Youth In Hungary Research Articles

Effective, relevant, measured: Development projects of disadvantaged youth in Hungary

Effective, relevant, measured: Development projects of disadvantaged youth in Hungary

‘I was told the position has already been filled’

The article investigates educational and career paths of educated Roma youth in Hungary as striving to enter quality employment in the business sector. While the employment rate of well-educated Roma youth is high compared to the general Roma population, their sectoral distribution is skewed towards self-employment, and towards the public sector vis-à-vis private sector. Our article investigates the reasons for the low presence of educated Roma in the business sphere, a sector which holds the greatest potential of occupational and social mobility. We use a survey dataset of educated young Roma (N=381), and also rely on in-depth interviews with youth from the same group, which provided us with a better understanding of the individual experiences of social mobility. We identify some of the main barriers linked to business sector employment of the Roma youth. By utilising the Bourdesian theoretical lens, we focus on the importance of cultural habitus and its misrecognition in professional settings. The paper analyses successful capital mobilizations of those striving towards/ experiencing social mobility, while discussing experiences of failures too. These findings are unique in their nature as they pinpoint individual mobility strategies, the role of different forms of capitals in strive for jobs and later in early professional career.

Political or Aesthetical Subversion? Strategies of Avant-Garde Speaking Choirs in Interwar Hungary

Speaking choirs were underground artistic groups of labor-class youth in Hungary in the period between the two World Wars. The groups, led mostly by Avant-Garde artists, were artistic and political communities also. Dadaism, Expressionism and Constructivism, Soviet Proletkult and revolutionary mass festivals had considerable influence on the speaking choir movement. Politically, a number of the choirs were influenced by the Social Democratic Party, others by the illegal Communist Party, but some of them, such as the choir of Kassák or the company of Palasovszky, were autonomous leftist groups that strove to remain detached from any kind of party influence. In the paper I will give two examples of works written especially for speaking choirs. One is a poem by probably the best known twentieth century Hungarian poet, Attila József (Tömeg [Crowd], 1930). The other is a mass play of multiple choirs written for street performance. It is called Punalua (1926), it was written by a lesser known Avant-Gardist poet and stage director, Ödön Palasovszky, and due to its grand scale, it was never performed. The poem of Attila József, though a masterpiece of its genre, remains enclosed in its own sociocultural context whereas Punalua is still open to reinterpretations.

Education of Roma Youth in Hungary: Schools, Identities and Belonging

Historically, schools have been homogenizing institutions that often disadvantaged people of color and ethnic and religious minorities. In this article I examine Roma education in Hungary, focusing on (re)production of racial identities and the negotiation of ethnic labels. I distinguish two models of education as they relate to ideas of integration, and assess the evolving ethnic labels: “bad Gypsies” and “good Roma.” These labels reflect different philosophies of education, and both contain different tensions and challenges.

Establishing Normative Reference Values for Standing Broad Jump Among Hungarian Youth

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine age and sex trends in anaerobic power assessed by a standing broad jump and to determine norm-referenced values for youth in Hungary. Method: A sample of 2,427 Hungarian youth (1,360 boys and 1,067 girls) completed the standing broad jump twice, and the highest distance score was recorded. Quantile regression was used to fit standing broad jump trends across linear and quadratic functions of age. Statistical significance was determined with bootstrap confidence intervals and the Wald test with p < .05. Age-by-sex specific centiles were generated and the 50th percentile was used to describe the overall patterns. Results: Standing broad jump scores increased steadily in boys from age 11 through 18 years with a discrete plateau at the end of adolescence. Girls' standing broad jump scores of those who performed above the median increased with age and plateaued later in the adolescence. Both linear and quadratic age terms were statistically significant predictors of standing broad jump trends across age (p < .05), but the relations varied depending on the percentile. The 50th percentile values resulted in 147.0 cm, 162.0 cm, 175.0 cm, 186.0 cm, 195.0 cm, 202.0 cm, 207.0 cm, and 210.0 cm for boys aged 11 to 18 years old, respectively, and 140.0 cm, 143.9 cm, 147.3 cm, 150.0 cm, 152.1 cm, 153.7 cm, 154.6 cm, and 155.0 cm for girls aged 11 to 18 years old, respectively. Conclusions: This study provides normative reference charts that take into account age and sex differences in standing broad jump performance. The proposed reference values can be used to interpret standing broad jump scores in Hungarian youth.

