Youth In Context Research Articles

Development of positive intergroup emotions amongst youth in contexts affected or threatened by conflict.

Social‐psychological research has established the importance of positive emotions for creating and maintaining positive intergroup relations in contexts affected or threatened by conflict (intergroup reconciliation). Building on existing body of evidence, we conceptualised intergroup reconciliation as a process aimed at regulating negative intergroup emotions such as hatred and creating more positive and relationship functional emotions such as trust. This review presents theoretical and empirical insights into the emotion regulation perspective on intergroup reconciliation. Regulation of negative intergroup emotions amongst youths affected by conflict is feasible through social‐psychological interventions.

Youth on the Frontlines: Preventing Human Rights Abuses in Violent Contexts, A Case Study of LUCHA in the DR of Congo

ABSTRACT∞ Increasingly, transitional justice (TJ) mechanisms are implemented in contexts of ongoing violence where youth are often perceived as victims or perpetrators of human rights violations. This reductionist conceptualization of youth is problematic for understanding the diverse identities of youth in contexts where large-scale human rights violations occur. It also obscures the positive roles of youth as non-State actors in advancing human rights accountability and preventing the recurrence of specific human rights violations. This article explores how youth participation in LUCHA—a countrywide youth movement born from Goma (North Kivu) that advocates for greater political and civic involvement of Congolese—influences youth understandings of justice and contributes to the non-recurrence of specific human rights violations. Using collective participation as a conceptual lens and semi-structured interviews and focus groups conducted in 2015 and 2021 with LUCHA activists, the article contends that overemphasizing State actors eclipses non-State actors’ roles—including youth-led peace and justice initiatives in areas where State actors are inexistent or have weakened legitimacy. The article’s central claim is that ignoring the nexus between youth participation and justice understandings, particularly in contexts of ongoing violence, limits TJ’s full potential to unfold in these contexts. By zooming in on the TJ pillar of Guarantees of Non Recurrence (GoNR), the article is an invitation to further interrogate youth’s roles in TJ contexts and expand the field’s toolkit to accommodate their unique contributions.

Comparative analysis of the models of innovation potential of student youth and working youth of the industrial regions of Russia

The subject of this research is the peculiarities of innovation potential of student youth and working youth of the industrial regions of Russia. The article examines the means of sociological cognition of innovation problematic within its subject field. Comparative analysis is conducted on the structure of innovation potential of student youth and working youth in the regional context. Methodological framework is comprised of community and environmental approaches. The empirical base contains the results of survey among the student youth (2019, N=1828) and working youth (2018, N=1078) from sixth industrial regions of the Russian Federation – Republic of Bashkortostan, Volgograd Oblast, Kaluga Oblast, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Perm Krai, and Krasnoyarsk Krai. The scientific novelty consists in proposed by the authors research strategy – Complementarity in Mixed Methods Research. Methodological complementarity of the community and environmental approaches along with the four empirical models within the structure of innovation potential (intentional, alternative, resource, and up-to-date) allowed viewing the innovation potential of student youth and working youth in the context of dialectics of common and special. Contradiction was detected between the subjective and environmental characteristics of innovation potential of the youth. Current state of educational and industrial environment of the agents of innovative development devaluates the high intentional and achieved level of innovation potential of student youth and working youth.

On Youth and National Identity in the Palestinian Context

This study aims to examine the attitudes and opinions of Palestinian youth in the context of the debate about intergenerational conflict and the specificity of youth in the Palestinian condition. A high percentage of young people in the various Palestinian communities are exposed to unemployment, and in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, they have become targets of the Israeli occupation and its policies. Most Palestinian youth also face a dead-end in the political and living horizons and the scarcity of normal life opportunities (including, work, education, family, freedom of movement, planning for the future, etc.). Young people, as the case with women and other social groups, are also subject to restrictions that limit their access to political, economic, social and cultural decision-making positions. Drawing on studies and surveys that dealt with the situation of Palestinian youth, after discussing the rationale for interest in youth in the past two decades, this study shows the need to deal with youth as an essential component of society and not as an external segment or as outsiders. It also indicates that there are relatively limited differences between the positions and opinions of Palestinian youth and the older age groups. The study concludes that differences in the opinions of youth (and non-youth) can be attributed to the variations in the political situations and life opportunities among Palestinian communities, gender, place of residence, and political affiliation. The study did not find evidence to support the argument that intergenerational conflict exists. The determining factor in this condition is the Israeli occupation, Zionist settler-colonialism, apartheid regime, and the denial of basic rights. This study confirms the vitality of national culture among the various Palestinian communities.

