Understanding Of Young People Research Articles

Young people's perceptions of mental health

Research exploring young people's views towards mental health is at an early stage of development. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study which used focus group discussions and individual interviews to explore young people's understanding of mental health and illness; the promotion of positive mental health; responses to negative feelings; and perceived differences between themselves and adults. An overview of previous research is provided in the introduction, followed by a description of the methods and sampling strategies used. The main findings are then presented. Finally, a number of implications have been drawn out which are commented on in the conclusions. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Young people's perceptions of mental health

Research exploring young people's views towards mental health is at an early stage of development. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study which used focus group discussions and individual interviews to explore young people's understanding of mental health and illness; the promotion of positive mental health; responses to negative feelings; and perceived differences between themselves and adults. An overview of previous research is provided in the introduction, followed by a description of the methods and sampling strategies used. The main findings are then presented. Finally, a number of implications have been drawn out which are commented on in the conclusions. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Making sense of mentoring or mentoring making sense? Reflections on the mentoring process by adult mentors with young people

This paper sets out to look at the processes of mentoring from the perspectives of adult mentors who were interviewed as part of a wider study of young people's perceptions and understandings of informal mentoring processes. It seeks to clarify the processes of mentoring within the context of the ‘risk society’ by posing the question, how do young people and mentors perceive these processes? What do mentors get out of the mentoring relationship? Findings from a qualitative study of informal mentoring relationships are drawn on to suggest that the mentors perceive the experience of being identified as a mentor and the processes of mentoring in highly positive terms. It is argued that this provides a form of ‘cultural capital for mentors’ in helping them to make sense of the challenges and dilemmas they face as adults. It is concluded that this finding has important implications for the design of mentoring interventions with young people. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Young People's Experiences of the Lottery

ABSTRACT The UK National Lottery has been said to have ‘gripped the nation's psyche’. In this interview based study, examination of the data on young people's experiences of the Lottery revealed something of their understanding in relation to the following questions. What is the basis on which the National Lottery can be seen to be justified as an activity. Do young people see the National Lottery as an alternative to taxation? Is the National Lottery perceived as a regressive tax? Is the National Lottery seen to be more socially acceptable than other forms of gambling? The Lottery was not seen to involve any act of altruism involving charitable giving but seen as a source of fun, the pursuit of a dream and a lifeline for some. The existence of free choice seemed by some to be a key criterion in justifying this resource use in the economy but this simplistic justification was challenged by the views of others. In a world where taxes are seen as a bogey, the Lottery could be justified in terms of the positive effect of supplementing government spending. The method of its promotion made the Lottery an acceptable form of gambling—despite the possibility of addiction-for all but those whose personal belief systems proscribe any form of gambling. The variation present in these responses provides a basis for exploring young people's understanding of the economic cycle of causality.

Arousing suspicion and violating trust: The lived ideology of safe sex talk

There are two commonly perceived risks associated with safe sex talk between potential sexual partners: Arousing suspicion and violating trust. Utilizing a distinction between 'lived' and 'intellectual' ideologies, these issues are explored via an examination of the tensions that exist between young people's understandings of what should, or ought to be put into practise, and what can be put into practise in a sexual relationship. Taking a Shotterian approach to meaning-construction, the present study focuses on 19 audience-group conversations about two AIDS-related teen-television programmes. These conversations are analysed through the foregrounding of audience action problems and accounts. It emerges that the initiation of safe sex talk raises questions about the talker's past, the answers to which can undermine trust between partners. This loss of trust, however, has different meanings when applied to men and women. For a man, it simply means that he can no longer to be trusted to be discreet, while for a woman it means that she is no longer considered a trustworthy, or low-risk, partner. It is concluded that effective safe sex advice needs to take into account such local, common sense understandings in order to bridge the gap between the 'lived' and the 'intellectual' ideologies of safe sex talk.

Young people's understanding of mental illness.

Research exploring young people's perspectives on mental health is at an early stage of development and few studies have focused in detail on mental distress or illness. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study which used case vignettes in group and individual interviews to explore the ways in which the young people who took part constructed their understanding of what constitutes mental illness. In essence, they did so by drawing on their own experiences to distinguish between behaviours with which they could identify in some way and those with which they could not. An overview of previous relevant research is provided in the Introduction, followed by a description of the methods and sampling strategies used. The main findings of the study are then presented in relation to the ways in which young people defined unusual behaviour, their understanding of the behaviours associated with different mental health problems and their attitudes to the people concerned. Finally, some ways in which health promotion might build on the findings are identified and discussed.

