Impoverished Youth Research Articles

중국 청년들을 둘러싼 저층화 공간 서사의 전환과 재맥락화

This research examines how impoverished youth's perceptions of space, both real dwelling spaces and abstract social progress areas, are evolving. It examines in particular how the problems of'snail homes' and 'ant tribes', which were big difficulties connected to living spaces in the early 2010s, are continuing in what social context, and how disadvantaged youth are generating new narratives within this. They deploy narratives of 'disgust and exclusion' and'sympathy and empathy' towards poverty at the same time, eventually demonstrating new attitudes and actions in reaction to the state's narrative that has backed the development logic. Of course, their living conditions have not changed significantly, but the young are now learning to collect and recontextualize their own experiences and narratives in limited living spaces. Furthermore, in terms of social progress, they choose employment that provide stability in their lives rather than a single direction of travel focused in the city or the quest of tremendous achievement. Even people with strong academic credentials opt to go to the competitive perimeter, advance their jobs, and then return to the core city. The author believes that their psychological state is not entirely free of the stress of a competitive society and the narrative of competition, but that they are becoming psychologically stronger through lightness rather than previous heaviness, and cynicism and joy rather than sadness or despair. When reading impoverished youth's actions as signals of social transformation, it is assumed that the spectrum of interpretations will expand as we approach closer to future China.

International Humanitarian Award: Garth Neufeld.

This award recognizes extraordinary humanitarian service and activism by a psychologist or a team of psychologists, including professional and/or volunteer work conducted primarily in the field with underserved populations. "As president of Shared Space for All (SSFA), a nonprofit organization that educates and mentors impoverished youth in a village in the province of Isaan, Thailand, Mr. Garth Neufeld has successfully and strategically led the organization. SSFA promotes safer futures for youth in a context where poverty limits education and promotes migration to cities where a lack of skills translates into vulnerability to recruitment into sex work and trafficking. Over 200 at-risk school-aged children have received a range of services through SSFA, including supervised care before and after school, social services such as transportation, and full scholarships for higher education. The organization is exemplary in partnering with the local community and privileging the wisdom of those it serves. Mr. Neufeld has assembled a board of Thai and American members, mobilizing local commitment and engagement, harnessing the power of volunteers both local and overseas, underscoring contextually and culturally appropriate approaches, and balancing when to lead from the front or from behind. Mr. Neufeld is a tenured professor of psychology at Cascadia College, managing an active academic career and commitment to SSFA. He is a leader in Division 2, where he is highly regarded by his colleagues and has received multiple awards for teaching. Mr. Neufeld's vision through SSFA has been described as transformative, creating change by investing in the next generation to build human capital. Mr. Neufeld stands as a shining example of how psychologists can bring their skills and passion to organize and mobilize partnerships that can make a lasting difference in a vulnerable community. For these reasons, American Psychological Association's (APA's) Committee for Global Psychology is honored to present this award to Garth Neufeld." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

An Analysis of Youth Deradicalization Programs in Northeast Nigeria: A Study on Boko Haram

Using qualitative secondary analysis, the research examine the effects of Operation Safe Corridor (OSC), a home-grown prison-based deradicalization program targeted at low-risk Boko Haram combatants, and Yellow Ribbon Initiative, an education-based recivilization program designed for young adult women associated with Boko Haram. Together with pioneer countries like Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, the structural design and implementation of OSC remain shrouded in utmost secrecy. Even though it claims to have rehabilitated over 2,000 ex-Boko Haram combatants, there is no medium to independently ascertain these claims. Relatedly, the Yellow Ribbon Initiative also claimed to have successfully reintegrated thousands of women, with little to no means to validate their claims independently. Premised on the need to implement context-specific, inclusive and robust counterinsurgency programs, the research takes issues with both programs. Furthermore, the lack of accountability and transparency in the operations of both programs put to question their credibility and objectiveness. Alternatively, the research suggests the need for a paradigm shift from deradicalization to counter-radicalization, as this will put the government on the offensive side against radicalization. If targeted at volatile communities, counter-radicalization could be designed to address underlying causalities such as unequal education opportunities and poor social infrastructure, which will in turn foster a sense of belongingness in deprived and impoverished youths in the Northeast.