The Kodály and Rajkó Methods: Voices, Instruments, Ethnicity, and the Globalization of Hungarian Music Education in the Twentieth Century

Music is one of the fields in which Hungary has distinguished itself around the world, and music education is an arena in which Hungarian methods have had a profound impact. The basic principles of Hungarian music-pedagogical methods, developed by Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) and his disciples and thus known as the Kodály method, are systematic instruction in sight-singing using “movable-do” solfège and rhythmic syllables, with the ideal of developing music literacy in all children through high-quality music, mainly classical and folk repertoire for choirs. Another type of well-known Hungarian music, so-called “Gypsy music,” is specifically denied legitimacy both in Kodály’s writings and those of some of his students, for two reasons: much of it is primarily instrumental instead of vocal, and it is considered “bad.” Yet Romani (Gypsy) musicians from Hungary have also become famous internationally, some from quite a young age. The Rajkó Ensemble, established in 1952 as the Gypsy Orchestra of the Young Communists’ League, brought Hungarian and Hungarian-Gypsy music to over a hundred countries over the years. Interviews with Rajkó members, some conducted by the author and some previously published, reveal those musicians struggling to claim the legitimacy not only of their music but of their music pedagogy, implicitly comparing the Rajkó method to the Kodály method. After a brief discussion of the Kodály method and its history, this essay gives some examples of how that method has dealt with talented Romani youth in Hungary; compares the Kodály method to methods of teaching instrumental music in Roma communities and in the Rajkó Ensemble; and considers how American ideals of multicultural education challenge some of Kodály’s tenets.

“We Have Wines of All Kinds: Red, White, and Green”: Romanian Reactions to the Hungarian Uprising in 1956*

Drawing on memoirs, archival documents, and recent scholarship, this article examines the reverberations of the Hungarian revolution of 1956 in three Romanian cities, Bucharest, Cluj‐Napoca, and Timişoara. Before the collapse of communism in Romania in 1989, a stereotype prevailed that, in contrast to the youth in Hungary, as well as in Poland and Czechoslovakia, Romanian students were too “cowardly” to voice their opinion of the events of the 1950s, including the Hungarian revolt. After the communist regime's collapse, Romanian scholars working with new archival documents debunked this conception, claiming that a student protest “movement” and widespread “demonstrations” (manifestarile) did indeed occur throughout Romania. The truth lies somewhere in‐between. Romanian university students were neither too “timid” to speak their minds about the need for reforms, nor tightly united in a movement with a central leadership and specific agenda.

Values and health-related behaviour: a comparison of youth in Hungary and Transylvania

A number of factors have been investigated as important determinants of adolescent healthrelated behaviour among which values occupy a special place. A growing number of studies of adolescents’ health-related behaviours include cultural factors. The main goal of the present study was to investigate how a set of values preferred by youth influence their health-related behaviours using a cross-cultural study design of samples of youth from Szeged, Hungary (N = 160), and Târgu Mures (Marosvasarhely), Transylvania, Rumania (N = 124). Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The following values were investigated: filial piety, familism, machismo, collectivism and fatalism. In addition, four health-related behaviours were measured: smoking, alcohol use, marijuana use and sports activity. Irrespective of culture, female students tend to prefer filial piety, collectivism, whereas male students reported higher scores on machismo. Male students in Hungary tend to report higher levels of marijuana use, whereas males from the Transylvanian sample report a higher engagement in sports activity. Alcohol use is more common among males in both samples. Some important cultural differences in the relationship between values and health-related behaviours may also be detected. Among youth in Hungary, fatalism is related to higher levels of substance use. Machismo, on the other hand, plays a role in higher levels of sports activity in the Transylvanian sample. Finally, preferring social values, such as filial piety, familism and collectivism, may be associated with lower levels of substance use or higher levels of sports activity, that is, a more favourable health behaviour pattern in both samples.

The features of emotion regulation in a clinical sample of youth in hungary. Pilot study of ‘feelings and me’ questionnaire.

The features of emotion regulation in a clinical sample of youth in hungary. Pilot study of ‘feelings and me’ questionnaire.

Short Communication

Among the most persecuted peoples in the world, Rroma (Gypsies) have sometimes struggled to retain their ethnic identity, and have suffered from a lack of formal education and high rates of illiteracy. This article examines the education and sport involvement of Rroma youth in Hungary. Results suggest that while Rroma youth are from severely disadvantaged backgrounds, their educational achievements are impressive. The sports in which Rroma youth are involved are generally similar to other Hungarian youth; however, the different rates of participation appear to be related both to differences in income and education and to ethnicity. Education and sports participation may well serve as vehicles for assimilating Rroma into the dominant Magyar (Hungarian) culture, but in schools that cater predominantly for Rroma students and include instruction in Rroma language and culture, they may also serve to consolidate ethnic differences and strengthen ethnic identity.

Prevalence of Cigarette Smoking Among Secondary School Students—Budapest, Hungary, 1995

Because of the high prevalence of tobacco use in countries of Central and Eastern Europe, public health officials in many of these countries have designated as a priority the prevention of smoking initiation among youth. In 1995, a nationally representative survey in the Republic of Hungary documented that 35.8% of 16-year-old students in that country had smoked cigarettes during the preceding 30 days. To better characterize smoking among youth in Hungary, the Field Epidemiology Training Program, Hungarian Ministry of Welfare, conducted a cross-sectional survey in Budapest (1995 population: 1,906,798) among secondary school students aged 14-18 years. Specific objectives of the survey were to assess the prevalence of cigarette smoking among these students, determine factors associated with higher prevalences, and describe the smoking habits of current cigarette smokers. This report summarizes the findings, which indicate that one third of all students smoked; half of all 18-year-olds smoked; and of those students who smoked, 41% most frequently smoked an imported, internationally recognized cigarette brand.

The crisis of social policy for youth in Hungary

The crisis of social policy for youth in Hungary