Youth of the Eighties, Parents of 2000, Sociological Observations

(Résumé de l'ouvrage) This book is meant to honour the Belgian religious educationalist Herman Lombaerts reflecting on his legacy. He is internationally renowned as a scholar with a strong commitment to and a conceptual analysis of the social and cultural context in which people live and learn. This series of essays is build upon a thought provoking, streamlined design on the relationship between theology and education, relying on Lombaerts' societal and cultural analysis of contemporary religious education. Three key elements are at stake: the self-agency of the learner, the hermeneutic and communitive interpretation of religious traditions in the teaching of religion, and the radical re-imagination of Christian theology relying on this new model of religious educational praxis. For Lombaerts, the search processes of religious people have their own dynamic and dignity. Practical theology should listen carefully and empathetically to this quest. But he is also convinced of the need of solid fundamental research to understand critically its ambiguities and perspectives. Scholars from Europe, the United States and Australia lead the way in this process of "conceptual stretching". Issues such as happiness of children, identity formation of youth, educational and religious insecurity of parents, multi-faith education, tradition crisis of churches, theological education of lay ministers, narrativity and modern art in religious education, etc. are examined from a practical theological point of view, with a strong commitment to the philosophical, psychological, sociological, educational and political dimensions of three issues. With this book the editors hope to commemorate Lombaerts' international radiation, by building a collegial bridge between the different theoretical approaches in the German, Dutch, French, Italian and Anglo-Saxon religious educational research.

Educational pathways of minority youth in Norway: intersections of gender, ethnicity and social class

Educational aspirations during lower secondary school and choice of upper secondary education are important for young people’s future trajectories into higher education and labour market positions. In line with ideas about reflexive, autonomous individuals (Giddens, 1991), choice of education is often represented as a young person’ individual decision, and educational guidance as aimed at discovering what ‘fits’ an individual’s personality, interests and abilities. Educational aspirations and choices are also social patterns that are reproduced. Some population categories represent exceptions from expected patterns of social reproduction of educational level and professions. In several countries, one such category is young people from families with migration experiences (Lauglo, 2000; Modood, 2004). In Norway, students have a legal right to non-compulsory upper secondary schooling and 96 percent of the students continue from lower to upper secondary school. In spite of positive developments regarding minority youths’ completion of upper secondary and higher education in later years, studies still persistently show lower educational attainment among minority youth, particularly among boys (Fekjaer, 2006). However, in lower secondary school, minor ity youth tend to have markedly higher educational aspirations and stronger learning motivation than their majority peers, as well as greater effort in school and strong adherence to school values (Lauglo, 2000) despite lower educational attainment or lower socio-economic backgrounds. In addition, gender differences in educational aspirations seem to be smaller among minority youth. The principal objective of the study in progress that will be presented in this paper, is to describe how processes relating to gendered, ethnic and class-based identities influence young people’s educational choices. The study is undertaken as a PhD project in social anthropology. The methodological approach is ethnographic longitudinal fieldwork in two multicultural lower secondary schools in Oslo. The study is part of a larger project that also include quantitative analyses of longitudinal data covering 9th graders in Oslo 2006 through four data collections during lower and upper secondary school.

Youth Homelessness Strategy

This Strategy aims to build on this work and to ensure a more co-ordinated and planned approach to tackling youth homelessness. Particular emphasis is placed on prevention and on the importance of supporting schools, communities, the young people themselves and their families in this context. Where a young person becomes homeless the Strategy stresses the need for a prompt child focused service which will address the individual needs of the young person. Download the Report here

Ballymena Youth Bank

This project will work with 14-25 year olds to increase their understanding of health issues relevant to their age group and increase their skills to encourage other young people to become actively involved in promoting health and raising health awareness through the YouthBank grant-making scheme. 10 sessions will be carried out.

Differentiated normalization and drug transitions among rural youth in Ireland.

Prevalence surveys in Ireland indicate an increased trend of youth drug use with rural areas reporting comparable drug availability and prevalence of use in urban settings (Currie, C., Nic Gabhainn, S., Godeau, E., Roberts, C., Smith, R., & Currie, D. (Eds.). (2008). Inequalities in young people's health: HBSC international report from the 2005/2006 survey. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe). Few studies have explored the contexts and meaning of drug use on rural youth transitions in terms of increased drug prevalence, recent influx of rural drug activity, normative tolerance of recreational drug consumption and fragmentation of traditional rural communities. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 220 young people (15–17 years), and 78 service providers in a rural area of Ireland, in order to yield contextualized narratives of their experiences of drug use and achieve a wider exploration of processes, drug transitions and realities of rural youth. The thematic analysis of the research described varied pathways, attitudes and typologies of rural youth drug use, ranging from abstinent, recreational and moderated to maturing out. The research suggests support for a ‘differentiated’ normalization theory (Shildrick, T. (2002). Young people, illicit drug use and the question of normalisation theory. Journal of Youth Studies, 5, 35–48) in terms of consumerist and normative rural youth drug use transitions in their negotiation of risk within integrating rural and urban dichotomies. In conclusion, it is recommended that drug education programmes need to situate localized rural drug taking behaviours within a wider understanding of rural community life.This resource was contributed by The National Documentation Centre on Drug Use.

