Shaping Youth Research Articles

Familial geopolitics and ontological security: intergenerational relations, migration and minority youth (in)securities in Scotland

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the family as a site of geopolitics. Bridging scholarship in feminist geopolitics, political psychology and sociology, we explore the psycho-social dynamics of family life and theorise the family as a multi-scalar, relational site of security. Original data collected with ethnic and religious minority youth in Scotland are presented alongside an analysis of how family relations, at interconnected scales, mitigate against and/or re-inscribe broad geopolitical narratives of security. We employ the concept of ontological security (OS) to analyse the role of the family, and the relationships within it, on shaping youth securities. We discuss (1) how family histories and intergenerational experience shape young people’s sense of security; (2) how young people negotiate and resist family norms and values that reproduce securitizing geopolitical narratives; and (3) how young people find security when family is absent or indeterminate. In each case, we analyse how geopolitics operates through family life. The paper makes two key contributions: first, we use original empirical data to theorise ethnic and religious minority youth securities; second, we show the value of OS as a conceptual tool for understanding psycho-social dimensions of familial geopolitics.

Executive Functioning Mediates Predictions of Youth Academic and Social Development from Parenting Behavior

ABSTRACTUsing multiple mediation with bootstrapping, dimensions of executive functioning (i.e., inhibitory control, working memory, set shifting) were tested as mediators of predictions of academic and social outcomes from observed positive and negative parenting in 131 children followed prospectively into early adolescence. Inhibitory control and working memory mediated predictions of academic achievement, whereas inhibitory control meditated predictions of school competence from positive parenting. Additionally, working memory mediated predictions of negative social preference, but not social competence, from positive parenting. Executive functioning did not mediate predictions from negative parenting. The role of parenting in shaping youth outcomes through executive functioning is considered.

Understanding youth activism and radicalism: Chinese values and socialization

In the past decade, there has been an evident surge in political activism in Hong Kong, especially among the youth. This paper seeks to explain this development by adopting an emerging framework, the Activism–Radicalism Intention Scale (ARIS), that distinguishes between activism and radicalism and demonstrates how past and current intentions relate to each other. To explain how young people become politically motivated, we borrow from existing literature and test three dominant explanations, namely the liberal education thesis, critical network analysis, and value-systems explanation. Using results from a survey conducted with tertiary students in Hong Kong, we find the critical network to be an important explanation of participation. Interestingly, the Chinese values of trustworthiness and social harmony also play a role in shaping youth activism and radicalism, but in less predictable ways. This study contributes to the literature by providing an innovative way to systematically analyze youth activism and assess the influence of Chinese values.

Effects of childhood adversity and resilience on Taiwanese youth health behaviors

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can leave negative impacts on one's health behaviors or social functioning later in life. Resilient characteristics have been shown to mitigate effects against risk behaviors in developing adolescents. However, clinical and research attention has rarely been given to jointly consider the effects of ACEs and resilient characteristics on health behaviors in Taiwanese youth. A total of 200 individuals aged 15-22 years were recruited from primary care settings, communities, and schools. Participants completed questionnaires assessing their ACEs, resilient characteristics, and health behaviors. Univariate analysis was firstly used to describe the correlates of ACEs and resilient characteristics. Further multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association of both factors with health behaviors. More than half (61.5%) of those surveyed had been exposed to at least one category of ACE. Verbal (37%) and physical (21%) abuses were the most common types of ACEs. The counts in the ACE categories were associated with being involved in physical fights (odds ratio 1.28 [confidence interval 1.01-1.63]), property damage (1.29 [1.03-1.61]), running away from home (1.30 [1.05-1.60]), bullying victimization (1.37 [1.16-1.61]), and sleep problems/tiredness (1.25 [1.03-1.52]). Meanwhile, resilience scores were associated with decreased odds of infrequent seatbelt use (0.47 [0.23-0.97]), low fruit and vegetable intake (0.42 [0.21-0.86]) unsatisfied body image (0.46 [0.22-0.97]), and sleep problems/tiredness (0.37 [0.18-0.79]). ACEs and resilience characteristics play a significant role in shaping youth health behaviors. Further research should be undertaken to identify ways to build resilience against health risks in youth with prior ACE exposure.