Serving High-Risk Youth in Context: Perspectives from Hong Kong

Background: High-risk youth are often defined in occupational therapy terminology as adolescents and young adults who experience personal, contextual, or environmental barriers to effective participation in healthy, age-appropriate occupations. Without assistance for participation, these youth may acquiesce to daily routines of unhealthy risk-taking or isolation, failing to achieve developmental milestones needed for successful transition to adulthood. There are known therapeutic services targeting this population, but occupational therapy involvements have been sparsely documented.

Social Workers’ Roles in Supporting the Sexual and Relational Health of Children with Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to understand social workers’ roles in meeting the sexual and relational health needs of children (aged 3–11) with disabilities. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 social workers from a range of practice settings. A phenomenological lens privileged the perspectives of social workers in their definitions of disability and sought to convey the meaning they assigned to their experiences of working with children in practice concerning matters related to sexual and relational health. Social workers enacted a broad definition of disability and often came to work with youth in contexts labeled as sexually problematic. In the provision of sexual health services, social workers embodied commonly adhered to roles including as practitioners, enablers, advocates, brokers, and managers. Services are needed that promote positive sexuality and relational health among children with disabilities. It is important that social workers be proactive advocates for the full inclusion of people with disabilities as equal sexual citizens.

Youth in Context: Preparing for Lifelong Health and Wellness With Lessons Learned in Opening a High School Based Health Clinic

high-impact advocacy intervention, which spreads the word about LARC and its availability. Methods: This initiative is an advocacy project partnering community pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) with local family planning, teen pregnancy prevention, and PYD organizations. We additionally work with the New York State Family Planning Benefit Programwith Presumptive Eligibility (FPBP), which is a Medicaid product offering free and confidential same-day family planning services, including LARC for adolescents. Our multifaceted community-based intervention focuses on raising awareness about LARC and FPBP among adults who work with youth. Our community presentations empower the adults with whom youth have established, trusting relationships (health teachers, pediatricians, recreation center leaders, counselors, etc.) to talk about the most effective pregnancy prevention methods and how to obtain them. Results: We have created a coalition of local agencies aligned in increasing LARC use among Rochester’s sexually active youth, and attracted interest from local government about the utility of LARC for preventing intergenerational poverty.We have helped to form a group of health educators focused on community education for LARC. Between August 2014 and August 2015, we have presented to over 300 adults who work with youth in 25 sites, including five primary care pediatrics offices; these 300 adults interact with thousands of teens each year. We facilitated an increase in the number of Rochester clinics offering FPBP. Additionally, we see evidence of increased demand for LARC training among pediatric health care providers, and have facilitated a project to train pediatrics residents within the URMC system in LARC insertion. Conclusions: This advocacy program connects local PYD groups and pediatric health care providers with existing infrastructure providing free, confidential, same-day contraceptive services. For other communities with FPBP programs, this project provides a model for mobilizing PYD and family planning agencies around a common goal of teen pregnancy prevention, and focuses that energy on the winnable battle of increasing teen LARC use. Sources of Support:

Examining multiracial youth in context: ethnic identity development and mental health outcomes.

