In Their Own Words: Elements of Youth Empowerment in Spain

Abstract

The aim of the HEBE¹ project, developed jointly by four universities, is to analyze the spaces, moments and processes involved in the empowerment of young people in order to formulate socio-educational programmes that help them and improve their lives. The articulation of the project focuses on different lines of work and action, one of which is to identify and analyze the spaces in which the empowerment of youth occurs. This article delves into the elements involved in youth empowerment by using a questionnaire administered to young people from Catalonia between the ages of 19 and 25 (n?=?1067). This article presents the results obtained for these young people based on their level of empowerment and the elements that characterize them.     

Religion in School

It has become a banal statement (one that does not elicit objections) that we are living in "troubled" times. This is not the place to talk about the causes of such a situation; what we have to deal with here are the consequences. The breakdown of dogmas in the social consciousness in a period of instability is primarily a threat to young people. We are faced with the danger of producing a generation of "children of perestroika," who have lost their faith in everything and everyone, who are filled with negativism, total denial, and quiet desperation, who carry in themselves, at best, moral deafness and fierce egotism. The crisis of worldview in society may produce a generation of "lukewarm" people who are not capable of any personal or social creativity and service. At the same time, however, the crisis opens possibilities for a genuine rebirth of culture, for reactivation of the quest for "self" on the part of every person and of society as a whole. This active striving on the part of the healthy portion of young people must be met by today's intellectual elite with full knowledge and understanding of the situation, with a readiness and ability to satisfy the needs for a worldview of their fellow citizens, drawing upon all the values of our native and world culture. These needs must be truly satisfied, not by pumping out the latest current "lies" or by manufacturing the "most progressive doctrines of modern times" atthe request of this or that social body, because our society cannot stand to be deceived one more time.     

Psychological Bases of an Individual Approach to the Young Adolescent

Communication I. Need for Self-Assertion: Chief Factor in the Behavior of Young Adolescents (Submitted by A. R. Luriia, Full Member, Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, RSFSR)

When pupils enter the period of early adolescence, considerable changes in their behavior occur, Harsh in their judgments and often selfwilled in their actions, young adolescents cannot at all be compared to fourth-graders [c. 11 years old - Ed.], who are industrious and obedient to their teachers. In the fifth grade we can find manifestations of anarchism, the phenomenon of the "meaning barrier," a critical attitude, a tendency to defy shortcomings, obstinacy in its persistent form, and other negative phenomena, which are encountered so rarely in younger schoolchildren as normally not to be taken into account.     

Adolescent and Young Adult Male-to-Female Transsexuals: Pathways to Prostitution

Correspondence to Dr Ronit D. Leichtentritt or Dr Bilha Davidson Arad, Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. E-mail: ronitl{at}post.tau.ac.il Summary The current study aims to reveal the experiences of young male-to-femaletranssexuals who work as prostitutes in Israel, providing astage where the voice of this marginal group may be heard, aswe believe social workers need to know more about the realityof these young people’s lives before they can offer meaningfulresponses. The study was guided by two main questions: (1) Whataccounts do young male-to-female transsexuals who work as prostitutesprovide for their involvement in the sex industry? and (2) Whatare their experiences as young transsexuals engaged in prostitution?Using the life story interview and thematic analysis, two mainthemes were revealed: (a) what I ran away from or was thrownout of; and (b) why I became a prostitute, how I became professionalizedand why I continue to work as one. The first theme focuses ontranssexualism; the second on prostitution. Yet, these two themesare intertwined: from the respondents’ perspective, prostitutionis a price you must be willing to pay if you want to achievegender transformation at the beginning of the twenty-first centuryin Israel. Practical implications and further research are recommendedto better inform social workers assisting this high-risk population.     

Vodka

Three young people from Rostov-on-Don write in to the youth newspaper to voice concern over their city's failure to cope with the problem of public drinking. "The Statistics of Indifference and the Mechanics of Evil," Komsomolskaya Pravda, September 10, 1961. For a viewpoint on the compulsory treatment of chronic alcoholics, see the soviet review, October, 1961.     