Parental Modeling, a Determinant of Pro-Environmental Attitude and Behavior in Youth

The purpose of this research was to study the effects of parental modeling on the pro environmental attitude and behavior of youth. Sample of the study consisted of (N= 692) adolescents, including both male and female genders of ages (18-25) years having education of Intermediate, BS and Masters, from Peshawar Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A demographic sheet and self constructed Environmental Attitude Questionnaire, was administered to the subjects selected through convenient sampling method. Results showed that parental modeling plays a significant role in shaping youth’s pro environmental attitude and behavior. This impact is greater for females as compared to males, for adolescents as compared to young adults and for rural youth as compared to urban youth.

When Do Public Health Epilogues Correct the Influence of Alcohol Storylines on Youth? The Interplay of Narrative Transportation and Persuasion Knowledge

Abstract Youth drinking continues to present a major public health problem. Entertainment content that positively depicts alcohol consumption is often implicated as a factor in shaping youths' attitudes and beliefs about drinking alcohol. This research examines whether and under which conditions epilogues can counteract the influence of a television episode featuring positive consequences of drinking. Building on recent research that demonstrates how consumers' persuasion knowledge can increase acceptance of a message, this study finds that persuasion knowledge enhances receptivity to epilogues but only amongst viewers who are highly transported in the story. The research points to a promising approach to remedy the potentially harmful influence of a storyline depicting undesirable behaviors on a vulnerable population.

Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Aspirations in Chinese Families: Identifying Mediators and Moderators

Parents' educational aspirations for youth play an important role in shaping youth's own educational aspirations; however, little is known about how and in what context parents may transmit their aspirations to youth effectively. This is of particular interest and import to be examined in Chinese families, given Chinese cultural emphasis on educational achievement and Chinese youth's outstanding academic performance internationally. By integrating several key theories of motivation and parental socialization (i.e., the expectancy-value model of academic achievement, the two-step model of value transmission, the contextual model of parenting, and the self-determination theory), the current study investigated simultaneously the mediating roles of parental involvement in youth's learning and youth's perceptions of parental aspirations, as well as the moderating role of parental warmth in the intergenerational transmission process of educational aspirations in Chinese families. A two-wave longitudinal study spanning about half a year was conducted among 323 Chinese seventh graders (54% female; Mage = 13.25 years) and one of their parents (median educational attainment = completion of high school, median monthly income = USD 766-1226). It was found that parental educational aspirations for youth were related positively both indirectly through parental involvement and directly to youth's perceptions of parental aspirations, which in turn were associated positively with youth's own educational aspirations about half a year later. It was also found that parental educational aspirations for youth and youth's own educational aspirations were associated positively with each other only when youth reported experiencing high levels of parental warmth, but unrelated when youth reported experiencing low levels of parental warmth, whereas such moderating effects of parental warmth were absent on the links from parental aspirations to youth's perceptions of parental aspirations and parental involvement. These findings highlight the importance of integrating multiple theories to understand parent-to-youth transmission of educational aspirations in non-western cultures, which helps not only reveal generalizability, as well as boundary conditions for Western-originated theories, but also inform practical endeavors at promoting youth's educational achievement worldwide to draw on strengths of different cultures.

Adolescent Dating Violence Victimization and Relationship Dissolution

We integrate literature on gender and adolescent friendships to examine the association between adolescent dating violence victimization (ADVV) and relationship dissolution. In particular, we test whether ADVV increases the hazard of relationship dissolution among adolescent romances, and whether a number of friendship dynamics alter the association between ADVV and relationship dissolution. Using discrete time event history models from 5,787 romantically involved youth from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), results indicated, on average, ADVV was not associated with the hazard of relationship dissolution for girls or boys. However, the positive effect of ADVV was stronger for girls who did not withdraw from their friendships over the course of their romantic relationships. This study highlights the importance of peer groups and gender in shaping youths’ decisions to exit abusive relationships.

