The Good Grandparent: Perspectives of Young Adults

As life expectancy increases, the role of grandparent has increased in duration and is continually adapting as families change in structure, function and form. Across the past several decades, researchers have examined grandparenting styles, finding some consistency as well as the emergence of newer styles, and evidence that grandparenting styles are related to the age and gender of both the grandparents and the grandchildren. In this study, we investigated young adults’ perceptions of grandparenting quality. University Students (N?=?470) from a Midwestern university responded to an online survey that asked them to evaluate the quality of their grandparents grandparenting now and at two retrospective points in time, childhood and adolescence. We hypothesized that the grandparents' performance of multiple styles of their role would be related to grandparenting quality. In addition, we expected that preferred grandparental roles would vary in relation to grandchildren's gender. The results of regression analysis indicated that, although grandparenting quality tended to decline across the respondents' developmental stages, higher ratings at an earlier stage were related to higher ratings at the latter two stages. Further, grandsons preferred grandparents who performed as supporters and advisors, whereas granddaughters preferred grandparents who functioned as supporter and friend. Overall, grandmothers were likely to be the more significant grandparent. Continual research on both grandchildren and grandparents will be needed to chronicle the development of the grandparental role in changing times.     

Cultural Orientation of Hmong Young Adults

Summary

Most studies of Hmong Americans focus on the cultural adjustment of refugees who arrived in the United States immediately after the Vietnam War. Few studies have examined the cultural adjustment of the children of these refugees, who have been raised primarily in the United States. This study explored whether American-born [ABH] and overseas-born [OBH] Hmong young adults differed in levels, models, and meanings of cultural orientation. Fourteen ABH and 32 OBH college students were asked what “being Hmong” and “being American” meant to them and complete were asked to the General Ethnicity Questionnaire (American and Hmong versions). Both groups reported being more oriented to American culture than Hmong culture. Despite similarities in mean levels of orientation to Hmong and American cultures and in the meanings of “being Hmong” and “being American,” ABH and OBH differed in their underlying models of cultural orientation. For ABH, “being Hmong” and “being Americank” were unrelated constructs, whereas for OBH, they were negatively correlated constructs.     

Project Jump: Young People's Perspectives on a Sexual Health Drama Project for Hard to Reach Young People

This article explores the qualitative process findings from an evaluation of Project Jump — a sexual health drama project for hard to reach young people. Project Jump aimed to enable young people to consider their sexual behaviour and its impact and consequence on other people and themselves. The research aimed to capture the experiences and perceptions of young people's involvement in the project, particularly in relation to the use of drama as a medium for learning. Findings from young people demonstrate that drama can offer an important alternative to traditional health promotion in that young people articulated positive aspects of their involvement. These included enthusiastic participation, empowerment and sexual health skills acquisition. In addition, critical areas for consideration for policy‐makers and practitioners in employing a drama‐based approach particularly in relation to effective identification, engagement and ongoing follow‐up activity with vulnerable groups are highlighted. © 2006 University of the West of England. Journal compilation © 2006 National Children's Bureau.     

Identity and Volunteering Intertwined: Reflections on the Values of Young Adults

Volunteering motivation has been studied from many perspectives during the last few decades. These studies have increased our understanding on the individual, dynamic, and reflexive nature of volunteering. Moreover, research that combines volunteering with the concept of identity or role identity has deepened this understanding. Nevertheless, the ways individual volunteers experience and associate volunteering with their personal identities has been little studied. Values can provide an empirical window into the core of personal identity. Identity, values, and volunteering are combined in the approach used in this study, which introduces the theoretical viewpoints of narrative identity and value identity. The analyses of 24 life course interviews demonstrated volunteering can be used in identity work for expressing the core values of individuals. The results also indicate the variety and range of values, which can be associated with volunteering.     

Young Adult Predictors and Midlife Outcomes of Male Fine Art Careers

The fine artist is often characterized as atypical and as one who persists with an unconventional lifestyle and career pattern because of the satisfaction derived from creating. To persevere with such an unconventional pattern over an extended period requires an unusual person. Can such a person be identified before he or she experiences this career pattern? The current study followed a group of male fine and applied artists over an 18-year period and identified the young adult and midlife variables that differentiated the two groups. Results indicate that men in stereotypical fine art careers (labeled fluid careers) are more talented, inner-focused, and less materialistic as young adults than their peers. By midlife, such fine artists also have significantly lower socioeconomic status than those in stable applied art careers, yet are equally satisfied with their lives. The results suggest that men who experience a fluid, fine-art career are intrinsically oriented.     

The Impact of Elder Abuse Education on Young Adults

The present study examined the effectiveness of educational interventions in altering tolerance for and behavioral intentions of elder abuse among college student young adults. Participants were 225 undergraduates who were assigned to one of four educational groups: Elder Abuse Education, Aging Education, Family Education, and a Pre- and Posttest only condition. While the Elder Abuse Education group reported less tolerance and intentions for elder abuse compared to the other groups at the immediate posttest, a decrement in such positive changes at 1-month follow-up was observed in such persons. These mixed findings suggest that while specific interventions may reduce elder abuse tolerance, supplemental educational efforts over time may be necessary to maintain intervention-specific gains in intentions and behaviors particular to elder abuse.     

