Negotiating family, navigating resettlement : family connectedness amongst resettled youth with refugee backgrounds living in Melbourne, Australia

Refugee adolescents resettling in a new country face many challenges, and being part of a supportive family is a critical factor in assisting them to achieve wellbeing and create positive futures. This longitudinal study documents experiences of family life in the resettlement context of 120 young people with refugee backgrounds living in Melbourne, Australia. Family instability was a core feature of the early settlement period. In this paper, we focus specifically on changing household composition, and levels of trust, attachment, discipline and conflict in family settings during young people’s first years of resettlement. Our results suggest that while families are central to the wellbeing of these young people, changing family dynamics can also pose a threat to wellbeing and successful settlement. We argue that youth focused settlement services must explicitly engage with family contexts in assisting refugee youth to achieve wellbeing and successfully resettle.

Meaning or measurement? Researching the social contexts of health and settlement among newly-arrived refugee youth in Melbourne, Australia

What are the most appropriate methodological approaches for researching the psychosocial determinants of health and wellbeing among young people from refugee backgrounds over the resettlement period? What kinds of research models can involve young people in meaningful reflections on their lives and futures while simultaneously yielding valid data to inform services and policy? This paper reports on the methods developed for a longitudinal study of health and wellbeing among young people from refugee backgrounds in Melbourne, Australia. The study involves 100 newly-arrived young people 12 to 18 years of age, and employs a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods implemented as a series of activities carried out by participants in personalized settlement journals. This paper highlights the need to think outside the box of traditional qualitative and/or quantitative approaches for social research into refugee youth health and illustrates how integrated approaches can produce information that is meaningful to policy makers, service providers and to the young people themselves.

School based youth health nurses and a true health promotion approach : the Ottawa what?

Aim: The purpose of this research is to examine School Based Youth Health Nurses experience of a true health promotion approach. Background: The School Based Youth Health Nurse Program is a state-wide school nursing initiative in Queensland, Australia. The program employs more than 120 fulltime and fractional school nurses who provide health services in state high schools. The role incorporates two primary components: individual health consultations and health promotion strategies. Design/Methods: This study is a retrospective inquiry generated from a larger qualitative research project about the experience of school based youth health nursing. The original methodology was phenomenography. In-depth interviews were conducted with sixteen school nurses recruited through purposeful and snowball sampling. This study accesses a specific set of raw data about School Based Youth Health Nurses experience of a true health promotion approach. The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986) is used as a framework for deductive analysis. Results: The findings indicate school nurses have neither an adverse or affirmative conceptual experience of a true health promotion approach and an adverse operational experience of a true health promotion approach based on the action areas of the Ottawa Charter. Conclusions: The findings of this research are important because they challenge the notion that school nurses are the most appropriate health professionals to undertake a true health promotion approach. If school nurses are the most appropriate health professionals to do a true health promotion approach, there are implications for recruitment and training and qualifications. If school nurses are not, who are the most appropriate health professionals to do school health promotion? Implications for Practice: These findings can be applied to other models of school nursing in Australia which emphasises a true health promotion approach because they relate specifically to school nurses’ experience of a true health promotion approach.

Tech-Savvy Youth and Participatory Research in “iScapes”

This chapter provides a theoretically and empirically grounded discussion of participatory research methodologies with respect to investigating the dynamic and evolving phenomenon of young people constructing identities and social relations in “iScapes”. We coin the term iScapes to refer to the online/offline interconnectedness of spaces in the fabric of everyday life. Specifically, we offer a critical analysis of the participatory research methods we used in our own research project to understand the ways in which high school students use new media and information communication technologies (ICTs) to construct identities, form social relations, and engage in creative practices as part of their everyday lives. The chapter concludes with reflexive deliberations on our approach to participatory research that may benefit other researchers who share a similar interest in youth and new media.

Ingenious : Emerging Youth Cultures in Urban Australia

The book documents new findings on the contribution of migrant young people to Australia’s urban life. The essays collected traces teenagers within a world of city suburbs and P plates, shopping malls and chat rooms and text messages. Proud of their migrant backgrounds, they are moving away from explicit ethnically defined cultural groups to focus on their place in contemporary Australian society. These young people through their every day activities are redefining what it means to be an Australian The book is edited by widely published cultural researchers Melissa Butcher from the University of Sydney and Mandy Thomas from the Australian National University who together worked on the GENERATE project. It is far too common for our youth to be portrayed as not belonging to our dominant or mainstream culture. In Ingenious, the editors study the kaleidoscope of influences and environments our youth move within - online networks, dance parties and more - to paint a flexible, innovative generation.