LGBTQ Bullying: Translating Research to Action in Pediatrics.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth experience significant bullying that undermines their mental and physical health. National health organizations have called for the development of innovative strategies to address LGBTQ bullying. Pediatricians and other clinicians, medical and public health students, interdisciplinary researchers, government officials, school leaders, community members, parents, and youth from around the country came together at a national symposium entitled "LGBTQ Bullying: Translating Research to Action to Improve the Health of All Youth" in May 2016 to generate strategies to prevent LGBTQ bullying and meet the needs of LGBTQ youth experiencing bullying. This article describes key scientific findings on bullying, LGBTQ stigma, and LGBTQ bullying interventions that were shared at the symposium and provides recommendations for pediatricians to address LGBTQ bullying via clinical care, research, interventions, and policy. Symposium participants recommended that pediatricians engage in efforts to foster inclusive and affirming health care environments wherein LGBTQ youth feel comfortable discussing their identities and experiences, identify youth experiencing LGBTQ bullying, and prevent the negative health consequences of bullying among youth. Moreover, pediatricians can attend to how multiple identities (eg, sexual orientation, gender identity, race and/or ethnicity, disability, and others) shape youth experiences of bullying and expand intervention efforts to address LGBTQ bullying in health care settings. Pediatricians can further advocate for evidence-based, antibullying policies prohibiting bullying on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Collaboration between pediatricians and diverse stakeholders can contribute to the development and implementation of lasting change in all forms of bullying, including LGBTQ bullying.

Hacia una crítica a la sociología de la transición: reflexiones sobre la paradoja de la desinstitucionalización en el análisis de las trayectorias de jóvenes vulnerables en Argentina

El artículo reconstruye las trayectorias de jóvenes de un barrio periférico, analizando las prácticas y las valoraciones subjetivas en torno a la escuela, el trabajo y la familia. En un contexto de profundas transformaciones en la condición juvenil, la investigación analiza el resquebrajamiento del modelo lineal de transición a la vida adulta. Asimismo, plantea el carácter paradójico del proceso de desinstitucionalización del curso de vida, al vislumbrar la relevancia que adquieren nuevos soportes relacionales en la configuración de las trayectorias juveniles.

Predicting Self-Control Through Familial and Environmental Factors Among Immigrant and Native-Born Adolescents

The current study addressed a research gap regarding the influence of risk factors in predicting self-control among immigrant and nonimmigrant adolescents. Three research hypotheses were postulated to test the applicability of self-control theory across generational status groups, and the influence of family and environmental factors on youths’ self-control development. The hypotheses were evaluated through hierarchical multiple regression analyses using a school-based sample of 2,056 U.S. adolescents (4% first-generation immigrants, 13% second-generation immigrants, 83% native-born) from the Second International Self-Reported Delinquency Study Dataset. In partial support of self-control theory, the results demonstrated that nearly the same set of variables including family bonding, parental supervision, neighborhood disorganization, school disorganization, and delinquent peer associations significantly predicted self-control for all three generational status groups, but that school climate significantly predicted self-control for only native-born youth. The results also showed that factors across family, neighborhood, school, and peer contexts significantly contributed to immigrant and native-born youths’ self-control. The findings suggest both family and environmental factors shape youths’ self-control. However, the variation in the contribution of those factors on self-control development for immigrant and nonimmigrant youth may be due to cultural differences promoted by acculturation. Implications for future research and delinquency prevention are discussed.

The Daybook Defense: How Reflection Fosters the Identity Work of Readers and Writers

AbstractClassrooms play a large part in shaping youths’ identities as readers and writers. Due to the pressures of high‐stakes exams, for example, reading and writing identities are often defined by a set of academic skills that students can or cannot perform. Such rigid concepts of readers and writers often cause secondary students to believe that their literacy abilities are fixed (i.e., as struggling readers). This study explores how reflective conversations through a daybook defense (an oral reflective assessment for a writer's notebook) opened opportunities for students to redefine what it meant to read and write in two English language arts classrooms. Findings suggest that reflections opened opportunities for students to articulate behaviors of reader/writer identities and express beliefs about reader/writer identities. Implications suggest that such reflective opportunities can provide spaces for students to rewrite reader/writer identities in the classroom.

