Young People's Choices Research Articles

Change of values in the consumer society

A common feature of our age is orientation of young people towards transitional values. Economic partnership of consumer society has a direct impact on values of society and even if the process of change of values can be affected by formers of education politics, economists and politicians, young people still choose values, which conform with their own lifestyle. Content of educational subjects is connected with study, succession of cultural values, study of classified knowledge and skills, which is also a prerequisite of formation of personality. Societies of all ages has formed according to the specific mechanism, accumulating and integrating general, notable at that time ideas, preserving and transforming their own social experience to the next generations. Each culture declares itself from its scale of values and norms. Priority of change of post material and material values changes together with conditions of cultural, historical and social-political life. Change of paradigms is change of viewpoint of the world, therefore conditions of value choice relate not only to separate groups, but to whole cultures. Young people, similar to other members of society, are forced to construct their own identity and to form their own life insurance strategies offered by the consumer society. Consumer society forms its values and it is creator of its own significance, but young people as social agents are reproducers of values of consumer society. Research results of World Value Surveys (WVS) from six continents discovered big differences in value priorities between younger and older generations, which indicates not only inter-generation value change, but also changes in the whole society. The research “Value choice of young people in consumer society” in our country shows, that although the lifestyle of young people is pragmatic, traditional value – family is also one of the most often mentioned and important values in consumer society. But education is the one, which gives them moral and attested material support in the future. The education must not only educate the society, but also has to carry a comprehensive content that would hold culture memories and the transfer of it. In the research family as the main value in choice of values of young people stands side by side with such values as health and love, which in case of paradigm of consumer society would not be clearly definable as material or post material values.

Promoting research among young scientists in Sri Lanka

Scientific research and innovation are essential for national development. According to criteria commonly used to rank Science and Technology, Sri Lanka lags behind some of her neighbours. It is reported that “Sri Lanka has the lowest number of postgraduates in the science fields within the South Asia region” (World Bank, 2008). In fact, the total number of Ph.D. degrees awarded by Sri Lankan Universities in 2004 and 2006 are only nine and twenty six respectively (University Grants Commission, 2006). Further, of a total of 4520 R&D scientists in 2006 only 25.7 % had Ph.D. degrees (National Science Foundation, 2009). The reasons attributed to this low productivity include lack of demand and absence of an enabling environment. Although there are many graduates who excel in Bachelor’s degree courses in science, only a relatively small number venture into scientific research, because of limited career prospects and financial remuneration, and lack of opportunities for scientific research. The National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka, a major organization funding scientific research in the country, awarded 10 and 12 research scholarships in 2004 and 2005 respectively, but no scholarships were awarded in subsequent years due to decreased allocation of government funds. Allocation of funds for research, especially those leading to higher degrees, is essential to create an environment conducive to research and prevent highly skilled young graduates from seeking employment in other professions which are more attractive, such as management and business, or in research positions in developed countries. Senior scientists can play a pivotal role in promoting research among young scientists, as they have the ability to access resources for research and also guide young researchers. Identifying research projects of special relevance to Sri Lanka will ensure provision of funds and facilities for continuing research. Greater interaction between universities, research institutes and the industry is likely to facilitate support for high impact research. There are many young graduates employed in research institutes in Sri Lanka, but most tend to undertake only routine work and are not motivated, or lack opportunities to carry out research at a higher level, especially those leading to higher degrees. Senior researchers should serve as mentors to guide young scientists to identify research problems and undertake high quality research. In fact, many science academies worldwide, including the Inter Academy Panel (IAP), the global network of science academies, have initiated programmes to promote research and scientific dialogue among young scientists. This has culminated in the establishment of the Global Young Academy (GYA) which aims to promote science as a career choice for young people, expand research capacity, encourage novel approaches to solve scientific problems of international significance and exchange best practices in science policy and education (Editorial, Science , April 2010). Young scientists often communicate their research findings at local and international meetings and then proceed to submit their dissertations for research degrees. However, only a few publish their work in peer reviewed journals. It is necessary to motivate and guide young scientists to publish their work in indexed journals, as acceptance for publication in a reputed journal would not only help to disseminate research findings, but also to enhance the value of the research. With recent advances in computer technology there is increased access to good quality scientific journals and all research students should be encouraged to read journal articles regularly, not only to keep abreast of advances in research, but also to acquire writing skills. It is essential for young scientists to attend courses/workshops on scientific writing during their postgraduate training. Research papers submitted for publication by some young scientists are not accepted because the content and presentation is of low quality. Senior scientists who are supervisors and co-authors should guide their research students in preparing manuscripts for publication. In some universities, evidence of acceptance of at least one research paper in an indexed journal is a requirement prior to submission of the thesis, to ensure that research carried out for a higher degree leads to one or more publications. Many young researchers carry out high quality research for M.Phil./Ph.D. degrees, but do not continue their research after obtaining postgraduate degrees. Although evidence of research is necessary for career advancement in universities, it is less important in research institutes. It is necessary to motivate scientists in universities and in research institutes to continue scientific research and publish their work. Introduction of Presidential Awards for Research and other research awards is likely to be an incentive to promote research. It is also necessary to facilitate the utilization of research findings for national development. Such an approach is likely to serve as an impetus for young scientists to continue their research. Doi: 10.4038/jnsfsr.v38i4.2646 J.Natn.Sci.Foundation Sri Lanka 2010 38 (4) 211-212