Trends in health behavior and weight outcomes following enhanced afterschool programming participation

BackgroundThe United States needs to increase access to effective obesity prevention and treatment programming for impoverished youth at risk for health disparities. Although recommended, schools have difficulty consistently implement evidence-based obesity programing. We report on the effectiveness of adding structured nutrition education and minimum physical activity (PA) requirements to standard middle school after-school programming.MethodsUsing a longitudinal pre-post study design, we evaluated program effectiveness at one year on target behaviors on students recruited during three consecutive school years (2016–2018). We used generalized linear (or logistic) mixed-effects modeling to determine: 1) impact on healthy weight and target healthy behavior attainment, and 2) whether target behavior improvement and weight change were associated with after-school program attendance. The seven target behaviors relate to eating healthy, physical activity, and sleep.ResultsOver the three years, a total of 76 students enrolled and completed one year of programming (62% Hispanic, 46% girls, 72% with BMI > 85th %ile, 49% with BMI > 95th %ile). Of students with BMI > 85th %ile, 44% maintained or decreased BMI Z-score. There were improvements (non-significant) in BMI Z-score and the adoption of four healthy eating behaviors: fruit, vegetables, sugar-free beverages, and unhealthy snack food. Students with higher after-school attendance (> 75%) had greater improvements (non-significant) in composite behavior scores, BMI Z-score, and in most target behaviors (5/7) than students with lower after-school attendance (< 75%). Sleep improvements were significantly associated with BMI Z-score decrease (Beta = − 0.05, 95% CI (− 0.1,-0.003), p = 0.038.)ConclusionsEnhancement of existing after-school programming with structured nutrition education and minimum physical activity requirements demonstrates positive improvements in several health behaviors and weight outcomes. Adopting enhanced after-school programming increases access to health activities and may bring us closer to solving obesity in at-risk youth in impoverished communities.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.govidentifier (NCT number):NCT03565744. Registered 21 June 2018 – Retrospectively registered.

Upward mobility, betrayal, and the Black Papers on education

Upward mobility, betrayal, and the Black Papers on education

Socio-material arrangements of impoverished youth in Japan: historical and critical perspectives on neoliberalization

ABSTRACTIn the past decade, in Japan, a new light has been cast on youth poverty in the context of the middle-class impoverishment caused by the advance of neoliberalization. Thus, the socio-material arrangements, that is, the configuration of people and artifacts pertaining to poor Japanese children, was explored. The authors conducted a field survey in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward, where poverty and the problems it brings have become more serious, and then analyzed that data. In the analysis, we introduced a historical viewpoint to understand the changes in the socio-material arrangements of poor youth that have been brought about by neoliberalization.

Hanging Bridge: Racial Violence and America's Civil Rights Century by Jason Morgan Ward