Although multiracial individuals are the fastest growing population in the United States, research on the identity development of multiracial adolescents remains scant. This study explores the relationship between ethnic identity, its components (affirmation, exploration), and mental health outcomes (anxiety, depressive symptoms) within the contexts of schools for multiracial adolescents. The participants were multiracial and monoracial minority and majority high school students (n = 4,766; 54.6% female). Among the participants, 88.1% were Caucasian, 7.4% were African American, and 4.5% were multiracial. The research questions examined the relationship between ethnic identity exploration and affirmation on mental health outcomes and explored the role school context plays in this relationship. The findings suggested that multiracial youth experience more exploration and less affirmation than African Americans, but more than Caucasians. In addition, multiracial youth were found to have higher levels of mental health issues than their monoracial minority and majority peers. Specifically, multiracial youth had higher levels of depressive symptoms than their African American and Caucasian counterparts. Multiracial and Caucasian youth had similar levels of anxiety but these levels were significantly higher than African Americans. School diversity did not influence mental health outcomes for multiracial youth. These findings provide insight into the experiences of multiracial youth and underscore the importance of further investigating factors that contribute to their mental health outcomes.

Parametric Modulation of Neural Activity by Emotion in Youth With Bipolar Disorder, Youth With Severe Mood Dysregulation, and Healthy Volunteers

CONTEXT Youth with bipolar disorder (BD) and those with severe, nonepisodic irritability (severe mood dysregulation [SMD]) exhibit amygdala dysfunction during facial emotion processing. However, studies have not compared such patients with each other and with comparison individuals in neural responsiveness to subtle changes in facial emotion; the ability to process such changes is important for social cognition. To evaluate this, we used a novel, parametrically designed faces paradigm. OBJECTIVE To compare activation in the amygdala and across the brain in BD patients, SMD patients, and healthy volunteers (HVs). DESIGN Case-control study. SETTING Government research institute. PARTICIPANTS Fifty-seven youths (19 BD, 15 SMD, and 23 HVs). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Blood oxygenation level-dependent data. Neutral faces were morphed with angry and happy faces in 25% intervals; static facial stimuli appeared for 3000 milliseconds. Participants performed hostility or nonemotional facial feature (ie, nose width) ratings. The slope of blood oxygenation level-dependent activity was calculated across neutral-to-angry and neutral-to-happy facial stimuli. RESULTS In HVs, but not BD or SMD participants, there was a positive association between left amygdala activity and anger on the face. In the neutral-to-happy whole-brain analysis, BD and SMD participants modulated parietal, temporal, and medial-frontal areas differently from each other and from that in HVs; with increasing facial happiness, SMD patients demonstrated increased, and BD patients decreased, activity in the parietal, temporal, and frontal regions. CONCLUSIONS Youth with BD or SMD differ from HVs in modulation of amygdala activity in response to small changes in facial anger displays. In contrast, individuals with BD or SMD show distinct perturbations in regions mediating attention and face processing in association with changes in the emotional intensity of facial happiness displays. These findings demonstrate similarities and differences in the neural correlates of facial emotion processing in BD and SMD, suggesting that these distinct clinical presentations may reflect differing dysfunctions along a mood disorders spectrum.

Youth in context: frameworks, settings and encounters

Youth in Context: Frameworks, Settings and Encounters offers a critical and up-to-date overview of the theoretical and practical issues involved in work with young people. It helps readers situate current practice issues within the context of a rapidly changing field, and demonstrates how critical reflection can be used as a tool to transform individual and collective practice. The book is divided into three parts: Part 1 provides conceptual tools for understanding changing policy and practice in relation to young people. Part 2 considers the changing contexts in which work with young people takes place. Part 3 explores the diverse ways in which services for young people are planned and organised. The book offers a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to understanding the changing experience of work with young people, presenting complex issues in an accessible and interactive way. It will be essential reading for students on courses in youth work, youth studies, education, social work and social policy, and for professionals working with young people in a wide range of settings. Together with its companion volume, Understanding Youth: Perspectives, Identities and Practices it is a core text for The Open University's third level undergraduate course Youth: Perspectives and Practice (KE308).

