Journal of Youth Studies

Forsberg, Camilla; Horton, Paul

doi: 10.1080/13676261.2020.1849584pmid: N/A

In this study, we draw on Erving Goffman’s work on the presentation of self to explore responses by 12–15-year-old (i.e. 6th–9th grade) school students to an open-ended survey question about why they think they were bullied. In doing so, we contribute to a relatively unexplored aspect of school bullying research by focussing on how those students who are subjected to bullying understand their own bullying experiences. We focus in particular on explanations that focus on themselves as individuals. Utilising thematic analysis, we identified six themes: (1) Body, (2) Manner, (3) Social structures, (4) Opinions and interests, (5) Ability, and (6) Relations. Our analysis of the students’ responses suggests that they were bullied because they were perceived as different in some sense, and that such understandings of difference are connected to broader social and societal norms. These findings have important implications for understandings of bullying as aggressive acts and suggest that rather than simply focussing on the negative behaviour of individuals, anti-bullying initiatives also need to focus on the social structures that underpin the understandings of difference that facilitate such behaviour.

Heymann, Carlotta; Scully, Sherry; Franz-Odendaal, Tamara A.

doi: 10.1080/13676261.2020.1849585pmid: N/A

Limited research has been conducted exploring students’ motives for choosing certain career pathways, aspirations and goals in Atlantic Canada. This study examines data from a province-wide survey of students in grades 7, 9 and 12 to better understand gender and grade differences as students start to develop ideas career goals and their futures. Our results indicate that female students are more likely influenced by family members and teachers, and are typically more interested in the medical profession, whereas male students are more likely to be influenced by their friends and the internet, and are typically more interested in STEM fields (such as skilled trades), and law enforcement. Furthermore, the results indicate that as grade levels increase, students are more likely to view visiting post-secondary campuses as an important step in exploring post-high school goals. In summary, we found significant grade and gender differences amongst students when it comes to their career explorations, career drivers, and career goals. These results greatly expand our understanding of how students make decisions about what they want to do after high school and should be used by key influencers as they guide and support students during this transitory, and often stressful, time in their lives.

Salusky, Ida R.; Kral, Michael; Amarok, Barbara; Wexler, Lisa M.

doi: 10.1080/13676261.2020.1858040pmid: N/A

This qualitative study examines two contexts shaping circumpolar Indigenous young people's contemporary lives. In Arctic North America, the recent, rapid experiences of colonization are linked to disproportionately high rates of youth suicide. It is important to understand how different contexts, central to identity narratives, enhance or challenge resilience: the negotiated capacity to overcome hardship. We examine two settings: school and the land using thematic analysis. School settings occupy significant time in the lives of Indigenous youth from which parents and Indigenous traditions are largely removed. In contrast, the deepening of relationships, spiritual grounding and traditional practices in which Indigenous families engage on the land, signify and amplify cultural and family strengths. Using youth narratives about their lives, we contrast these two settings and the ways they influence young people's wellness through their perceptions of themselves and society. We recommend how schools can better support strengths of Indigenous cultures, including close relationships with family and the land.

Brown, Cynthia; Flood, Michael; Hegarty, Kelsey

doi: 10.1080/13676261.2020.1858041pmid: N/A

Although measurement and prevalence of digital dating abuse (DDA) in young people’s relationships is of growing research interest, youth perceptions of the behaviours and the impact on victims are yet to be fully understood. This study explored thirty-eight (16–24 year old) youth’s perceptions of DDA behaviours and descriptors of the emotional impact of the behaviours on victims. A predominant theme of gender differences emerged, with five subthemes: (a) men tend to engage in sexual-related behaviours, (b) men and women undertake different controlling and monitoring behaviours, (c) the role of reputation shapes the impact on men, (d) serious negative emotions characterise the impact on women, and (e) some men misconceive the severity of the impact on women. Findings move discussions beyond DDA prevalence and frequency to reveal that young people perceive DDA to have significant emotional consequences for victims and that there are gender differences in the perpetration and impact of DDA. These perspectives provide a valuable contribution to the development of gender-sensitive DDA measures, DDA prevention initiatives and support programmes for youth experiencing DDA.