Young People's Voluntary and Campaigning Activities as Sources of Political Education

The article begins by examining the predominant image of young people today as alienated, apathetic, and uninvolved in their communities. It is argued that any debate about participation and politics should consider young people's involvement in voluntary and campaigning activities. Using data from a study of 1160 14-16 year-olds, it is shown that a considerable number of young people are involved in volunteering and campaigning, and also that these activities are influenced by gender, ethnicity, locality and the family. The article then explores the ways in which participation in volunteering and campaigning can promote the development of young people's political knowledge, awareness and understanding. It is demonstrated that involvement in these activities affects young people's political development in five ways, specifically in developing an understanding of the needs of different groups in society; a sense of influence over political and social events; a growing sense of party political differences and voting intent; reflection on social structures and processes; and acquiring skills useful in political campaigning. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.

Revisiting sexual styles: patterns of adolescents' self-perceptions.

Recently, Buzwell and Rosenthal proposed that sexual styles were a useful way of understanding young people's constructions of a sexual identity. In this work we replicated with a sample of 522 15- to 16-yr.-olds in broad terms, the five styles identified by Buzwell and Rosenthal.

An Exploratory Study of Young Persons' Attachment Styles and Perceived Reasons for Parental Divorce

The relation between young people 'perceptions of the reasonsfortheirparents 'divorces and their own feelings of security in romantic relationships was explored in this study. Eighty-one young persons from divorced homes completed the Reasons for Parental Divorce Questionnaire (RPDQ) developed specifically for this study and self-report instruments regarding attachment style, as measured by the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ) (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991) and the Relationships Scale Questionnaire (RSQ) (Griffin & Bartholomew, 1994). The majority (73%) of young people in this study described insecure attachment styles. As expected, perceptions of why parents divorced were significantly related to young persons'attachment outcomes. Reasons for divorce involving expressions of overt anger; the involvement of the children, and extramarital affairs were most important in differentiating secure and insecure young persons. Thus, these results indicate that there may be meaningful connections between young people 's understandings of theirparents 'divorces and their own romantic relational perspectives.

Children's and Adolescents' Understanding of Rights: Balancing Nurturance and Self‐Determination

This study examined the development of young people's understanding of nurturance and self-determination rights. One hundred and sixty-nine participants from 5 age groups (8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 years of age) participated in a semistructured interview containing hypothetical vignettes, in which a story character wished to exercise a self-determination right or nurturance right that conflicted with the wishes or practices of those in authority. Participants were asked to decide if they would support the story character's request for rights and to justify their decisions. Younger children (8- to 12-year-olds) were significantly less likely to identify both nurturance and self-determination rights as salient than were older participants (14- to 16-year-olds). The types of reasoning participants exhibited for the two types of rights differed at all ages. Reasoning about nurturance rights did not show an age-related progression from concrete to abstract, whereas reasoning about self-determination rights was more likely to exhibit such a progression. Results suggest that previous attempts to explain the development of understanding of rights in terms of global stages does not fully capture children's and adolescents' reasoning, and, in particular, such a framework may not account for the differences in young people's thinking about the 2 types of rights.

A study of progression in learning about ‘the nature of science’: issues of conceptualisation and methodology

This paper describes a study of progression of young people's understandings of ‘the nature of science’ from age 9 to age 16. The paper aims to problematise the notion of ‘progression in learning’, and to describe the methodology used in the study in the context of a range of possible methodologies for studying progression in learning science. Findings relating to young peoples’ characterisations of the nature of scientific knowledge and empirical enquiry are presented, and age‐related trends are discussed. A framework for considering students’ reasoning about aspects of ‘the nature of science’ is proposed. Finally, uses and limitations in the use of data from cross‐sectional studies on progression are considered.

Understanding sexual coercion among young adolescents: communicative clarity, pressure, and acceptance.