The post-revolutionary consumer generation: ‘mainstream’ youth and the paradox of choice in the Czech Republic

Since the collapse of the communist regime in the former Czechoslovakia in 1989, there has been an increasing recognition that the experience of young people in the Czech Republic offers a useful indicator of changing social, cultural and political trends. Although drawing upon theories of risk and individualisation, social scientific research on the post-revolutionary Czech generation has tended to focus on unemployment, education, generational conflict, gender, ethnicity, demographic behaviour and changing values. Young people's experience of consumption as a response to social transformation has not been given sufficient attention and is usually confined to the domains of media representation and marketing. Any conception of young consumers in the Czech Republic tends to dismiss them as a materialistic, hedonistic, egocentric and conformist generation. This article challenges these stereotypes arguing that an empirically informed understanding of young people's relationship to consumption provides a means of understanding the social and cultural implications of post-socialist transitions. Drawing on a series of focus groups and semi-structured interviews with young people aged between 15 and 27, we analyse young people's experience of consumption in the Czech Republic, as a means by which contemporary youth actively navigate their way through a life experience that appears to offer choice and yet simultaneously constrains it. The notion of the ‘mainstream’ provides a particularly useful means of understanding the conflicting nature of young people's choices in a risk society in extremis whilst providing an alternative approach which challenges many of the assumptions underpinning the sociology of youth's conception of consumption.

Choice for Young People with Learning Disabilities in Post‐education Transition

Governmental policy identifies choice as a central theme for support services to people with learning disabilities. The expansion of options about where to live, what to do and with whom to socialise is seen as a critical benchmark in achieving the vision of full lives for people with learning disabilities. Services are obligated to ensure that people's wants as well as abilities govern decisions on all important issues. As a consequence, young people with learning disabilities in transition are being offered career development options during transition review meetings. The paper will focus on the issues relating to choice during this post‐education transition.The paper will argue that the processes necessary to sustain the capacity of the young person with learning disabilities to choose are not well understood. It will focus on the career choices for young people with learning disabilities during transition and will maintain that the availability of options is only one consideration. The capacity to choose and the types of support that are most effective in facilitating the capacity to choose are equally important. Some conceptual considerations will assist in identifying the shortcomings of current policy and practice.

