops. At the intersection of clinical practice, the human sciences and field experience, he proposes a shift in perspective: understanding adolescent malaise as the symptom of broader social, cultural and relational transformations.

“The difficulties faced by adolescents cannot be read solely at the individual level,” he reminds us. The rise of individualism, the weakening of collective structures, the acceleration of time, and the pressure of performance and image: today, adolescence unfolds in a fragmented environment, where autonomy sometimes becomes an injunction rather than an achievement.

From a clinical standpoint, this tension is expressed through what Dr Polis describes as a “symptomatology of emptiness”: withdrawn, suspended adolescents who struggle to project themselves into the future. “These adolescents ‘in emptiness’ are above all in an emptiness of relationships,” he specifies. This observation resonates directly with Valérie Oberlé’s words: “Resilience cannot be thought of solely as an individual capacity. It is intimately linked to another essential reality: that of relationship.”

The role of the digital sphere illustrates this ambivalence. Never before have adolescents been so connected, never have they had access to so many spaces for expression and recognition. And yet hyperconnectivity does not guarantee relationship. Permanent comparison, continuous exposure, the immediacy of exchanges: all these factors can weaken psychological development when relationships are no longer anchored in duration.

The conference also highlights the importance of balanced circulation within relationships: giving, receiving, giving back. “Giving is fundamentally positive. It gives meaning to life and creates connection,” emphasises Dr Polis. When this balance is disrupted, some adolescents withdraw, or even move towards self‑effacement, out of fear of becoming a burden to those around them. Difficult words, but necessary to hear, without simplification or shortcuts.

For the Fondation Lëtzebuerger Kannerduerf, these observations point to a broader responsibility. “Thinking together about frameworks and forms of presence capable of restoring connection, supporting subjectivity and opening up possibilities,” insists Valérie Oberlé. A vision that goes beyond purely individual responses to question the educational, institutional and social frameworks we offer young people.

In the face of the growing temptation towards control and security‑driven approaches, Dr Polis recalls an essential distinction: “Inner security is not built through surveillance, but through experience.” Adolescence is a time of movement back and forth between exploration and reassurance – a moment when relationship, more than ever, serves as a point of reference.

Running through this conference is a central question: how can we, collectively, continue to offer adolescents spaces of belonging, recognition and meaning in an unstable world?

By opening the evening as “a moment to reconnect”, Valérie Oberlé reminded us that this reflection is not abstract. It engages our practices, our institutions and the way we choose to be present for young people, today.