Are Young People in Correctional Institutions Different from Community Students Who Have Never Been Convicted?: Differences in Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviours

Correspondence to Byoungduk Sohn, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Oxford, Barnett House, 32 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2ER, UK. E-mail: byoungduk.sohn{at}linacre.ox.ac.uk Summary By comparing the prevalence of emotional and behaviour healthproblems among institutionalized juvenile offenders with thatamongst a non-offending sample of adolescents, this study indicatescommon characteristics of the perceived emotional and behaviouralproblems, and describes risk factors pertinent to persistentjuvenile offending. Familial backgrounds, behavioural and emotionalmeasures were collected through self-report surveys. Resultsshowed that young people in secure units claimed significanthigh levels of emotional and behavioural problems and that thoseproblems were associated with their disadvantaged familial socio-economicbackgrounds and perceived parenting factors. Various policyimplications are recommended to tackle problems amongst thesedisadvantaged young people in correctional institutions in Korea.In particular, for those working with young people in correctionalinstitutions in the UK, the findings highlight the importanceof culturally relevant programmes.     

In Life and Letters

When does one stop calling a writer "young"? That is hard to know. Leo Tolstoy wrote Childhood [Detstvo] when he was twenty-three; but as I understand it, he was never ranked among "the young," as we now use the phrase. However, Vasilii Aksenov or Andrei Voznesensky, despite the fact that they are thirty-seven, are still "young." The present author was regarded as "young" until he was forty-five, and then graduated to the "middle generation." How does one leap into the "senior" class? What does this take? To begin to write memoirs? To do a "History of My Contemporary" or "Past and Thoughts"? (These, incidentally, were begun when Herzen was forty.) Well, and what if one does not have the guts? I can answer exactly. I know. One has to begin to write recollections of one's encounters with famous people. This testifies to solidity. If, in addition, one begins to cite in these reminiscences passages from correspondence with the reader (not selected passages, for God's sake!), then one becomes even more substantial in the eyes of the reader and may bravely consider oneself the "older generation."     

Young Men Living Through and with Child Sexual Abuse: A Practitioner Research Study

to andrewdurham{at}warwickshire.gov.uk Summary This paper uses a post-structural framework to examine the experienceand impact of child sexual abuse on the lives of seven youngmen aged between 15 and 24. The study highlights the importanceof survivors' perspectives and of allowing children and youngpeople to speak for themselves and theorize their own experiences.The study's sensitive methodology allowed the young men to besupported throughout the research and feel able to impart hiddenfeelings and anxieties which they had held on to for significantperiods of time. The research showed how the perpetrators tookextensive measures in targeting and gaining access to and silencingthe boys they sexually abused. Through purposefully constructedrelationships, the boys were made to feel responsible and guiltyabout being abused and therefore found it extremely difficultto tell. A social context of patriarchal relations, with genderconstructions characterized by compulsory heterosexism and homophobiasignificantly exacerbated the experiences of the young men.This context was shown to create circumstances and ‘normal’power relationships that allowed the abuse to happen, creatingmany opportunities for the abusers to justify their actionsand further silence their victims.     

Social Group Work for Young Offenders with Learning Disabilities

ABSTRACT

Despite the high incidence of learning disabilities among young offenders, research suggests that young offenders with learning disabilities do not receive interventions that address their learning disabilities. Group treatment approaches for young offenders typically utilize a cognitive-behavioral orientation. Cognitive behavioral techniques have been found to be effective with the young offender population by targeting their faulty thinking. However, cognitive behavioral treatment is less effective with youth who have academic delays. Individuals with learning disabilities may have difficulties with the cognitive tasks used in cognitive behavioral treatment. This paper describes a treatment group, with illustrations, adapted for young offenders with learning disabilities, combining cognitive-behavioral and mutual-aid principles.     

Relation between young children's anger and fathers' mental health during the COVID-19 epidemic: Moderating role of gender and child number

The father–child interaction deserves attention during the COVID-19 epidemic. This study administrated the Child Anger Questionnaire and the SCL-90 Symptom Checklist to collect primary data from 1862 fathers of Chinese young children during the COVID-19 outbreak, examined the relation between young children's anger and their fathers' mental health, and verified whether the relation was moderated by the gender or the child number. The results demonstrated that the detection rate of anger among Chinese young children was 60.08%, the scores of SCL-90 factors of their fathers were significantly lower than the Chinese normal adult male norms and those of infant parents, and the anger of young children had a significant effect on their fathers' mental health. Gender and child number moderated this relation. It is of great significance to strengthen the attention to the anger of young children and the mental health of fathers during the period of public health emergencies, and to promote the harmonious interpersonal relationship between young children and their fathers.     