Homeless Careers: A Framework for Intervention

Abstract

The present paper identifies three ‘homeless careers’ abstracted from the diversity and complexity of individual cases and pathways. These are the ‘youth career’, the ‘housing crisis career’ and the ‘family breakdown career’. The paper discusses the usefulness of the career typology for framing interventions. A core argument is that early intervention involves different forms of practice in each pathway. For young people, early intervention has to occur when they are at the ‘in-and-out’ stage, before they have made a permanent break from family. For adults experiencing housing crisis, early intervention is about providing assistance to people before they lose their accommodation. The family breakdown career commonly involves domestic violence, so although early intervention may involve family reconciliation, in many cases it involves supporting victims of domestic violence to move to alternative, secure accommodation.     

Engagement in Mental Health Treatment Among Adolescents and Young Adults: A Systematic Review

The purpose of the present study is to review empirical evidence of the effects of interventions designed to improve engagement in mental health services among adolescents, young adults and their families. Investigators searched relevant databases, prior reviews, and conducted hand searches for intervention studies that met the following criteria: (1) examined engagement in mental health services; (2) included a comparison condition; and (3) focused on adolescents and/or young adults. Effect sizes for all reported outcomes were calculated. Thirteen studies met inclusion criteria. Conceptualizations of engagement and measurement approaches varied throughout studies. Approaches to improving engagement varied in effectiveness based on level of intervention. Individual level approaches improved attendance during the initial stage of treatment. While family level engagement interventions increased initial attendance rates, the impact did not extend to the ongoing use of services, whereas service delivery level interventions were more effective at improving ongoing engagement. The review illuminated that engagement interventions framed in an ecological model may be most effective at facilitating engagement. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

The Effects of Parental Divorce: A Culture-Specific Challenge for Young Adults in South Korea

Extensive research into the offspring of divorced parents has indicated associations between parental divorce and developmental outcomes for young adults. Nevertheless the impact of cultural variation on the lives of young people with divorced parents has been neglected. Qualitative research using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to examine the experiences of six Korean adults of divorced parents, who detailed the impact of parental divorce on their lives and told us how their feelings toward their parents and their own ideas about family formation had been reevaluated. Overall, participants expressed concerns in common with other children of divorce and concerns specific to their Confucian cultural context, namely ambivalent feelings toward their parents' divorce, confusion about traditional filial piety, and a view of the self as damaged and needing reinvestment.     

Young Adults with Childhood Experience of Divorce: Disappointment and Contentment

The aim of this study was to use in-depth interviews to identify and describe experiences of parental divorce among adult children whose parents divorced 15 years earlier. Ten out of 76 interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim, and data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Two categories of experiences were identified: disappointment and contentment. Two subcategories of disappointment were distinguished: disappointment toward mother, father, or both, and disappointment with relatives and other surrounding persons. Four subcategories of contentment were distinguished: contentment in the belief that the members of the original family received a good or even better life after the divorce, contentment with how the divorce was handled by the parents, contentment and inner strength as a part of the child's own personality, and contentment with receiving adequate help during and after the parental divorce.     

上海中东问题青年研讨会会议纪要

2004年12月14日,上海外国语大学中东研究所和上海国际问题研究所中东室的青年研究人员相聚在上海国际问题研究所,从年轻人的角度对目前普遍关心的中东问题进行了交流和探讨.     

Adjustments of Transracially and Inracially Adopted Young Adults

This study follows up a sample of transracial and inracial children adopted in infancy in the mid-1970s. The present report, based on 1993 data, covers parental assessments when children were in their early twenties (subject's mean age = 23). In this report I compare inracially adopted White young adults (N = 37), with transracially adopted Asians (N = 151), African-Americans (N = 33) and Latinos (N = 19). Comparisons show no significant adjustment deficits for the subgroups of transracial adoptees in comparison with their inracially adopted White peers. Adjustment problems vary considerably among the transracially adopted young adults; discrimination against the transracial adoptee, and discomfort about their appearance are found as significant correlates associated with adjustment difficulties. Parents report fewer adoptees feeling uneasy about their appearances, when adoptive families live in racially heterogenous settings.     

Implications of Childhood Externalizing Problems for Young Adults

This study uses data from a national sample of married individuals and their offspring to explore the relationships between childhood externalizing problems and adult psychological well‐being, social support, and intimate relationship quality. The results indicate that childhood problems predict lower levels of adult psychological well‐being, kin support, and relationship quality. The relationship between childhood problems and adult intimate relationship quality, and that between childhood problems and later parent‐child relationship quality, is explained after accounting for the reciprocal influences of childhood problems and the quality of teen parent‐child relations. This finding suggests that the best way for parents to prevent and offset their offspring's difficulties is to maintain quality relationships with them.