Let the Girls Learn! I it is Not Only About Math... It’S About Gender Social Norm

Using PISA test scores from 11,527 second-generation immigrants coming from 35 different countries of ancestry and living in 9 host countries, we find that the positive effects of country-of-ancestry gender social norms on girls' math test scores relative to those of boys: (1) expand to other subjects (namely reading and science); (2) are shaped by beliefs on women's political empowerment and economic opportunity; and (3) are driven by parents' influencing their children's (especially their girls') preferences. Our evidence further suggest that these findings are driven by cognitive skills, suggesting that social gender norms affect parent's expectations on girls' academic knowledge relative to that of boys, but not on other attributes for success--such as non-cognitive skills. Taken together, our results highlight the relevance of general (as opposed to math-specific) gender stereotypes on the math gender gap, and suggest that parents' gender social norms shape youth's test scores by transmitting preferences for cognitive skills.

If Someone Asked, I’d Participate: Teachers as Recruiters for Political and Civic Participation

Whereas much has been written about the role of resources and motivation for activating adolescents to become engaged citizens, less work considers the role that recruitment within schools might play in shaping youth civic engagement patterns. Drawing on interviews with over 100 high school students and over 40 school officials, our research illuminates the critical role that school-based recruitment plays in fostering youth civic engagement. We find that while a majority of the students we interviewed are actively involved in their local community, a sizable portion of students remain unengaged and that a lack of recruitment from school officials is one important factor explaining this phenomenon. We also find that teachers, especially social studies teachers, can play a key role in recruiting and motivating students. However, teachers tend to act as “rational prospectors” who selectively recruit certain subsets of students (i.e., advanced students)—something that likely contributes to later inequality in participation.

UNPACKING YOUNG PEOPLE’S NARRATIVES ABOUT THEIR ASPIRATIONS: A BOURDIEUSIAN PERSPECTIVE

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt 36pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span style="color: #131413; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">Drawing from Bourdieu’s theories on habitus, capital, and field, this article explores the complex relationship between social context and youth’s aspirations and perceptions of the future. Based on findings from interviews we conducted with young people in two distinct communities in British Columbia, Canada, we undertook a comparative analysis of the ways in which class and place influence young people’s “imagined futures”. Our findings suggest that family plays an instrumental role in shaping youth’s aspirations in both locations. Perceptions regarding opportunity and mobility varied greatly between the communities, and appeared to be influenced by racialized and gendered inequalities. A few youth had aspirations that resided outside of the narrative parameters mapped out by their peers. We explore the implications of these perspectives for community-level strategies aiming to improve young people’s future trajectories, which could have positive impacts on their current and future health and wellbeing. While Bourdieu’s theories do not explicitly consider adolescent-specific capital, we found them to be helpful in making sense of youth’s narratives about their futures.</span></span></p>

Preparing for uncertain careers: How youth deal with growing occupational uncertainties before the education-to-work transition

Recent changes in labor market and working conditions have rendered youth's education-to-work transitions and career prospects more uncertain. This study investigated how youth, while still in education or training, deal with perceived growing occupational uncertainties in terms of goal engagement (i.e., investing active effort in goal pursuit; surmounting obstacles) and goal disengagement (i.e., distancing from unattainable goals; protecting the self against failure experiences). Analyses with two closely matched samples of youth aged 16–25years from Germany (N=529) and Poland (N=530) revealed high levels of goal engagement and a clear preference of engagement over disengagement. Whereas levels of engagement were comparable across countries, disengagement was considerably higher in Polish youth. Regarding the sources of individual differences in engagement and disengagement, sociodemographic factors had very limited effects in both countries. Compared to sociodemographic factors, the level of perceived growing occupational uncertainties, and especially youth's primary and secondary appraisals thereof, were more strongly and consistently associated with engagement and disengagement, especially in Germany, pointing to the prominence of perceptions and appraisals in shaping youth's responses to growing occupational uncertainties. We offer cultural and economic explanations for these findings and discuss implications for interventions aimed at fostering youth's engagement in preparing for their future careers under today's uncertain conditions.