School disengagement and ‘structural options’ Narrative illustrations on an analytical approach

The purpose of the present article is to outline and illustrate an analytical approach that accentuates the biographically complex processes inhering within early school leaving transitions. The organizing device of ‘structural option’ (Stones, 2001) is introduced, which brings into focus the role and interplay of types of ‘structures’ (in a structurationist sense) in the decision-making processes underlying school exit. ‘Structural option’ combines two important dimensions in influencing young people's choices: cognitive/emotional and relational/interactional structures. This study shows that disengagement from school is more than a straightforward reading that might suggest lack of positive disposition towards education, but rather is born out of powerful interactions across these two main structural dimensions. As an analytical construct, structural options alert us to the importance of analyzing young people's disengagements from mainstream school in terms of social relationships, power, and emotions. While the article is based on empirical findings from an Irish context, the intention is that its scope extends more broadly to qualitative data analysis of school exit transitions within other contextual settings. The empirical focus derives from the interview narratives with fourteen participants attending a second chance educational initiative in Ireland, known as the Youthreach programme. While most of the young people occupy the status of ‘early school leaver’, closer inspection of their structural options shows that their pathways to early school exit and school disengagement (for those who completed) comprise quite differing structural combinations. As researchers, appreciation of such combinations can help us understand the justifications young people use in their decision-making.

Youth, AIDS and Rural Livelihoods in Southern Africa

AbstractAIDS, in interaction with other factors, is impacting on the livelihood activities, opportunities and choices of young people in southern Africa. This article explores these linkages firstly by reviewing what is known about the impacts of AIDS on young people, before looking more specifically at how this impinges on their future ability to secure livelihoods. Within the home and family, AIDS often results in youth taking on a heavy burden of responsibilities. This can include caring for sick relatives, helping with chores and taking on paid employment. This burden of care and work can have further impacts on young people's future livelihoods as they find they have reduced access to schooling, potential loss of inheritance and a breakdown in the intergenerational transfer of knowledge, which is especially important for sustained agricultural production. The article ends by suggesting that the sustainable livelihoods approach can be useful for understanding the complexity of the issues surrounding the impacts of AIDS on young people's livelihoods and calls for further research to explore how their access to future sustainable livelihoods in rural southern Africa might be supported.

The influence of the school in the decision to participate in learning post‐16

The primary aim of this study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, was to identify the nature and influence of school‐based factors in the choices of young people about their post‐16 education, training and career pathways. The study also contributes to the wider understanding of ‘choice’, and identifies implications for the development of careers education and guidance and decision‐making awareness amongst pupils and students in schools. It also further enhances the modelling of pupil decision making in education and training markets, and in labour markets. The research is based on a series of qualitative interviews in 24 schools across nine local education authorities. Focus groups were undertaken with young people in years 10, 11 and 12. Interviews were also conducted with head teachers, heads of year and heads of careers. A postal survey of parents was also undertaken. Four key school‐based factors were found to have a very strong influence in the choices and decisions of young people about their post‐16 education, training and career pathways. These were: whether the school had a sixth form or not; the characteristics of school leadership, ethos and values; the socio‐economic status (SES) of the schools' catchment; and the organisation and delivery of careers education and guidance at the school level. In the main, high SES schools see themselves as developing pupils for academic university careers, while low SES schools maintain a rather stronger commitment to vocational pathways. The academic ethos of schools offers a very powerful influence on post‐16 choices and decisions of pupils. The usual interventions put in place to influence choices and decisions appear to have greater impact in schools with a less robust academic vision.

Pre-service professionals' constructs of adolescent risk-taking and approaches to risk management

The research explored constructs of potentially harmful adolescent risk-taking of 220 university students in their final year of degree courses in education, law, medicine, nursing, psychology and social work, who anticipated they would be dealing with young people professionally. Their personal risk hierarchies, and their own experience of risk-taking when they were teenagers, were investigated as potential influences upon the normative orientations of their future professional roles, expressed in their support for varying social policy options including zero tolerance and harm minimization. Findings suggest that their commitment to underlying value positions regarding risk-taking and risk-management were not significantly related to gender, age or personal risk-taking profiles but to professional socialization in their degree course. The implications of respondents' preferred ways of dealing with adolescent risk-taking as compared to young people's choices for themselves are explored, along with concepts of risk management in current policy frameworks.