Social adjustment and symptomatology in two types of homeless adolescents : runaways and throwaways

Previous research on homeless adolescents has largely ignored the distinction between those who have left home on their volition (runaways) and those who have been forced to leave (throwaways). Fifty-two homeless adolescents in Brisbane, Australia, were assessed to compare male and female runaways and throwaways for social adjustment and symptomatology. Differences for social adjustment (antisocial tendencies and aggression) and symptomatology (social isolation and depression) were predicted. Results indicated that male runaways were significantly more hostile than male throwaways (p < 0,001), and significantly more socially isolated than female runaways (p < 0,025). Female throwaways, however, were significantly more hostile than male throwaways (p < 0,025) and female runaways (p < 0,025). Yet homeless males overall had a significantly stronger urge to act out hostility than homeless females (p < 0,025). In addition, female throwaways were significantly more antisocial than male throwaways (p < 0,001). There were no significant differences for depression. A theory of inner social control (Hirschi, 1969), postulating absence of bonding in earlier socialization, was supported.

Interpersonal coordination tendencies shape 1-vs-1 sub-phase performance outcomes in youth soccer

This study investigated the influence of interpersonal coordination tendencies on performance outcomes of 1-vs-1 subphases in youth soccer. Eight male developing soccer players (age: 11.8+0.4 years; training experience: 3.6+1.1 years) performed an in situ simulation of a 1-vs-1 sub-phase of soccer. Data from 82 trials were obtained with motion-analysis techniques, and relative phase used to measure the space-time coordination tendencies of attacker-defender dyads. Approximate entropy (ApEn) was then used to quantify the unpredictability of interpersonal interactions over trials. Results revealed how different modes of interpersonal coordination emerging from attacker-defender dyads influenced the 1-vs-1 performance outcomes. High levels of space-time synchronisation (47%) and unpredictability in interpersonal coordination processes (ApEn: 0.91+0.34) were identified as key features of an attacking player’s success. A lead-lag relation attributed to a defending player (34% around 7308 values) and a more predictable coordination mode (ApEn: 0.65+0.27, P50.001), demonstrated the coordination tendencies underlying the success of defending players in 1-vs-1 sub-phases. These findings revealed how the mutual influence of each player on the behaviour of dyadic systems shaped emergent performance outcomes. More specifically, the findings showed that attacking players should be constrained to exploit the space-time synchrony with defenders in an unpredictable and creative way, while defenders should be encouraged to adopt postures and behaviours that actively constrain the attacker’s actions.

Risk-taking, harm and help-seeking : reported by young people in treatment at a youth alcohol and drug counselling service

Regarded as a normative component of development, risk-taking by young people is a well-researched subject, and some risk-taking behaviours, such as substance use, are particularly well covered because of their potential to adversely affect health and wellbeing. What has remained unclear is the extent of young people's risk-taking while engaged in alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment, their awareness of the related harms of risk-taking behaviours, and their prior help-seeking for these harms - information which may have a significant impact on the quality and relevance of the care they receive. This paper reports the findings from a brief pilot study exploring those factors in a clinical sample of young people engaged in ongoing AOD counselling.

Urban Indigenous AOD treatment programs : addressing the lack of evaluative research of culturally appropriate youth services

This presentation discusses the limited research of urban rehabilitation service evaluations and assesses the progress of Goori House Rehabilitation Service, identifying issues preventing a sustainable organisational future.

Empower me : social innovation design for homeless families : collective design creativity

Design Creativity has largely been explored as an individual expression of design cognition rather than as the collective manifestation of interaction in context. Recent approaches to design with an emphasis on co-design suggest that the problem-solution space co-evolves through social interaction. Socially Responsive Design for Social Innovation constitutes the most recent and perhaps the most promising domain of application for design thinking practices that emphasize collaborative innovation. In this paper, we describe the ideation of a service design solution for homeless families (Em.power.me), developed through consultation with a range of stakeholders over a three month period. This service design innovation aimed to visualise how such a service would operate and identify the potential benefits for all stakeholders. We focus here on the phases leading to the ideation of the service design.

Youth Alcohol and Drug Practice Guide 3 : Practice Strategies and Interventions

This guide canvasses a range of practice strategies and interventions utilised by workers and services who engage with young people experiencing problematic AOD use whilst also exploring the many and varied challenges associated with this type of work.

A city for all citizens : integrating children and youth from marginalized populations into city planning

Socially just, intergenerational urban spaces should not only accommodate children and adolescents, but engage them as participants in the planning and design of welcoming spaces. With this goal, city agencies in Boulder, Colorado, the Boulder Valley School District, the Children, Youth and Environments Center at the University of Colorado, and a number of community organizations have been working in partnership to integrate young people’s ideas and concerns into the redesign of parks and civic areas and the identification of issues for city planning. Underlying their work is a commitment to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and children’s rights to active citizenship from a young age. This paper describes approaches used to engage with young people and methods of participation, and reflects on lessons learned about how to most effectively involve youth from underrepresented populations and embed diverse youth voices into the culture of city planning.