Abstract Introduction Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer or asexual (LGBTQA+) young people are at heightened risk of suicidality and psychological distress. Interventions in various forms are ...required to address this issue, which should be informed by the strengths, capacity and insight of LGBTQA+ young people. Methods An online survey was promoted to LGBTQA+ young people (aged 14–21) via targeted social media advertising and community organisation dissemination, in late 2019. In addition to a range of health and wellbeing questions, all participants were asked, ‘What makes you feel good about yourself?’ The open-text responses were subject to a detailed, inductive thematic analysis. Results In total, 4751 young people provided a short answer response to the question of what makes them feel good about themselves. The length of responses ranged from a few words to several paragraphs. Six key themes were identified. These included LGBTQA+ young people finding value in connection with significant others and finding affirmation for their gender and sexuality through their presentation and engagement with the world. In addition, participants talked about how they liked to engage with people they identified with or saw as role models, and how their creative outlets or making a positive difference in the world (e.g., through volunteering) helped them feel good about themselves. Conclusions While ensuring that young LGBTQA+ people have access to mental health services and social/support programs is important, it is also essential that we acknowledge young people’s agency and the significance of everyday, informal acts which support young LGBTQA+ people to achieve desires for connection, acceptance, contribution, belonging and self-expression. Policy Implications Findings reported in this paper offer some valuable insights for policy and programming, particularly in acknowledging and centring young people’s agency and capacity to make decisions and take action to express themselves, to find community and affirm their identity.
•In this article, we examine how youth with disabilities are transitioning into formal employment, and the effects of this transition on their lives and livelihoods.•Young people’s hope for better ...livelihoods is often mixed with uncertainty, based on the realization that opportunities to earn a decent salary and have a true career path are not guaranteed.•In our study, an ongoing process of adjustment is evident, beginning with young people seeing themselves as skilled and employable, which gave them hope and courage to embark on searching for jobs.•Personal determination in searching for a job and adjusting to the routines of a workplace are important for success.
Despite the fact that youth employment is a government policy priority in Bangladesh, young people have higher unemployment rates than the overall working population. Young men and women with disabilities are the most vulnerable growing up with stigma and discrimination, low self-esteem and often inequitable access to the services and skills they require to earn a living. This qualitative study adopted a workplace case-study approach to gather information on how youth with disabilities are transitioning into formal employment, and the effects of this transition on their lives and livelihoods. Twelve youth with disabilities (33 % female), eighteen co-workers (55 % female) and eight managers (25 % female) from 12 workplaces participated in the in-depth interviews. Through inductive and deductive thematic analysis, the findings suggest that the desire for independent economic and social lives was the key driver of transition into formal employment and underpinned the processes of empowerment and actions for young men and women with disabilities in their journey into formal employment. Many were struggling economically and psychologically, however getting a job had enhanced their self-esteem and confidence. Support from co-workers, supervisors, friends, and family members had helped them to confront the challenges in their journey more positively, motivating their efforts to lead independent economic and social lives. Better understanding of this transition process, the challenges youth with disabilities face, and the support needed, is important for the success of disability-inclusive employment programmes.
Bullying among school-aged children and adolescents is recognised as an important social problem, and the adverse consequences for victims are well established. However, despite growing interest in ...the socio-demographic profile of victims, there is limited evidence on the relationship between bullying victimisation and childhood disability. This article enhances our understanding of bullying experiences among disabled children in both early and later childhood, drawing on nationally representative longitudinal data from the Millennium Cohort Study and the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England. We model the association of disability measured in two different ways with the probability of being bullied at ages seven and 15, controlling for a wide range of known risk factors that vary with childhood disability. Results reveal an independent association of disability with bullying victimisation, suggesting a potential pathway to cumulative disability-related disadvantage, and drawing attention to the school as a site of reproduction of social inequalities.