Reviewed by: Hanging Bridge: Racial Violence and America's Civil Rights Century by Jason Morgan Ward Tameka Bradley Hobbs Hanging Bridge: Racial Violence and America's Civil Rights Century. By Jason Morgan Ward. ( New York and other cities: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. xviii, 326. $29.95, ISBN 978-0-19-937656-8.) Over the course of the twentieth century, the bridge that spans the Chickasawhay River in Clarke County, Mississippi, was the site of terrible violence. In December 1918 two pairs of siblings—Major and Andrew Clark, and Maggie and Alma Howze—were lynched on the bridge for allegedly conspiring to murder their employer. Later, in October 1942, white vigilantes in Shubuta lynched two teenaged black boys, Ernest Green and Charlie Lang, hanging them from the same bridge because they had the misfortune of being spotted in the company of a white girl. By 1966, as civil rights groups campaigned in Mississippi, the so-called Hanging Bridge had become a visible warning to those who would dare to challenge the racial status quo. In his book Hanging Bridge: Racial Violence and America's Civil Rights Century, Jason Morgan Ward offers a masterful and multilayered exploration of lynching through the lens of place and memory to powerful effect. Like many trees, riverbanks, and courthouse squares throughout the South, Shubuta's bridge, as a site of horrendous violence, became an enduring symbol of white [End Page 734] supremacy. As Sherrilyn A. Ifill has written, "public spaces were used to enforce the message of white supremacy, often violently. Lynching, particularly in the twentieth century, was most often an explicitly public act" (On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-First Century [Boston, 2007], 16). Ward, following the methodology of Mary L. Dudziak and Carol Anderson, recasts these atrocious incidents and the responses to them through a prism of national and international politics, building out concentric circles of impact from the local to the national to the international. "In 1918, and again in 1942," Ward notes, "the UnitedStatesembarkedonglobal crusades to secure freedom and democracy while denying those privileges to millions back home" (p. 15). During both World War I and World War II, civil rights groups and the black press took advantage of the breach between American rhetoric and reality to advance the cause of black equality. Instances of lynching were very powerful weapons on that front. Ward assiduously details the circumstances of these two lynching incidents, skillfully balancing newspaper articles and editorials from white-owned and black-owned publications, archival records, and personal accounts from African Americans, reconstructing the varying interpretations of the events held by black and white communities. In the book's third part, "1966," Ward meanders from the site of the Hanging Bridge that served as the geographic anchor of the first two parts. By that year, the civil rights movement had come to Mississippi, with the Congress of Racial Equality establishing its base of operations in Meridian, just one county over from Shubuta. Ward profiles local black leaders like Rev. Jesse Charles Killingsworth and John Otis Sumrall, who, through their activism, made sure that the civil rights movement did not bypass Shubuta. As in many communities throughout the South, they employed the tactics of marching, sit-ins, and boycotts; however, one of the more intriguing facets of the struggle in Shubuta involved the fight over Head Start. Through the Child Development Group of Mississippi, women like Jimana Sumrall, Mamie Jones, Allie Jones, and Garlee Johnson led what Ward describes as a "quiet revolution," using federal funds to care for impoverished youth, to support struggling parents, and to empower the community by allowing them the ability to shape and administer programs for their own benefit—activities that had been unavailable to them during the height of the Jim Crow era (p. 192). The program's efficacy, however, was ultimately eroded by the white leaders who maintained political control in the new Jim Crow system erected in the aftermath of the civil rights revolution. In this new era, Ward argues, poverty continued to be a form of violence that whites employed to contain and control African Americans and their political aspirations. A skilled storyteller, Ward has...

Empowering Impoverished Youth Through Autonomous Community Outreach Strategies to Improve Learning and Academic Success

Empowering Impoverished Youth Through Autonomous Community Outreach Strategies to Improve Learning and Academic Success

The Role of Corruption in Festering Boko Haram Insurgency and Terrorism Under Jonathan Administration

The escalation of the Boko Haram insurgency and the terrorist attacks causing incalculable destruction to lives and property in the Northeast of Nigeria which climaxed under Jonathan administration were unprecedented in the history of religious and political violence in Nigeria. This paper examined the role that impunity and the influence of corruption played in the ineffectual response to Boko Haram insurgent acts which prepared grounds for Boko Haram terrorism under Jonathan administration. With exploration of secondary data and Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) of the extant literature, the study revealed that Boko Haram insurgency and terrorism in the North-East were underestimated, politically miscalculated while funds allocated for its prosecution were embezzled. The Jonathan administration’s impunity and corruption hampered its ability to curtail terrorism when it mattered most. The paper recommended that, aside taking appropriate legal actions to punish those found guilty of misappropriation of funds, adequate steps should also be taken towards empowering the impoverished youths in the Northern parts of Nigeria while the military should be comprehensively reformed and permanent military and intelligence measures should be appropriately taken in all parts of the country to forestall future occurrence.