What about choice for a change?

Through the lens of exile, this conceptual study explores the complex associations of choice and change, and their implications for education, in a range of areas from sociology through psychology and physiology. In bringing together and synthesising diverse thoughts about choice and change, it inquires into how educators and their professional practices can support the choices of young people in creating significant change and the hopeful future through knowledge economies. It concludes that, if the moral purposes of change are to be social and communal development, mental models should be chosen and knowledge created to accomplish those purposes. At stake is the legacy of today’s choices for young people’s futures.

Still With Us After All of These Years: Trends in Youth Labour Market Entry, Home-Leaving and Human Capital Accumulation in Italy 1993-2003

In this paper I examine a number of issues related to the Italian youth labour market and, in particular, youth labour market entry, over the last decade or so. The Italian youth labour market has a number of characteristics, present to a degree in other countries, but which by their pronounced character mark it apart from other European Countries. The analysis presented here is essentially motivated by concern with two of these: a) the very high youth unemployment rate, and, above-all high ratio of youth to adult unemployment rates; and b) the strong and increasing tendency for youngish Italians to remain in the parental home. The paper takes a broad approach to the analysis of these questions looking first at time trends in labour market entry, human capital accumulation, home leaving and family formation on the basis of information contained in the Italian Labour Force Survey using also the Bank of Italy's Survey on Household Income and Wealth. The analysis also employs a broad definition of young people which is extended to include young people up to 34 years old rather than the conventional definition using only 15-24-year-olds. Reduced form panel estimates of the determinants of the behavioural variables are derived. The approach adopted is close in spirit and methodology to the work undertaken by Card & Lemieux (2000) in the North American context, O'Higgins (2003) on global trends and O'Higgins (2005) in the Italian context. It is complementary to the recent studies of home leaving and labour market entry in Italy which tend to concentrate on single specific determinants of, for example, home-leaving such as in Becker at al. (2004) on the impact of job uncertainty or Mannacorda & Moretti (2004) on the impact of parental income. The analysis identifies a substantial impact of labour market conditions in shaping young people's choices. The results also highlight the importance of distinguishing the effects of these aggregates by age and throw some light on the interrelationship between the phenomena under study. It may be seen as a first step in a broader research programme aimed at identifying the central factors driving young people's transition choices in recent years.

Adolescents and Sex: The Handbook for Professionals Working with Young People

Sarah Bekaert offers an insightful introduction into the world of adolescents by detailing the biology as well as the psychology of the teens. Case studies and examples of practice are combined with up-to-date information on difficult areas such as sex and the law, contraception and sexually transmitted infections. Chapter 1, with its overview of the teen years including a summary of the milestones of development, prepares the reader for the complex and often controversial aspects of sexual health and young people. The ensuing chapters all stand alone, allowing the reader to 'dip in' according to need. The advice and discussion throughout is linked firmly to UK Government policy—for example in Chapter 4, 'Teenage pregnancy'. While not telling us anything new, this chapter usefully reminds us that teenage pregnancy is about more than just a lack of availability of contraception. As well as summarizing best practice the book offers useful models—some tried and tested, as in the excellently written second chapter, 'Engaging young people', which looks at communication and consultation. Many of the queries we receive here at the Family Planning Association (fpa) concern setting up a young person's service, whether it be a youth clinic or an outreach clinic. The workers charged with this responsibility often don't know where to start. Chapter 9, 'Setting up a young person's clinic', provides practical guidance and workers will find the template at the end an easy-to-use and helpful reference. An occasional disappointment of the book is that, because of its broad sweep, it misses opportunities to delve deeper. An example is in Chapter 5, 'Young people and contraception'. A widespread assumption among workers and trainers in sexual health is that only some methods are suitable for young people. Reasons given tend to be based on hearsay or personal views of what young people are capable of. Whilst the discussion here begins with a presentation of research on contraceptive efficacy and young people, and the author does explain clearly why the intrauterine device is not routinely offered as the method of first choice for young people, the discussion stops short of saying that all methods are suitable provided that individual risk factors are taken into account. This is the guidance from the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Healthcare and an exploration would have been helpful to lay to rest some of the misconceptions. Chapter 6, 'Young people and sexual health', on the other hand, does not shy away from discussing some of the controversial arguments around the causes of poor sexual health. Sarah Bekaert tackles head on the argument for service provision in the section 'Contraception provision: has this caused STIs to increase in young people?'. Overall, the book strikes a balance between providing enough information to help practitioners new to the field and presenting a summary of the pertinent issues/guidance for more experienced practitioners. There is the added benefit of an extensive and varied reference list to encourage further exploration.