Chiu, Pin-Yao

doi: 10.1080/13676261.2020.1865524pmid: N/A

‘Tai-Lao’ is a Chinese term which literally means low-skilled migrant workers from the lower class in Taiwan. In current Taiwanese society, this phrase is used to criticise those young Taiwanese who encounter difficulties in the competition for white-collar jobs in Taiwan and travel to Australia for a working holiday. Based on 31 in-depth interviews with Taiwanese working holidaymakers conducted in Taiwan, this paper argues that, surprisingly, a working holiday is regarded as downward mobility in Taiwan although it is a type of temporary migration to the West. Therefore, ‘Tai-Lao’ is a stigma that works as a classed form of symbolic violence in Taiwanese society. This violence, which stems from neoliberal ideology, further reproduces this stigma through middle-class expectations of global perspectives in Taiwan. In order to avoid being labelled as ‘Tai-Lao’, Taiwanese working holidaymakers try to redefine the Tai-Lao identity from a Western perspective. However, it is still difficult to reduce this stigma due to their lack of personal achievements in the Taiwanese labour market. Only those returnees who successfully commodify their own Western experience and increase their personal market value are able to destigmatise themselves and regard ‘being Tai-Lao’ as a process of being successful within Taiwan’s neoliberal system.

Price, Jayne; Turner, Jennifer

doi: 10.1080/13676261.2020.1865525pmid: N/A

Drawing on empirical data from two individual research projects, this paper extends the literature on child and youth incarceration and offers a previously unexplored analysis of experiences and transitions through institutional environments for young people. Different penal environments have different operational practices and treatment according to arbitrary age-determined constructions of childhood, youth and young adulthood, evidenced by decreasing safeguards. This article demonstrates the reduction of operative and supportive investment in those held, and the shifting perception from children that require ‘training’ to young people and young adults who are managed and whose particular needs are neglected. The arbitrary nature of transitions presents a paradox between developmental maturity as an individualistic ongoing process and arbitrary age-determined transitions. As such, it is argued that there should be a more developmental approach to caring for young people across penal environments which accounts for their ongoing maturity and complex needs.

Winogrodzka, Dominika; Grabowska, Izabela

doi: 10.1080/13676261.2020.1865526pmid: N/A

International mobility has become a significant part of the life experiences of a growing number of Polish youths since the enlargement of the EU in 2004, influencing young people’s transitions from education to work or transitions across different labour markets. The key aim of this paper is to explore socio-occupational sequences of young people considering spatial and temporal dynamism of the process of mobility. Focusing on the intersection between youth and migration studies, we aim to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the socio-occupational sequences of young people ‘on the move’? (2) How mobility capacities and imperatives determine the flow of sequences and (3) How mobility patterns collocate with sequences’ shapes? Based on Social Sequence Analysis, we have distinguished four types of ‘mobile sequences’ of young adults: (1) the ‘upward sequence’ when spatial mobility accelerates social mobility; (2) the ‘yo-yo sequence’, where transnational mobility causes ‘return social mobility’; (3) the ‘zigzag sequence’, involving up-and-down patterns in social mobility; (4) the ‘flat sequence’, where spatial mobility has no impact on the objective dimension of socio-occupational sequences, but mobility strongly influences human capital.

Simpson, Donald; Murphy, Seán F.

doi: 10.1080/13676261.2020.1865527pmid: N/A

International research reveals underrepresentation and problems of retention, amongst care leavers in higher education, are universal. Drawing upon qualitative research in England, we highlight legacy as an under-explored and double-edged feature of care leavers’ motivations to enter and persist in university study. While restricting access to the propulsive power of material resources, in the context of a widening participation policy mandate, our interviewees’ care experiences also shaped an ‘orientation framework’ providing a strong desire to ‘prove people wrong’ through study. Supporting this orientation were examples of significant other relations; but interviewees’ linked lives also meant the past could resurface in the present, resulting in strong emotional reactions. These could threaten orientation to university study by undermining self-reliance and fragile mental health. As the problem of care leavers’ retention occurs across different higher education systems with varied structural and cultural specifics, it appears to transcend such issues. We conclude further study of the nuanced issue of legacy may help better elucidate the problem of retention and we advocate for ‘corporate parenting’ moving beyond an objective list approach to well-being.