PERCEPTIONS OF SOUTH AFRICAN YOUTH OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES: A CASE IN THE LEPELLE-NKUMPI MUNICIPAL AREA

The South African youth faces multiple challenges that range from illiteracy, drug and alcohol abuse, crime and HIV/AIDS, to unemployment. These challenges and many other ills in society have led to interventions by government, and private and other civil societies. The government has established and initiated a number of programmes that aim at building capacity and helping the youth to cope with these multiple challenges. Some of the programmes are aimed at building leadership capacity among the impoverished youth in rural communities. A lot of money is being invested in these programmes, which are meant to develop young South Africans. However, there are some young people who do not participate in these programmes. They are also not in the formal education system, self-employed or employed elsewhere. And they are despondent. The government, private sector and non-governmental organisations are trying hard to bring these youths and others into the developmental arena, so that they can be active participants in the economy of the country in the near future. However, little research has been conducted to assess the broad impact of the various programmes in the country. The contribution that these programmes are making toward improving the livelihoods of young people has to be determined on a larger scale. Nevertheless, this article reports on an investigation that was conducted on a smaller scale, at the Lepelle-Nkumpi Local Municipality. The aim of the research was to explore the perceptions young South Africans have of the leadership development programmes that they have participated in. A mixed research approach was used to collect data and the key findings indicated that knowledge accumulated through participation in the programmes does not always translate into practical applications. However, the programmes were deemed to be valuable in instilling a positive life-view. The study recommends that support systems be established in the rural areas to assist young people with life challenges.

Impact of Two Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Interventions on Risky Sexual Behavior: A Three-Arm Cluster Randomized Control Trial.

To test the efficacy of Reducing the Risk (RTR) and Love Notes (LN) on reducing risky sexual behavior among youths yet to experience or cause a pregnancy. The four dependent variables were ever had sex, condom use, birth control use, and number of sexual partners at 3- and 6-month follow-up in a 3-arm cluster randomized controlled trial of 1448 impoverished youths, aged 14 to 19 years, in 23 community-based organizations in Louisville, Kentucky, from September 2011 through March 2014. At 3 and 6 months, compared with the control condition, youths in RTR reported fewer sexual partners and greater use of birth control. At 6 months, LN participants reported greater use of birth control and condoms, fewer sexual partners, and were less likely to have ever had sex compared with the control condition. We provided additional evidence for the continued efficacy of RTR and the first rigorous study of LN, which embeds sex education into a larger curriculum on healthy relationships and violence prevention.

Dışarıda ve Dışında Olmak: Yoksul Gençlerin Mekânla İlişkileri

The relationships of women and youths, who have both been described in studies on poverty in Turkey as the most disadvantaged groups, to the city and venues has not been adequately addressed. Exclusion from venues, a manifestation of social exclusion, has been said to create many problems in the daily lives of impoverished youths. In this context, the process of spatial exclusion plays an important role in shaping youths’ daily lives and their life choices. Impoverished youths’ establishment of a relationship with locales needs to be the subject of both poverty and youth researches as a variable. In this study, the process of spatial exclusion for impoverished youths and the problems that this brings has been discussed on the basis of this necessity. In this context, spatial exclusion practices on impoverished youths were evaluated from the data of poverty and youth-related field studies conducted in Turkey. The field research data used in this study was mostly based on qualitative research. This study has concluded that in order to ensure spatial inclusion for impoverished youths who have been excluded from venues and remain apart is the basic approach of the capacity to experience. Experiencing requires being at a venue together with the people who have created it; experiencing requires contact. This experience makes it possible for one to call one’s self into being both socially and spatially