Changes and choices: finding out what information young people with learning disabilities, their parents and supporters need at transition

Accessible summary Transition means growing up and becoming an adult. There are a lot of changes and choices for young people at transition. We found out what information young people, their families and supporters need at transition. Young people with learning disabilities from North Somerset People First did the project with other researchers. SummaryThis article provides an overview of the methods and findings of a project, commissioned by the Social Care Institute for Excellence, to explore the information needs of young people with learning disabilities, their families and supporters at transition. It describes how a group of young people with learning disabilities were trained in research methods and undertook four focus groups with other young people with learning disabilities in England and Wales. Parallel focus groups involving their parents and supporters were conducted at the same time, facilitated by a family carer and professional respectively. The different kinds of information required are summarized: for example, all three groups wanted information about getting a job and going to college and about the transition process generally, but there were also differences in emphasis between the groups, which are described. Key issues in providing information at transition in ways likely to be most accessible to the different stakeholders are outlined.

A qualitative study of teenagers' decisions to undergo orthodontic treatment with fixed appliance.

The aim of this study was to describe thoughts and values influencing young people's choices to undergo orthodontic treatment. Twenty-eight patients (11 boys), aged 13-19 years, at an orthodontic clinic in the western part of Sweden participated. Open, taped interviews, lasting about 1 hour, were conducted with each subject and analysed by the grounded theory method. Five descriptive categories, each related to several subcategories, were generated in the analysis and labelled: 'being like everyone else', 'being diagnosed', 'focusing on the mouth', 'obeying social norms' and 'forced decision-making'. Category forced decision-making was identified as a core category, describing the power in the social process, resulting in the decision to undergo orthodontic treatment. Motivation for the decision to undergo orthodontic treatment seemed to be social norms, and the beauty culture in their reference group and in society in general. The teenagers were not fully conscious of these external influences. Their opinion, as a group, was that they had made an independent decision to undergo orthodontic treatment.

Stories, borrowers and school libraries in Ireland

This article considers the present position of and future for school libraries in the Republic of Ireland. This is discussed in the context of two reports published in Ireland during 2002, The borrowers at school and What's the story? The reading choices of young people in Ireland. The availability of books, funding for school libraries and the encouragement of reading are viewed in the light of changing curricula in schools and national initiatives for the promotion of reading. The contrasts between government concern about literacy levels and actual funding and practical support for libraries and reading is highlighted.

Youth transitions and interdependent adult–child relations in rural Bolivia

There are few studies which document youth transitions from school to work in rural areas of the majority world. This paper, based on ethnographic fieldwork in a rural community in Bolivia, considers how young people make decisions about different types of school-to-work transitions which include migrating to continue their formal education, working in the community, or seeking migrant work in the regional town or in neighbouring Argentina. The paper explores how young people negotiate structural constraints over their choice of transition, including the rural location, economic resources, parental attitudes and family background, gender, birth order, social networks and role models. Importantly the paper highlights that underlying young people's choice of transition are interdependent household relations. In the majority world, in this case in Bolivia, rural young people may achieve economic independence sooner than those in the minority world, but long-term family interdependence tends to be maintained throughout the life-course. This paper suggests that the notion of negotiated interdependence is a more appropriate way to understand youth transitions and relations between young people and adults in rural areas of the majority world.