‘Can I come home?’ The experiences of young runaways contacting the Message Home helpline

This paper reports the findings of a 3‐month survey of young people calling the Message Home helpline. Message Home is a national freephone helpline available to people who have run away or left home which allows them to send a message to their family or carer, to seek confidential help and advice and, if necessary, to be helped to a place of safety. The paper explores the characteristics, circumstances and motivations of the young people contacting the helpline. It also considers who the young people contacted through the helpline and the kinds of messages that were relayed to parents, social services and others. This study differs from most preceding studies of runaways in recording the views of young people while they are missing. The immediacy palpable in their accounts highlights the distress and isolation experienced by many of these young people who have run away or been forced to leave home.     

Children in Need? Listening to Children whose Parent or Carer is HIV Positive

Correspondence to Kay Tisdall, University of Edinburgh School of Social and Political Studies, Adam Ferguson Building, George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LL, UK. E-mail: K.Tisdall{at}ed.ac.uk Summary International attention is being brought to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. In contrast, HIV and AIDS risk being forgottenissues for those living in Scotland. Yet in 2002, numbers ofreported infections have begun to rise. Children and young peopleare even more likely to be affected by parental HIV now, asparents live longer and are able to have more children. Verylittle is known in Scotland about affected children and whethercurrent service provision meets their needs. This research projectsought to address certain of these gaps, by gathering quantitativedata from service providers and qualitative data from interviewing28 affected children and young people. The research found adearth in policies and services, and a failure to audit need.HIV education in schools did not acknowledge that pupils mightbe living with parents who had HIV illness. Children and youngpeople tended to be very involved in the health care of theirparent but none of them received direct support from healthworkers. On the whole the children and young people did notenjoy support from statutory social workers but appreciatedthe support and activities provided by workers in the voluntarysector.     

Domestic responsibilities and the employment of young Māori women

Abstract

While the employment rate of women has risen steadily in New Zealand over the last two decades, employment is still highly variable by ethnicity and age. One of the groups least engaged in paid employment is young Māori women (15–24 years). Their employment rates are much lower than their Pākehā counterparts (42 and 64%, respectively) and this is not offset by their greater involvement in education.

Although there is a general awareness of these differences, there has been no systematic enquiry into the possible reasons for the relatively low engagement of young Māori women in the formal economy. Using a full set of 178,776 unit records pertaining to all young Māori and Pākehā women from the 2001 Census of Population and Dwellings, we develop a number of novel measures of household composition as indicators of domestic responsibilities. These become arguments in a multivariate statistical model in which young women are modelled as choosing to participate in the formal paid workforce and/ or in education.

Our results show that young Māori women's choice of paid work is no more sensitive to her domestic responsibilities than those of young Pākehā women, but they do encounter these responsibilities far more often. The results have a number of important implications for Māori development.     

A New Grandparenting

Summary

The author explores the social identity of older persons and their potential for taking leadership roles in their families and communities as mentors to young persons with disability. Dealt with is the powerlessness of both these groups within society and the way in which they may be able to empower each other. It is posited that serious and active grandparenting and mentoring have the potential of filling a large gap in the continuum of meaningful and productive activities for older adults and provide highly valuable support and human resource to young persons with disabilities.     

Readiness for independent living of youth in residential childcare: A comparative study

Transition to adulthood is an accelerated and early process for care leavers that requires intensive preparation, training and support from child welfare services. This study aimed to explore the perceived readiness for independent living of a group of care-experienced young people preparing for leaving care in Spain and to compare it with the perceptions of their peers from the general population. A sample of 508 youth (50% women) aged 14–21 (M = 16.67; SD = 1.72) took part, of whom 279 were care experienced and 229 belonged to the general population in Spain. Participants' independent living skills, personal autonomy, self-efficacy and sociodemographic characteristics were assessed through an online survey using standardized instruments. Care-experienced young people displayed higher levels of life skills and autonomy in self-care, daily living at home and employment domains, but not related to making daily arrangements in their community. However, their educational level and self-efficacy levels were lower than in the comparison group. Work experience stood out as a significant predictor of care-experienced young people's life skills level. These findings support the importance of assessing life skills as an outcome of leaving care preparation services and providing care-experienced young people with real-life experiences to develop their life skills.     