Effect of savings-led economic empowerment on HIV preventive practices among orphaned adolescents in rural Uganda: results from the Suubi-Maka randomized experiment

ABSTRACTImproving economic resources of impoverished youth may alter intentions to engage in sexual risk behaviors by motivating positive future planning to avoid HIV risk and by altering economic contexts contributing to HIV risk. Yet, few studies have examined the effect of economic-strengthening on economic and sexual behaviors of orphaned youth, despite high poverty and high HIV infection in this population. Hierarchal longitudinal regressions were used to examine the effect of a savings-led economic empowerment intervention, the Suubi-Maka Project, on changes in orphaned adolescents’ cash savings and attitudes toward savings and HIV-preventive practices over time. We randomized 346 Ugandan adolescents, aged 10–17 years, to either the control group receiving usual orphan care plus mentoring (n = 167) or the intervention group receiving usual orphan care plus mentoring, financial education, and matched savings accounts (n = 179). Assessments were conducted at baseline, 12, and 24 months. Results indicated that intervention adolescents significantly increased their cash savings over time (b = $US12.32, ±1.12, p < .001) compared to adolescents in the control group. At 24 months post-baseline, 92% of intervention adolescents had accumulated savings compared to 43% in the control group (p < .001). The largest changes in savings goals were the proportion of intervention adolescents valuing saving for money to buy a home (ΔT1−T0 = +14.9, p < .001), pursue vocational training (ΔT1−T0 = +8.8, p < .01), and start a business (T1−T0 = +6.7, p < .01). Intervention adolescents also had a significant relative increase over time in HIV-preventive attitudinal scores (b = +0.19, ±0.09, p < .05), most commonly toward perceived risk of HIV (95.8%, n = 159), sexual abstinence or postponement (91.6%, n = 152), and consistent condom use (93.4%, n = 144). In addition, intervention adolescents had 2.017 significantly greater odds of a maximum HIV-prevention score (OR = 2.017, 95%CI: 1.43–2.84). To minimize HIV risk throughout the adolescent and young adult periods, long-term strategies are needed to integrate youth economic development, including savings and income generation, with age-appropriate combination prevention interventions.

SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL PREDICTORS OF INTERCOURSE FREQUENCY AND NUMBER OF SEXUAL PARTNERS AMONG MALE AND FEMALE AFRICAN AMERICAN ADOLESCENTS.

The current study examined 14 waves of data derived from a large, community-based study of the sexual behavior of impoverished youth between 12 and 17 years of age residing in the Deep South. We used multilevel linear modeling to identify ecological predictors of intercourse frequency and number of sexual partners among gender-specific subsamples. Results indicated that predictors of adolescent sexual behavior differed by both type of sexual behavior and gender. For males, age, maternal warmth, parental knowledge, curfew, self-worth, and sense of community predicted intercourse frequency, while age, parental knowledge, curfew, self-worth, friend support, and sense of community were significantly associated with having multiple sexual partners. Among females, age, curfew, and self-worth exerted significant effects on intercourse frequency, while age, parental knowledge, curfew, and self-worth exerted significant effects on having multiple sexual partners. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Poverty and Materialism: A Look at Impoverished versus Affluent Children

Concerns about materialism have been elevated to a public policy issue, with consumer activists and social scientists calling for restrictions on marketing to children. A recent UNICEF report on the welfare of children suggests that those from low-income families may be particularly vulnerable to marketing efforts. The current research provides a first glimpse into the consumer values of impoverished children. Personal interviews conducted with 177 children and adolescents from impoverished and affluent families reveal differences in materialistic values. Although younger children (ages 8–10 years) from poor families exhibit similar levels of materialism to their more affluent peers, when they reach adolescence (ages 11–13 years) and beyond (ages 16–17 years), impoverished youth are more materialistic than their wealthier counterparts. Further analysis shows that this difference is associated with lower self-esteem among impoverished teens. The authors discuss the implications of these findings, including public policy solutions aimed at reducing low-income children's vulnerability to developing materialistic values that undermine their well-being.

