Young People Construct Research Articles

Filling in the details. Significant events and economic disadvantage among young people in Australia

Economic disadvantage is a strong predictor of social exclusion, disengagement at school, early school dropout and low educational attainment. This paper shows that experience of significant events - for example, moving home and school following parents' separation; a sudden fall in family income; or illness and death in the family - can greatly exacerbate economically disadvantaged young people's sense of exclusion and disengagement. Survey data are used to show that such negative events (often characterised by young people as shocks) are most likely to occur among economically disadvantaged families with children. In-depth interviews with young people are also used to explore young people's construction of these events, which they often describe in terms of a cascade, with several shocks following each other in rapid succession, draining away their, and their families', economic, social and emotional resources, and leaving them at risk of further exclusion. The paper concludes that policy needs to buffer young people better from the effects of these events, and so reduce their disengagement and exclusion. (DIPF/Orig.)

Retheorizing the Postsecular Present: Embodiment, Spatial Transcendence, and Challenges to Authenticity Among Young Christians in Glasgow, Scotland

This article explores and extends the geographies of postsecular theory. Despite growing claims of secularization, religion continues to be a highly public and rapidly diversifying issue, and of growing interest to geographers. We identify the spatial elements of postsecular theory, and consider how spatial approaches, particularly feminist work, that emphasize lived religion and embodiment might provide an alternative to existing analyses. Increasingly present in recent geographical work on religion, these approaches challenge the discursive, political, and social constructions of secularization and its theoretical claims and, we argue, are essential for the continued development of interdisciplinary postsecular approaches and analyses. Drawing on recent empirical research, we apply this argument to the religious subject constructions of young Christian-affiliated people living in Glasgow, Scotland. Their conceptions of authentic faith are intimately bound up in ideas of authenticity and embodied transcendence, which are both reinforced and challenged by particular historical and contemporary meanings of Christian identities. In conclusion, we reflect on the broader empirical and theoretical implications of our research for postsecular approaches to the study of religion and society.

Hearing the voices of young deaf people: Implications for social work practice in Jordan

This exploratory study discusses the identity construction of young deaf people in Jordan through their own interpretation and the perspectives of their families. It is based on qualitative data derived from focus groups and semi-structured interviews. The findings show that schools and family environments remain predominantly exclusionary in socializing young deaf into the construction of an identity of disability. However, young deaf people view themselves as a sub-group within a larger collective culture. This study takes into account the wider differences inherent in gender issues, as is significant in the conceptualization of young deaf identity in the Arab world.

Exploring the role of the family in the construction of young people's health discourses and dispositions

This paper reports on an exploratory study with low income young people that sought to explore the discourses on which they drew their understandings about health and whether family structure mediated individual agency. Based on an interpretive perspective, the voices of three participants were selected from an inner city secondary school. Drawn from a larger study, participants were interviewed in pairs and asked to elaborate on their understanding and experience of health, fitness and physical activity. The analytical framework was influenced by the work of Bourdieu, recognising the importance of structure and agency. This study suggests that young people were implicated in the reproduction of a healthism discourse, while family was recognised as a social “field” that shaped their dispositions toward health-related practices. However their ability to enact health dispositions and maintain a healthy lifestyle was constrained by their family structure and the structural social conditions of their lives.

The ‘healthy self’ and ‘risky’ young Other: young people's interpretations of health and health-related risks

Concern about health-related risks dominates modern day public health discourses on young people's health. Based on ‘official’ notions of health, the public health risk-based approach not only downplays the potentially different meanings young people attach to concepts of health, but it also has a tendency to problematise and pathologise young people and their health. Drawing on findings from an ethnographic study with young people aged 15–16 years in England (n = 55); in this article, I examine young people's understandings of health and health-related risks. I used group discussions, individual interviews and observational work in a school and surrounding community settings to collect the data on which this article is based. In this article, I show the importance young people in my study attached to ‘being happy’ and ‘having fun’, but also how dominant constructions of youth as a time of risk were taken up and reproduced by young people themselves to create and sustain differences amongst young people. I examine the implications of these differences for young people's health and the possibilities for empowerment – highlighting some of the emergent contradictions between young people's constructions of the ‘healthy self’ and ‘risky’ young Other. Specifically, in this article, I highlight young people's preference for a more positive conceptualisation of their health, one which recognises the importance of their shared social positioning for the promotion of health.