Putting children first: The role of health psychology in applied child/youth research

Overview Part One • Background/context  – defining and thinking about health • The role of the health psychologist • Promoting the psychosocial well being of children and young people • Early intervention and prevention in Ireland • Intervening in the lives of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties   Part Two • Case-study  – The Incredible Years Ireland Study: theory, practice and research   Part Three • Some key considerations in intervention science for research, policy and practice with children and young people   Sinead McGilloway: Putting children first. The role of health psychology

The Attic Youth Cafe

The Attic Youth Cafe was established as a social inclusion initiative and response to the issues of early school leaving, lack of informal educational opportunities, early sexual activity, early use of alcohol and the lack of a recreational space for young people to access information and socialise in. The service operates on a `drop-in` basis and is open to all young people aged between 14-18 years old. The Attic Youth Cafe offers services to the broad youth population and to marginalised and vulnerable young people. Local Community Development Programme Initiative Type Community Cafés Location Cork Target Groups Children (13-18 years) Funding Local Community Development Programme

The Reco Youth Cafe

We provide and sell freshly prepared main meals with high quality nutritional value to young people in the area. Adults can also avail of the cafe and their purchases effectively subsidise the project. The Young Peoples Facilities and Services Fund and The City of Dublin Youth Service Board and traded Initiative Type Community Cafés Location Dublin 11 Target Groups Children (13-18 years) Funding The Young Peoples Facilities and Services Fund and The City of Dublin Youth Service Board and traded Partner Agencies City of Dublin Youth Service Board

Assessing attachment cognitions and their associations with depression in youth with eating or drug misuse disorders.

The study investigates associations between attachment cognitions and depression symptoms in 71 15-25-year-olds, 26 of whom have eating disorders, and 20 of whom are drug misusers. Attachment cognitions were measured with the CaMir Q-sort, which provides indexes for secure, avoidant, and preoccupied attachment, as well as scores on 13 dimensions. The BDI-13 was used to measure depressive symptomatology. Consistent with the literature, BDI scores were associated with cognitions of preoccupied attachment. They were also related to cognitions of avoidant attachment, confirming Bowlby's theory on defensive exclusion. For participants with eating disorders, depressive symptomatology was related to preoccupation and parental interference, whereas for drug misusers, it was negatively related to security, preoccupation, parental support, and lack of parental concern. These findings help understand how attachment cognitions may participate in depressive symptomatology, namely in youth whose behavior problems may be associated with specific attachment experiences.

National Youth Work Development Plan 2003-2007

Irish society today is dramatically different from the one in which youth work services were first provided on a spontaneous and philanthropic basis more than one hundred years ago. At no time has the process of change been more striking than in the last ten to fifteen years. At least four major types of recent change, all clearly interrelated, can be identified: economic, political, technological and cultural. A further important aspect of cultural change in Ireland has been the continuing trend towards urbanisation, and the corresponding impact, largely negative, on rural communities. Particularly significant in the context of a Development Plan for Youth Work is the migration of young people away from rural areas to study or work, with most of them unlikely to return on a permanent basis. This, along with the rapid reduction in farm holdings and other changes in the countryside, has profound sociological and psychological repercussions for rural Ireland and indeed for Irish society as a whole. For young people living in rural areas the challenge is to provide youth work opportunities which are specially tailored to their needs and which take account of the ways in which their circumstances (e.g. regarding transport and access) are different from those of their urban peers

Sex, drugs and chronic illness: health behaviours among chronically ill youth.

BACKGROUND: A growing body of literature indicates that adolescents with chronic conditions are as likely, or more likely, to take risky behaviours than their healthy peers. The objective of this research was to assess whether adolescents with chronic illness in Catalonia differ from their healthy peers in risk-taking behaviour. METHODS: Data were drawn from the Catalonia Adolescent Health database, a survey including a random school-based sample of 6952 young people, aged 14-19 years. The index group (IG) included 665 adolescents (450 females) reporting several chronic conditions. The comparison group (CG) comprised 6287 healthy adolescents (3306 females). Personal, family and school-related variables were analysed to ensure comparability between groups. Sexual behaviour, drug use (tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, cocaine and synthetic drugs) and perception of drug use among peers and in school were compared. Analysis was carried out separately by gender. chi-square, Fisher's and Student's tests were used to compare categorical and continuous variables. RESULTS: The prevalence of chronic conditions was 9.6%, with females showing a higher prevalence than males. The IG showed similar or higher rates of sexual intercourse and risky sexual behaviour. For most studied drugs, IG males reported slightly lower rates of use than CG males, while IG females showed higher rates for every drug studied. No differences were found in the perceptions of drug use among peers or in their school. CONCLUSIONS: Similar to previous research, chronically ill adolescents in our sample are as likely, or more likely, to take risky behaviours than their healthy counterparts and should receive the same anticipatory guidance.