Multiple traumas, postelection violence, and posttraumatic stress among impoverished Kenyan youth

Research on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among youth has focused on specific subgroups from developed countries. Most of the world's youth and war-like violence, however, is concentrated in developing countries, yet there is limited mental health data within affected countries. This study focused on a random community-based sample of 552 impoverished youth ages 6-18 within an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, which experienced war-like violence for a month following the contested presidential election of 2007. Six months after the violence ended, 99 (18%) had PTSD according to the UCLA PTSD Reaction Index (Steinberg, Brymer, Decker, & Pynoos, 2004), and an additional 18 (3%) were found to have partial PTSD due to high overall scores. Kenyan psychologists conducted diagnostic interviews and found the positive predictive value of the assessment tool to be 72% in this sample; the confirmed prevalence was 12%. Similar to other studies worldwide, Criterion C (avoidance) was the limiting factor for diagnosing PTSD according to the DSM-IV-TR, and parent-child agreement was at best fair. The number of traumatic experiences was strongly associated with PTSD outcomes. Differences due to age or sex were not found. The findings indicate the need for universal mental health services for trauma-exposed youth and their families in the impoverished informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya.

The Success and Contradictions of New Deal Democratic Populism:

The Success and Contradictions of New Deal Democratic Populism:

‘Managing’ Cape Town's street children/youth: the impact of the 2010 World Cup bid on street life in the city of Cape Town

Soccer has often been hailed as a key motivator in rehabilitation and restoration work with young people in difficult circumstances and for overcoming street life. Across much of Africa, the literature identifies many urban public places as play spaces for poor children who have limited alternative access to parks and playgrounds. ‘The street’ has regularly been transformed into a soccer pitch, as a space where children have easy access. Against this backdrop, South Africa's success at securing the 2010 World Cup bid, may be viewed as an opportunity to demonstrate the uplifting achievements of team sports for impoverished youth, yet at the same time, is juxtaposed against the removal of young people from the city streets, with little consideration of the impact on their lives. This paper draws on qualitative research with over 50 street children and 30 street youth aged between 10 and 28 from Cape Town's city centre. Using key narratives, it demonstrates how vagrant young people are being excluded from the city in an effort to clean up the streets. The paper ends with a consideration of these measures for young people's lives.

Obtaining informed consent: observations from community research with refugee and impoverished youth

This paper presents challenges facing researchers in applying basic ethical principles while conducting research with youth in a developing country context. A discussion of the cultural and social challenges to...

“Sinking, Like Quicksand”

Purpose: The purpose of this interpretive case study is to examine the assumptions underpinning one Upward Bound program to understand how the program attempts to increase educational opportunity for poor urban youth and how this approach plays out in the lived experiences of three young men who participate in the program. Research Design: This study of an Upward Bound program was conducted at a large urban university in the Northeast. Based on the methodological framework of interpretive interactionism by Norman Denzin (1989), this interpretive case study was conducted over an entire academic year. Formal and informal interviews, observations, and document analysis were used to gather data to understand the phenomena being studied in-depth. The conceptual lenses of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum frame the analysis of this study, revealing the logic and limits of focusing on achievement alone to increase educational opportunity for impoverished youth. Findings: The director of “College Access Initiative” believes that this program can increase educational equity and opportunity for impoverished youth by: a) emphasizing an ethic of rugged individualism, b) insisting that the young men focus on the future, and c) immersing students in an intense academic and test preparation program. The findings of this study reveal that this academic approach to expanding educational opportunity for the young men was not sufficient for increasing their freedom to focus on academic achievement or to stay in the program. Conclusions: These findings suggest an urgent need for coordinating academic support programs with other social, economic, and human service agencies serving poor communities if we are to enhance real opportunities to achieve for impoverished youth.