Special Issue Introduction: New Research on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth: Studying Lives in Context

In the past three decades there has been growing attention to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth among adolescence researchers. Beginning with a few seminal studies on the risk-factors, particularly suicide, faced by lesbian and gay youth (Martin and Hetrick 1988), research on these populations has emerged over the past 30 years as an important and critical area within the study of adolescence. Despite the proliferation of research, investigations of LGBT youth still remain largely oriented toward studying deficits such as the role of victimization on mental and physical health, academic achievement, and identity development (Espelage and Swearer 2008). In recent years, researchers have begun to criticize research paradigms that focus on sexual minority youth as ‘‘at-risk’’ and suggest that these paradigms contribute to a social context that views these youth as deficient (Savin-Williams 2005; Russell 2005). While it is necessary to continue examining of risks and challenges faced by these youth, as with any population of youth, it is important to acknowledge these criticisms and to incorporate additional perspectives of LGBT youths lives and to view these youth as resilient and thriving rather than simply ‘‘at-risk’’. Yet much of the work from this ‘‘new’’ paradigm continues to treat sexual minority youth as a monothilic or homogeneous group and fails to examine the ways in which the social contexts that shape the lives of LGBT youth influence the persistent inequalities in health risk behavior, mental health, and long-term psychosocial adjustment of LGBT youth and adults. With this special issue we propose a paradigm that moves beyond studying LGBT youth as either at-risk OR resilient, but rather that focuses on understanding the ways in which LGBT youth negotiate their development within various social contexts. By expanding the paradigm to consider the role of context in the lives of LGBT youth, we can begin to understand not only the complex and nuanced ways that individuals’ lives are shaped by their social contexts, but also the ways that individual characteristics (such as temperament or gender) impact the ways that LGBT youth engage with and experience their social world. For example, while it is likely the case that homophobic and heterosexist schools have a negative impact on all LGBT youth, this type of negative or hostile climate may be particularly salient for young people questioning their sexual orientation or for those young people who do not have support systems in other arenas of their lives (such as families or peer groups). As a whole, the papers in this volume attempt to move the field beyond the ‘‘at-risk’’ or ‘‘resilient’’ paradigms by exploring the complex ways young people construct an understanding of their identities, their experiences, and the social contexts in which they are engaged, as well as the varied ways that context matters in the health and development of LGBT youth. In this collection of articles, authors cover a range of topics that contribute to our understanding of the lives of LGBT youth in context. Not surprisingly, several studies focus on the experience of harassment and victimization (e.g., Almeida et al. 2009). The last decades have seen notable attention to concerns for LGBT students; several of the articles included here focus on understanding and S. S. Horn (&) University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA e-mail: staceyhorn@gmail.com

Racial Identity and Academic Achievement in the Neighborhood Context: A Multilevel Analysis

Increasingly, researchers have found relationships between a strong, positive sense of racial identity and academic achievement among African American youth. Less attention, however, has been given to the roles and functions of racial identity among youth experiencing different social and economic contexts. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the authors examined the relationship of racial identity to academic outcomes, taking into account neighborhood-level factors. The sample consisted of 564 African American eighth-graders (56% male). The authors found that neighborhood characteristics and racial identity related positively to academic outcomes, but that some relationships were different across neighborhood types. For instance, in neighborhoods low in economic opportunity, high pride was associated with a higher GPA, but in more advantaged neighborhoods, high pride was associated with a lower GPA. The authors discuss the need to take youth's contexts into account in order to understand how racial identity is active in the lives of African American youth.

Review of Kathleen Nader’s Understanding and Assessing Trauma in Children and Adolescents: Measures, Methods, and Youth in Context

A practitioner, researcher, and developer of numerous measures of children's and adolescents' reactions to trauma including one of the first and most frequently used measures of childhood posttraum...

The Impact of Violence Exposure on African American Youth in Context

Statistics indicate that violence exposure is a major health concern for African American youth. Studies have focused on traditional reactions to violence exposure but have failed to explore violence exposure among African American youth in the context in which it occurs. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine whether the stress and coping responses of 178 African American youth were the result of violence exposure alone or an accumulation of stressors. Violence experienced was a significant predictor of posttraumatic stress symptoms but not of preferred coping strategy. Life events, discrimination, violence exposure, neighborhood disadvantage, number of people in the home, and gender (each variable contributing to sociopolitical context) significantly predicted variance in active coping. Witnessing violence failed to be predictive of any variable. Assessment and treatment implications are discussed.