Young people's understanding of sexual coercion was studied. Boys and girls (N = 191) were asked to rate scenarios depicting sexual situations according to their perceptions of communicative clarity, the extent of pressure being applied to one partner, and the acceptability of the behaviors. Judgments of communicative clarity were given more readily when there was consent rather than dissent to sex. Clear communication was readily inferred even when there were no cues that this was the case. Boundaries of behaviors that were defined as constituting "pressure" were influenced by the outcome, that is whether sex did or did not occur, as well as the behavior itself. Ratings of acceptability closely followed those of pressure, although the relationships between perceptions of pressure and acceptability were stronger for girls than for boys. In general, there were few gender differences in perceptions of pressure and communicative clarity. Of concern was the finding that, for some respondents, pressure and acceptability were unrelated to the use of either physical or emotional force.

A LISTENING HEART:

International Review of MissionVolume 84, Issue 335 p. 379-385 A LISTENING HEART: REFLECTIONS ON CROSSCULTURAL EVANGELISM Francis Brienen, Francis Brienen Frances Brienen, from the Netherlands, is associate secretary for Education in Mission with the Council for World Mission, in London, UK.Search for more papers by this author Francis Brienen, Francis Brienen Frances Brienen, from the Netherlands, is associate secretary for Education in Mission with the Council for World Mission, in London, UK.Search for more papers by this author First published: October 1995 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.1995.tb02716.x Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume84, Issue335October 1995Pages 379-385 RelatedInformation

Young people's understanding and assertion of their rights to silence and legal counsel

Using hypothetical vignettes, two studies examined factors affecting the assertion of rights to silence and legal counsel. Study 1 tested Grade 6, 8, 10 and 13 students' understanding of their rights to silence and counsel and the impact of age and context-specific variables (guilt and evidence) on their decision to assert rights. Study 2 examined the impact of guilt and evidence on young adults' decisions to assert rights to silence and counsel. In Study 1, a substantial majority (80-90%) of subjects over the age of 16 successfully paraphrased these rights, while only a third of the youngest subjects did so. Over 75% of subjects in both studies asserted the right to counsel; assertion was unrelated to grade. Less than half the subjects in Study 1 asserted the right to silence but assertion increased significantly with grade, with the Grade 10 and 13 students showing comparable assertion rates to the young adults (60%). Both youth and adult subjects were sensitive to the contextual factors of guilt and evidence, though the nature of the effects on assertion of rights depended on the particular right in question and on subjects' age. Youths' patterns of assertion suggest that they are more naive about the realities of the legal system than are adults, although even adults showed evidence of naivety about the need for due process protection. Thus, merely extending due process rights to youths will not adequately protect them in an adult-like youth justice system.

Young People's understanding of science concepts: implications of cross-age studies for curriculum planning

(1994). Young People's understanding of science concepts: implications of cross-age studies for curriculum planning. Studies in Science Education: Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 75-100.

IV. Constructing Identities: Young People's Understandings of Power and Social Relations

IV. Constructing Identities: Young People's Understandings of Power and Social Relations

Political Education of Pupils in the New Federal States

The social upheaval and the change in the political, economic, and sociocultural relations in East Germany are making new demands on young people's understanding of politics, especially as regards democracy and pluralism, and thus on political education and socialization. New social conditions and demands mean new demands on education. Pupils are growing up under conditions of a free market economy and in an achievement society, with which they had not previously been confronted in their life. This places a high demand on the individual, on his fulfillment of his daily duties, on his ability to achieve, and on his social competence.

The perception of poverty among adolescents

Despite the fact that some work has been done on children's conception of economic relationships very little work has been done using adolescents as subjects or young people's understanding of more abstract economic ideas such as poverty. This study set out to review all the salient literature in this area and then look at specific differences between two groups of adolescents' explanations of poverty. Two groups of adolescent school‐boys—one from a comprehensive school, and the other from a public school—were asked to define what they thought was the annual income of a number of types of people if that income meant that they were poor. They were then asked to indicate how important they thought various explanations were to account for poverty in Britain. In both cases the predictions were confirmed: public schoolboys estimates of the approximate annual income of poor people were significantly higher than that of comprehensive schoolboys and secondly the public schoolboys found individualistic explanations for poverty more important than comprehensive schoolboys who in turn found societal explanations more important. The results are discussed in terms of the children's socialization and experience of money. Limitations of this research, and suggestions for further work in this field are noted.