Is There a “Pessimistic” Bias in Individual Beliefs? Evidence from a Simple Survey

It is an important issue for economic and finance applications to determine whether individuals exhibit a behavioral bias toward pessimism in their beliefs, in a lottery or more generally in an investment opportunities framework. In this paper, we analyze the answers of a sample of 1,540 individuals to the following question “Imagine that a coin will be flipped 10 times. Each time, if heads, you win $10\texttt{C}\!\!\!\rule[2.3pt]{.4em}{.3pt}\!\!\rule[3.3pt]{.4em}{.3pt}It is an important issue for economic and finance applications to determine whether individuals exhibit a behavioral bias toward pessimism in their beliefs, in a lottery or more generally in an investment opportunities framework. In this paper, we analyze the answers of a sample of 1,540 individuals to the following question “Imagine that a coin will be flipped 10 times. Each time, if heads, you win . How many times do you think that you will win?” The average answer is surprisingly about 3.9 which is below the average 5, and we interpret this as a pessimistic bias. We find that women are more “pessimistic” than men, as are old people relative to young. We also analyze how our notion of pessimism is related to more general notions of pessimism previously introduced in psychology.     

Engaging on the ‘front line’: exploring how family support teams construct meaning in their work with young mothers

This paper explores the provision of family support services for young mothers within a Sure Start Children's Centre, drawing on data collected within a larger study. It identifies how the family support team attempted to build supportive relationships with young mothers between the ages of 16 and 19 years. The findings presented here draw on narrative interviews (n = 10) and focus group interviews (n = 2) with the family support team that included early years workers, family support workers and their managers. The findings captured how the participants actively resisted the stigma (Goffman 1963) of teenage motherhood in order to support young mothers in gaining the necessary skills and knowledge to care for their child. Drawing on the findings, this paper argues that the building of a supportive relationship enables a young mother to construct positive counter‐narratives about her parenting experience. This suggests that the family \to offer informal early support to young mothers who are at risk of more formal intervention. However, the complexity of this task should not be underestimated because in doing this, the family support team must at all times ensure the well‐being and safety of the child.     

家庭·学校·社区——构筑“三位一体”社区“边缘少年”教育新模式

“边缘少年”能否顺利完成角色过渡,直接关系到他们今后的成长道路。在他们学习和生活的社区里建立家庭、学校和社区“三位一体”的预防“边缘少年”违法犯罪的社区教育模式,开展科学、专业的教育活动,有利于将“边缘少年”的违法犯罪降到最低点,把临近犯罪边缘的青少年拉回到正常的成长轨道。     

Exploring Nondeliberative Practice through Recreational,Art, and Music-Based Activities in Social Work with Groups

ABSTRACT

This article reviews the history of recreational, arts, and music-based activities in social work with groups, providing a nondeliberative practice context. The article begins with an overview of nondeliberative practice, then presents various uses of recreational, art, and music-based activities during the Settlement House and Recreational Movements, in mid-20^th-century group work practice and in present practice. The article concludes with a review of current projects in the Chicago land area and highlights their potential to decrease young person on young person violence.     

Out of the Generosity of Your Heart: Are We Creating Active Citizens through Compulsory Volunteer Programmes for Young People in Australia?

Using governmentality as a theoretical framework, we examine two Australian policy areas where young people are disciplined into becoming good, active citizens. These policies—mutual obligation through the work for the dole programme, and school‐based active citizenship programmes similar to American service learning programmes—both mirror volunteer‐type activities, in a social context where volunteers are viewed as good citizens. In this study, we present findings from a qualitative study that addresses the question of whether young people will develop active citizenship through compulsory volunteer‐type programmes. The findings show that first, young people are very conscious of the lack of choice involved in these programmes and that this weakened their sense of agency. Second, the programmes failed to develop positive community attitudes and active social behaviours. These results suggest that policies that compel individuals to contribute to society may actually weaken their citizenship identities.