Critical Decisions in Critical Ages: The Choice between Working and Studying in Four Latin-American Countries

In this paper we pretend to compare the determinants of the time allocation of the teenagers among four Latin American countries: Brazil, Chile, Peru and Honduras. We assume there are four possibilities to time allocation: only studying, only working, doing both of them or doing none of them. We focused our attention in Brazil, reporting how far one can extend the conclusions and policy recommendations to the another countries with different social and geographical characteristics. Separate analysis were done for men and women. The specific impacts of each variable on the time allocation of the teenagers were compared through a graphic analysis. The parents education revealed being the most important determinant of the young people's choice in almost all countries and genders analyzed, in the sense that the more educated the parents are, the more likely to study and the less willing to work the children are. In Brazil, for example, sons/daughters of eight-year educated parents have probability of studying 17/14 percentage points lower than sons/daughters of analphabets. Other important variables were the household location and the family composition, however the direction of these impacts depended on the gender and the country considered. This fact supports the argument that institutional/cultural differences have a central role on the teenagers' time allocation.

New Patterns of Youth Transition in Education

Current research provides evidence that new relationships are being forged between youth people and education. Increased participation in post‐compulsory education, combinations of work and study and uncertain career outcomes havebecome common experiences. There is an emerging disparity between the stated goals of education and the changing priorities and choices of young people. In particular, the linear notion of transitions, expressed in the metaphorsof pathways used in policy documents, is increasingly at odds with the patterns of life experienced by young people in many nations. Three themes stand out in the research on young people in the 1990s. First, an awareness of foreclosed options in educational outcomes is a consistent thread across a range of studies. Secondly, there is a discernible shift by the end of the 1990s toward more complex life‐patterns and a blending or balancing of a range of personal priorities and interests. Thirdly, the need to give ‘active voice’ to young people about the dramatic social and economic changes they have been subjected to, is unmistakable in the light of the increasing disparity between the rhetoric of youth and education policy and their own experience of its out‐comes.

Food and eating on television: impacts and influences

Describes the background to and main findings from a three‐year MAFF‐funded research project on the role of television in the food choices of young people. The project examined the nature and extent of television’s portrayal of food and eating and investigated young people’s interpretations of this. The findings indicate that food and eating are portrayed very frequently on UK television, but that the “message” in programmes contrasts with the “message” in advertising in terms of the nutritional content of the foods depicted. This disorder and contradiction are reflected in young viewers’ accounts of their own eating habits.

Childhood peer relationship problems and young people's involvement with deviant peers in adolescence.

Using prospective longitudinal data from the Christchurch Health and Development Study, this article examined the relationship between children's peer relationship problems in middle childhood and their subsequent risk of forming deviant peer affiliations in adolescence. The analysis proceeded in three steps. First, a structural equation model demonstrated a moderate association between early peer relationship problems and later deviant peer affiliations (r = .27). Second, the model was extended to include a latent variable measure of early conduct problems. This analysis revealed that when the confounding effects of concurrently measured conduct problems were taken into account, peer relationship problems in middle childhood were no longer significantly related to young people's choice of deviant peers in adolescence. Third, the model was further extended to include lagged variables, permitting an examination of possible reciprocal relationships between early conduct problems and peer relationship problems. Results suggested that both early peer relationship problems and adolescent deviant peer involvement are symptomatic of early child behavioral adjustment. The implications of these findings for explanations of deviant peer selection are discussed.

The Social Orientation of Graduates of the Basic School

Adolescents' and young people's choice of path goes through a number of stages, or forks in the road. At each point there is a revision or a substantial change in their social orientation (in the broad sense), in their search to find their place in society, and in their social orientation (in the more narrow sense), their striving to join the ranks of a particular social stratum and acquire a profession.