Contemporary Youth Violence Prevention: Interpersonal-Cognitive Problem-Solving

ABSTRACT

Considerable progress has been made in the past decade in identifying which factors contribute to youth violence. The purpose of this article is to illuminate the issues and group factors that underlie youth violence, assessment and profiling, and prevention programs. Guidelines for predicting youth violence are presented and critiqued. School violence prevention programs, the role of SAMHSA, and interpersonal-cognitive problem-solving are presented.     

Black Youth Violence Has a Bad Rap

This research elicited and assessed the perspectives on violence of 41 middle-school students attending a unique school in a low-income section of a large northern California city. Through participation in and observation of instruction and other school-related activities, the researchers explored ways that these students experienced and reflected on violence in their lives and in popular culture. The researchers probed ways that these students' interpreted or reflected upon rap music and hip-hop culture, particularly its representations of violence, crime, and sex. This research provided insights into what these youth thought about violence in their lives including its depictions in electronic media. Additionally, it revealed ways that they resisted and/or critiqued some negative images and influences of hip-hop and rap.     

Vulnerability to Violence: A Contextually-Sensitive, Developmental Perspective on African American Adolescents

Spencer's Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) is presented as a theoretical framework to analyze potential effects of being a victim or co-victim of a violent crime. Data are presented from a sample of African American adolescents residing in a Southeastern metropolitan area. Victims (n = 20) and non-victims (n = 332) are compared on their self-reporting of clinical symptoms normally associated with violent or traumatic experience during middle childhood and early adolescence. Results suggest that observed symptomatology may not be solely attributable to actual victimization. Discussion includes possible mechanisms by which factors such as cognitive developmental status, physical and social context, and previous victimization of the adolescent or a family member of the adolescent can influence symptomatology.     

迈向“虚无之物”的日常生活消费实践——一个消费者的视野

依据对日常消费实践的经验和观察,作者从消费者的视角论证：在全球化进程中,中国社会生活中的消费实践正在快速地奔向“虚无之物”---没有内涵,没有特色,没有个性,由某个中心建构和控制的、比较而言缺乏特定内容的社会形式。“虚无之物”是瑞泽尔（<')=(7）建构的一个理想类型概念,在使用这个框架之前,本文根据相关理论传统和中国经验稍加修改。中国社会消费实践>" 年来的剧变被阐释为消费革命、第二次解放和人们的选择自由。不过,作者认为,变革的社会后果可能是灾难性的,中国不仅会丧失曾经拥有的独特文化和传统,而且生活的意义和情趣正在遭到侵蚀和损害。     

Psychosocial Assistance for Youth: Toward Reconstruction for Peace in Angola

Following decades of war, Angolan youth are at risk of continuing cycles of violence and need support in developing positive behaviors and social roles. Accordingly, a community-based program, conducted in Angola 1998–2001, taught youth life skills, provided peer support and peace education, educated adults about youth, and engaged youth as workers on community development projects. The main results included increased adult awareness of the situation and needs of youth, improved youth-adult relations, reduced perceptions of youth as troublemakers, reduced fighting between youth, increased community planning, and increased perceptions that youth make a positive contribution to the community. The results suggest that a dual focus on youth and community development contributes to peacebuilding and the disruption of cycles of violence.     

A Study of Youth Services Networks from a Political-Economy Perspective

ABSTRACT

Volunteers play a vital role in modern societies by boosting the labor force within both the public and private sectors. While the factors that may lead people to volunteer have been investigated in a number of studies, the means by which volunteering contributes to the well-being of such volunteers is poorly understood. It has been suggested through studies that focus on the absence of depression in volunteers that self-esteem and sense of control may be major determinants of the increased well-being reported by volunteers. This is consistent with the homeostatic model of subjective well-being, which proposes that self-esteem, optimism, and perceived control act as buffers that mediate the relationship between environmental experience and subjective well-being (SWB). Using personal well-being as a more positive measure of well-being than absence of depression, this study further explored the possible mediating role of self-esteem, optimism, and perceived control in the relationship between volunteer status and well-being. Participants (N = 1,219) completed a 97-item survey as part of the Australian Unity Wellbeing project. Variables measured included personal well-being, self-esteem, optimism, and a number of personality and psychological adjustment factors. Analyses revealed that perceived control and optimism, but not self-esteem, mediated the relationship between volunteer status and personal well-being.     

Meaningful life and happiness: Perspective from Malaysian Youth

As suicide rates among young people are rising globally, a mixed-mode research was conducted to investigate the perception of young people in Malaysia of what is meant by “Meaningful Life”, and its association with “life is determined by myself”. Two hundred and seventy young people aged 15–24 were recruited in this cross sectional survey. A thematic qualitative approach was used to analyze open-ended questions and the findings reveal that happiness, relationships with family members and friends and having specific goals in life were the top three contributors to meaningfulness in young peoples’ lives. The Chi-square test for independence showed significant association between the coded variables and gender. Females perceived life to be meaningful when the people around them were happy and males perceived life to be meaningful when having good relationships with people around them, and both thought that having goals in life make it meaningful. The result also showed that there was a significant association for females between “life is determined by myself” and “meaningful life”. Present findings suggested that meaningfulness in life is not a pure individual affect or personal construct but a relational concept; it is related to the meaningful activities in which young people engaged. Future researcher may further explore the relationship between youth perceptions of meaningful life and autonomous environments, among the immediate ecological systems of family, peers, and school surroundings.     