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

The relationship between violence and engagement in drug dealing and sex work among street-involved youth.

Street-involved youth are highly vulnerable to violence. While involvement in income-generating activities within illicit drug scenes is recognized as shaping youths' vulnerability to violence, the relative contributions of different income-generating activities remain understudied. We sought to examine the independent effects of drug dealing and sex work on experiencing violence among street-involved youth. Data were derived from a prospective cohort of street-involved youth aged 14-26 who used drugs in Vancouver, British Columbia, between September 2005 and May 2014. Multivariable generalized estimating equations were used to examine the impact of involvement in drug dealing and sex work on experiencing violence. Among 1,152 participants, including 364 (31.6%) women, 740 (64.2%) reported having experienced violence at some point during the study period. In multivariable analysis, involvement in drug dealing but not sex work remained independently associated with experiencing violence among females (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 1.43; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08-1.90) and males (AOR: 1.50; 95% CI: 1.25-1.80), while involvement in sex work only was not associated with violence among females (AOR: 1.15; 95% CI: 0.76-1.74) or males (AOR: 1.42; 95% CI: 0.81-2.48). Findings indicate that involvement in drug dealing is a major factor associated with experiencing violence among our sample. In addition to conventional interventions, such as addiction treatment, novel approaches are needed to reduce the risk of violence for drug-using youth who are actively engaged in drug dealing. The potential for low-threshold employment and decriminalization of drug use to mitigate violence warrants further study.

Framing for resilience through social learning: impacts of environmental stewardship on youth in post-disturbance communities

Civic ecology practices, such as community gardening and citizen-led urban reforestation and wetland restoration, provide opportunities for social learning. Because social learning is an important component of community resilience, we suggest that civic ecology practices can be a strategy for responding to and mitigating environmental disturbances in an era threatened by climate change. Despite the links between civic ecology, social learning and community resilience, empirical research that systematically considers these connections is limited. This study addresses this gap by introducing ‘frames’ as an approach to considering social learning outcomes and process. More specifically, we provide a model for investigating the role civic ecology education programs play in shaping youths’ capacity to understand and respond to environmental disturbance. We used participant observation and cognitive mapping to assess social learning among three youth restoration programs working in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in New York, NY, and after the 2013 floods in Boulder, CO. In all three programs, youth demonstrated social learning and cognitive change by shifting their emphasis from the impacts of disturbance towards a solutions-based framing that focused on community, action, and mitigation. However, the depth of these changes was not uniform across all programs, suggesting that variations in program length, community context, social identity, and opportunities for self-defined action may shape overall impacts of programs and youth capacity for future action.

'We usually just start dancing our Indian dances': urban American Indian (AI) female youths' negotiation of identity, health and the body.

In this article, we utilise qualitative research techniques to explore how 14 urban American Indian (AI) females (aged 11-17) living in the state of Maryland discursively construct and experience health and the body, as well as how/if traditional culture shapes their understandings. In doing so, we address a significant gap in the knowledge base concerning the health beliefs of urban AI youth, and build upon research utilising a decolonising approach. Using a two-step process of thematic analysis and poststructuralist discourse analysis, we arrived at three key findings: (1) while youths are taught (and learn) mainstream lessons about health and bodily norms (mostly at school), they negotiate these lessons in complex and at times contradictory ways; (2) they do not view their AI status as conferring more or less risk upon them or their community; and (3) AI identity appears to be fluid in nature, becoming more salient, even a resource, in certain situations. We conclude with a discussion of the importance of spaces within the urban context in shaping youths' embodied subjectivities, and in particular, contrast the space of the school with that of the urban AI community centre.