The social construction of young people within education policy: evidence from the UK's Coalition government

Since assuming power in May 2010, the UK's Coalition government has devoted considerable energy to formulating its policies with respect to young people. Evidence of this can be found in Positive for youth: a new approach to cross-government policy for young people aged 13–19, a policy text that outlines a wide range of measures to be implemented across nine government departments. Nevertheless, we know little about the understandings of young people that underpin Coalition policy or the political ideology that informs them. This article starts to redress this gap by exploring the ways in which young people have been constructed within education policy, specifically, and the extent to which such constructions constitute continuity or change with the understandings of previous governments. It argues that while some constructions of young people can be seen primarily as an extension of New Labour understandings, other constructions should be more accurately viewed as reconfigurations or, in some cases, as new understandings, initiated by the Coalition government.

‘When I click “ok” I become Sassy – I become a girl’. Young people and gender identity: subverting the ‘body’ in massively multi-player online role-playing games

This article explores young people's practices in the virtual spaces of online gaming communities. Based on a five-year ethnographic study of virtual worlds, it considers how young people construct and maintain identities within virtual social systems. In particular, the article discusses digital gender practices and considers the potential that these games offer for their young users to engage in alternate gender identities. We argue that these digital spaces offer spaces for the imagination and can enhance agency and, potentially, resistance. However, digital identity is simultaneously no ‘liberated space’ and it incorporates norms and practices that often mirror those of the material world. We argue that this ‘porosity’ is an important tool through which young people come to understand gender identity.

Photography as a pedagogical tool for shedding light on ‘bodies-at-risk’ in physical culture

In Western countries, given current global public health imperatives around obesity, the lack of engagement with and compliance to normative health-related physical cultures is a concern for young people of ethnic minority backgrounds (particularly females) and low socio-economic class. These groups represent cohorts of young people more likely to be physically inactive and unhealthy compared to other groups, and thus are framed as ‘bodies-at-risk’ or portrayed as a ‘problem’ by neoliberal projects of the body in public health. What remains hidden in the enterprise of the fit body produced by a Western physical culture of healthism, however, is how sport and physical and health education in schools continue to reproduce inequalities of gender and race/ethnicity that heavily bear upon some young people's bodies in local sites. To problematise the body-at-risk discourse, this visual participatory ethnographic research conducted in inner-city, state-funded schools in the Midlands region of the UK, aimed to reveal the visual dimensions of embodiment as expressed by young people of different ethnic backgrounds in the local contexts of their lives. Student-researchers used digital cameras to create visual diaries entitled Moving in My World to express their thoughts, feelings and ideas, and to ‘speak for themselves’ about their knowledge of their own bodies, sharing their embodiments. What moving in their worlds meant to young people varied significantly based on differences of cultural background, gender negotiations and opportunities for, and choices in, their engagement with physical activity. The student-researchers’ visual diaries captured a heterogeneity of meanings about the moving body that young people construct and represent in their creation of the hybrid physical cultures of their daily lives.

The spatial construction of young people's livelihoods in rural southern Africa

ABSTRACTYoung people in southern Africa, in common with young people around the world, are social agents, constructing their own lives, albeit within significant structural constraints. Unlike young people in some regions, for most the need to generate a livelihood is a key consideration. Livelihood construction is a profoundly spatial activity, yet while there have been a number of studies of the spatial construction of young people's livelihoods in African cities, the spatiality of rural livelihoods has received less attention. Rural environments pose particular challenges for livelihood construction, and require particular spatial strategies. Four are discussed here: accessing education and training; migration for work; developing extensive social networks; and producing for markets. There are, however, aspects of the spatial structuring of rural southern African societies that seriously constrain the pursuit of productive livelihoods by young people. Two are considered: migration (for reasons unconnected with young people's livelihoods) and marriage practices.

Constructions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer identities among young people in contemporary Australia

This paper focuses on young people's construction of lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer (LGBQ) identities in contemporary Australia. Through the perspectives of young people, it seeks to position their understanding of LGBQ identities alongside current theoretical and empirical debates about the individual and social significance attached to these identity frames. In this qualitative study, 28 young people (aged 18 to 26 years) shared their stories of identifying as LGBQ through online, face-to-face or telephone interviews. The findings highlight how varying elements of LGBQ identities continue to have currency within this group and how young people adopt and refer to these terms interchangeably and in tandem. This is balanced alongside an awareness of both the limitations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer identity categories and of the homophobic discourses informing these subject positions. The paper concludes by arguing that health and social care professionals have a integral role to play in supporting LGBQ youth through a process of co-authorship – to work in partnership to construct more enabling self-stories that transcend restrictive identity frames.