Toward a Dialogical Perspective on Agency

The aim of this article is to motivate and outline a dialogical perspective on agency that accommodates centrifugal and centripetal tendencies in current cultural theories of agency. To complement approaches that assume a high degree of integration and clarity, we emphasise the diversity of agency as it is experienced in the open-ended dialogical relationship with a particular other. While these former approaches to agency provide us with the means to examine the influence of social processes such as division of labour and reproduction of community, they tend to underplay the importance of agency as it is embodied and experienced in the lives of particular people. To reflect on this aspect of agency, we will draw extensively on Bakhtin's work, which crosses boundaries between philosophy, psychology and literary criticism, and which is concerned to understand what is personal in activity. In terms of agency, his work draws our attention to the sense of responsibility and potentiality that imbues our dialogues with particular others, the aesthetics and ethics involved in dialoguing with the other, and the sense of dilemmatic choice and intonation that is involved in our dialogue with the other.     

制度失范:一个土地冲突解释的新视角

因征地引发的社会冲突已成为当前社会治理的重要难题.关于土地冲突的缘起,既有的研究可以分为土地财政、 拆迁行为模式、 土地执法管理与生存道义等角度.在与已有解释展开对话的基础上,提出制度失范概念,认为土地制度在规则权力和治理三个层面的失范构成了土地冲突的结构性根源.在规则层面,土地制度日渐消解其作为一种公共规则的公共性构建;在权力层面,地方政府在土地征收过程中的权力失当成为土地冲突的直接诱因;在治理层面,基层乡村治理机制无法及时回应农民对土地权利实现与政治参与的强烈诉求.     

市场营销的新视角--重构营销

重构营销与传统意义上的生产主动、消费被动的认识不同 ,强调消费不再是与生产活动相对立的吸收或者占有商品和服务 ,而是需要对产品、消费者、相关利益群体进行重新定义和重组 ,对非价值市场营销因素也纳入营销过程     

Queer Youth Space: A Protective Factor for Sexual Minority Youth

Physical, psychological, and social vulnerabilities of sexual minority youth are well documented. Yet factors that protect this population from these risks remain relatively unknown. Previous researchers suggest that (1) a sense of safety, meaningful relationships with others, and positive identity development are protective and (2) social support programs focusing on sexual minority youth (Queer Youth Space) have a positive impact. In this article, Queer Youth Space is explored as a program that may promote protective factors and mediate risks. Theories of attachment, self psychology, and social identity are applied to conceptualize Queer Youth Space and its protective roles. Implications for social work practice and research are discussed.     

视阈融合下的知识产权诠释

法哲学、哲学诠释学的任务从来就是认识知识产权本质及知识产权制度本质。其目的是为了更好地安排知识产权制度,而其困难在于法律专业的分工导致法律思维的专业限制,只有超越知识产权法才能看清知识产权及其制度本质。用法哲学思维、辩证逻辑的方法分析知识产权制度,探索不同性质的制度结构及相互关系,证明知识产权制度本质是一个均衡对价的制度安排,蕴涵了高超的政治智慧。知识产权立法只有具备这种政治智慧,才能使人们心悦诚服地按照知识产权规则从事生产和生活。     

Trauma-Informed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: A Promising New Model for Working with Survivors of Interpersonal Violence

This article addresses the benefits of modifying the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program by Kabat-Zinn for survivors of interpersonal trauma. MBSR, originally designed for those dealing with chronic health conditions, is being offered to individuals with a variety of issues around the country, including people who have histories of surviving interpersonal violence. Discussed here are the psychosocial needs of women who have survived interpersonal trauma and the rationale for creating a phase I trauma-intervention based on the MBSR model. An example of one model of a trauma-informed MBSR intervention developed by the author is presented, as well as a summary of findings derived from a randomized controlled pilot study of the model with a community-based sample of women survivors of interpersonal trauma. Outcomes include statistically and clinically significant improvements in reducing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression, as well as decreases in a measure of anxious attachment. Qualitative findings are also summarized.     

优势视角下的青少年网络成瘾干预研究

我国青少年网络成瘾现状堪忧,不同领域有不同的研究视角和干预方法。社会工作以优势视角介入青少年网络成瘾行为,不仅注重挖掘和利用青少年的优势资源,而且重视从个人、家庭、朋辈、学校、大众传媒、社会组织等各方面开展系统干预。     

家庭暴力的法社会学思考

家庭是社会的细胞 ,如果伤害、杀人等犯罪在家庭内发生 ,必然会毁灭一个家庭并牵连造成其他相关家庭的损害 ,还会带来许多社会不稳定因素。从这一视角来看 ,“家庭暴力”绝不单纯是“家庭内部事务” ,它既破坏家庭和睦 ,又影响社会稳定 ,是严重的社会问题 ,已被公认为国际公害。在中国 ,由于封建思想的影响 ,几乎使得“打老婆”成为天经地义的、无须外界介入的事 ,加之“清官难断家务事”等观念的影响 ,导致目前我国被害妇女难以迅速、方便地获得有效救助 ,众多妇女的合法权益正在遭到侵害。本文尝试以法社会学的视角来考察“家庭暴力”问题…     

Tracing the Historical Origins of Youth Delinquency & Violence: Myths & Realities About Black Culture

The negative effects of slavery have been theoretically linked to contemporary problems faced by African Americans, such as family instability, low achievement motivation, and high rates of juvenile delinquency and youth violence. Combining historical, sociological, and psychological materials, the current analysis argues that Blacks exited slavery with the necessary social capital, inclusive of proactive family attitudes and patterns as well as high achievement motivation, for rapid acculturation into mainstream America. Shifting to the present, it is shown that the co-existence of high Black crime rates and Black cultural integrity are not contradictory, especially when systemic forces neutralize or undermine the ameliorative potential of Black culture.