Juventud e identidad religiosa (Youth and Religious Identity)

In this paper we to diagnose how young people construct their religious identity in relation to the attendance of religious services and religion that they profess. The results obtained are based in a study of the youth of Granada (Andalusia, Spain) whose age is between 14 and 25 years during 2000, 2004 and 2008 to obtain the features about the youth in Granada how y live, feel and perceive their religion. The main conclusion was that the crisis of values emerging in Western societies leads to transform the religious phenomenon of non-migrants into something with a strong element of faith, social relations and symbols, while immigrants tend to express quite often their religiosity.

Bullying in Context: Stories of Bullying on an Internet Discussion Board

The paper examines how young people describe experiences of bullying when participating in an Internet community dedicated to young people experiencing mental health problems. The micro‐analytic focus demonstrates how young people construct their identities in relation to their telling about their experiences of being victims of bullying, reporting on two distinct ways that they framed their postings. The posters either disclosed their experiences about bullying in relation to a wider self‐presentation of experiences of bullying (bullying being part of their past and a partial reason for their problems), or more straightforwardly asked for help and advice from other participants to find ways of dealing with ongoing bullying. Finally, the paper demonstrates how contributors orient to the Internet community, and calls for more research based on unsolicited naturalistic data for such issues as bullying.

Negotiating boundaries: the sex work identities of ‘bar girls’ in Nazareth, Ethiopia

Social relationships, and the spaces through which they are encountered, are integral to young people's construction of identity. How they negotiate interactions with peers, family and others is important for young people's understanding of who they are and how they fit into their communities. Although research within the new social studies of childhood has focused to some extent on children's family and peer relationships, little attention has been given to the particular dynamics inherent in the relationships of working children. This article therefore focuses on the lives of young commercial sex workers in Ethiopia, and explores how the spatial and temporal performances of multiple fractured identities are used in the negotiation of relationships that take place within and beyond the spaces of sex work. Qualitative research was carried out with 30 teenage ‘bar girls’, aged 14–19, who are engaged in sex work in Nazareth, to explore the processes that influence and shape their lives. Drawing on a conceptualisation of performativity that recognises the spatiality of performative identities, the article illustrates how young sex workers manage multiple identities across the spaces of sex work and how their identities change through relationships at work, in their communities and with their families. The article demonstrates that the nuanced micro-power negotiations taking place result in feminine identities that are encased within wider structures of rural poverty.

The non‐display of authentic distress: public‐private dualism in young people’s discursive construction of self‐harm

This article draws from focus groups and interviews investigating how young people talk about self-harm. Some of the research participants had personal experience of self-harm but this was not a prerequisite for their inclusion in the study. Thematic coding was used initially to organise and give an overview of the data, but the data were subsequently analysed using a discourse analytic approach. The article focuses on the young people's constructions of deliberate self-harm such as 'cutting'. Throughout the focus groups and interviews, a dichotomy was set up by the young people between authentic, private self-harm which is rooted in real distress (and warrants a sympathetic response) and public, self-indulgent attempts to seek attention. This dualistic construction is discussed in some detail and located in various socio-cultural contexts. It is argued that the dualism illustrates contemporary ambivalence about mental health and youth.

Med troen som fællesnævner – fællesskab blandt unge i Indre Mission

<div>Artiklen vil belyse de mekanismer, der ligger til grund for et velfungerende fællesskab i en af Indre Missions ungdomsforeninger i Århus. Troen har på forskellige måder en central position i fællesskabet, og denne artikel vil argumentere for de unges tro som en social identitet, idet deres habitus synes at have en afgørende betydning for den og deres oplevelse af det religiøst funderede fællesskab. Artiklenvil også belyse, hvordan Biblen og dens fortællinger udgør den fortolkningsramme, som de unge er opvokset med og forstår livet igennem. Artiklen viser desuden den rolle, det kollektive samvær spiller i de unges konstruktion af Gud og egen identitet som kristen.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Faith as common ground- community feeling among young evangelicals in Denmark</div><div><br /></div><div>The aim of this article is to demonstrate the mechanisms that underlie a youth association in the so-called Home Mission, a branch of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark. It is the result of anthropological research focusing on the sense of community among members aged between 15 and 27. In a number of ways faith plays a central role in the community, and the main argument of the article is that the young people's faith constitutes a social identity, since their habitus seems to have a decisive impact on their experience of the faith-based community. The article further demonstrates how the Bible and its narratives form the framework of interpretation with which the young people have grown up, and which, in their present life as adults, continues to mould their understanding and view of life, as well as the role that collective interaction plays in the young people's construction of God and their own identity as Christians. A core argument in the article is that faith is a socialization into a structure which results in all participants having the same frame of reference and therefore experiencing a strong feeling of community with one another within this particular wing of the Church of Denmark. <br /> <br /></div>

Making a Difference? Developing Career Education as a Socially Just Practice

Career education plays a crucial role during compulsory secondary schooling by providing students with opportunities to gain diverse insights into the multiple ways in which social, political and economic discourses shape and position concepts of self, career, opportunity and justice. It hence has the potential to make a difference to how young people construct their career(s), make sense of their lives and critically engage with the world but the current career development focus on skills acquisition, competencies and self-management may be limiting opportunities for wider critical educational learning, leading to a restricted conceptualisation of career(s). In this article I draw on the work of Young (1990) to explore the concepts of social injustice and injustice, to consider how these intersect with career education and to outline ways in which career education might engage in anti-oppressive practice. While the examples presented and the issues are from New Zealand, they are applicable elsewhere.

Constructing ‘normal childhoods’: young people talk about young carers

There has been a great deal of attention paid to young carers in recent research, social policy and service provision. In this paper we report on a survey and interview study of 46 young people aged 15 to 18, nine of whom had experience as young carers, to explore the ways in which young people construct the young carer and their disabled parent. A key theme arising from the interview data analysis is the construction of a series of normative assumptions about ‘normal’ childhood through which young carers and their disabled parent are viewed as non‐normative and deficient. The predominantly negative construction of both parent and child/carer is critically analyzed and alternatives suggested in the discussion of these findings.

How children and young people construct and negotiate living with medical technology

Increasing numbers of children need the support of medical technology for their survival and wellbeing, yet little is known about their experiences of living technology-assisted lives. This study aimed to explore how this group of children experience and construct medical technology and its influence on their identity and social relationships. Using a Grounded Theory approach, 28 children/young people aged between 8 and 19 years old and using different types of medical devices were recruited via nursing services in England. Data were collected by in-depth interviews conducted in children's homes. The medical technology occupied an ambivalent position in children's lives being seen as having both an enabling and disabling presence. Children actively engaged in work to incorporate the technology into their lives and bodies by developing strategies to manage their condition, the technology and their identities. This body work appeared to be driven by a desire to 'normalise' their bodies and their lives. Technologies were shaped to integrate them into everyday life and children managed their self-presentation and controlled information about their condition. This work was ongoing, responding to changing social contexts and relationships. For these children the process of 'growing up' involves incorporating disability, illness and technology. This study contributes to knowledge by examining how medical technology is constructed by children whose lives are dependent on it and illuminating the resources and strategies they use to manage their identity and negotiate peer culture interactions and norms.

Reflections on the Sociology of Childhood in the UK

The emergence and development of the sociology of childhood in the UK is strongly connected to the establishment of this area of study in the Nordic countries. However any account of this must also look at the wider context of political and cultural constructions of childhood, children and young people, and intergenerational relationships in the UK. In the early stages of childhood studies there was a synchrony between the orientation of the new social studies of childhood in the UK and changes in how children came to be politically positioned, particularly with respect to an emphasis on children’s voices, their capacity to be agentic and their status as social actors. Since then the political status of childhood has become more problematic. In the last few years there has been a notable shift towards the demonization of teenagers (adolescents) along with rising levels of anxiety concerning children generally. This represents something of a divergence between the orientations of UK policy and politics and contemporary orientations of the sociology of childhood.

Sustaining a positive body image in adolescence: an assets-based analysis

The increasing impetus to provide an effective response to childhood obesity has generated a corresponding concern that weight management interventions may lead to emotional problems among young people, notably in relation to the development of a negative body image. However, currently the processes and factors that contribute to the acquisition of body image among young people is poorly understood. Drawing on salutogenic theory, this paper employs an assets-based approach that focuses on health promoting and protective factors to identify how young people may create or sustain positive body images. Secondary data analysis was undertaken from the WHO Health Behaviour in School Aged Children Study. During the spring term of 2002, information was collected from 6425 English adolescents aged 11-15 using a self-administered questionnaire. The data were analysed using stepwise multinomial logistic regression to determine which factors were associated with positive body image; a total of 2898 students were included in the final analysis. Adolescents who self-identified as having a positive body image were more likely to report ease of talking with a father figure, feeling intelligent, perceiving that their family were well off and a belief that their teachers were interested in them as people. Body Mass Index, age, gender and living within a household containing a father were also significant predictors of body image. The discussion provides an exploration of how the construction of young people's emotional health is in part linked with the attainment of a secure and positive body image. The implications for health promotion and educational programmes are then examined. By considering the assets, which support or sustain a positive body image during adolescence, obesity prevention programmes could be better tailored to meet the needs of young people. In the future, a salutogenic curriculum might provide an alternative to unsustainable levels of deficit led, targeted programmes.