Abstract Research from political geographers has increasingly identified the diverse actors, practices, and performances of diplomacy, challenging narrow conceptions that had tended to associate them ...with the state alone. The following paper engages this plurality directly through, on the one hand, its focus on young people as diplomatic actors and, on the other, the diplomacy of a British Overseas Territory (OT)—the Falkland Islands—a polity characterised by its liminal subjectivity between colonial dependency and independent statehood. In 2022, to mark the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War, we partnered with the Falkland Islands Government Office (FIGO) in London, to design, deliver and evaluate a national schools' competition. The Falklands Forty Schools Competition (FFSC) culminated in an eight‐day trip to the Islands for seven prize winners. The paper reflects on our role in co‐organising the competition and the opportunities it afforded to observe young people probe and critically question the official narratives presented to them by government representatives. This offered us the opportunity to explore how geopolitical and diplomatic narratives can be projected, negotiated and challenged by young people in the context of a highly curated trip with narrative projection at its heart. We show how young people through their participation in the competition and, more specifically, a trip to the Falkland Islands, were able to identify slippages and inconsistencies in these ‘stable’ narratives related to governance of the Islands. The young people, far from being passive diplomatic ‘delegates’ unquestioningly imbibing the information presented to them were, instead, highly aware of narrative tipping‐points, tensions and slippages in their engagements with government representatives and diplomats.
Short Abstract Research from political geographers has increasingly identified the diverse actors, practices and performances of diplomacy, challenging narrow conceptions that had tended to associate them with the state alone. The following paper engages this plurality directly through, on the one hand, its focus on young people as diplomatic actors and, on the other, the diplomacy of a British Overseas Territory (OT)—the Falkland Islands—a polity characterised by its liminal subjectivity between colonial dependency and independent statehood. We show how young people through their participation in the competition and, more specifically, a trip to the Falkland Islands, were able to identify slippages and inconsistencies in these ‘stable’ narratives related to governance of the Islands. The young people, far from being passive diplomatic ‘delegates’ unquestioningly imbibing the information presented to them were, instead, highly aware of narrative tipping‐points, tensions and slippages in their engagements with government representatives and diplomats.
Millions of children and young people (CYP) in the UK are affected by chronic or rare health conditions. Rapid advances in science and technology have resulted in CYP with chronic and rare conditions ...now surviving well into adulthood. New technologies have the potential to improve short- and long-term health outcomes for CYP with health conditions, prevent adult onset disease and complications, and reduce the burden on health services. There is thus a need for targeted investment and appropriate governance in child health technology development to address the specific needs of this population; health technology must be versatile to meet the social, anatomical, cognitive, psychological, and physiological changes inherent to childhood development. Despite the growing demand for health technology for a sizeable global population, industry still wrongly perceives the market size is relatively small, and health technology development is often localised and fragmented with limited scope for spread and adoption. These challenges can be overcome by validating and prioritising unmet needs, involving CYP and their families throughout the innovation pathway, facilitating effective partnerships with key stakeholders, and utilising national and international infrastructure and networks. This paper outlines five innovations supported by NIHR Children and Young People MedTech Co-operative that illustrate how common challenges in child health technology development can be overcome. It is essential that we continue to address such challenges and invest in the health and wellbeing of CYP.
Abstract Sometimes there are moments within fieldwork that are unplanned and that point to the potential of new research practices. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at summer music festivals in the ...UK, this paper considers two moments when fieldnotes were shared with participants, both during and after the festival. I explore the potential of these moments for expanding our understandings of the field but also highlight some of the issues with this way of incorporating people into our studies. Overall, I suggest that sharing fieldnotes can encourage a greater level of understanding of those we research, and promotes a higher level of involvement between research participants and research process.
Participation of children and young people with disabilities is often restricted and needs to be higher on the agenda of relevant municipal service providers. With a sociology of childhood ...perspective and based on thematic analysis of two focus group discussions and one individual interview with children and young people with various (dis)abilities, we present and discuss their recommendations for achieving increased participation in activities and services within their local communities in two Norwegian municipalities. The findings are presented as six themes concerning service development participation, local activities, staff interaction, language and respect, community meeting places for youth with functional variations and inclusive built environments. Our findings should be of immediate concern for service providers, healthcare staff, policymakers and others who are responsible for services and policies aiming at increasing children’s participation in their daily life environments.
Identifying factors that can influence young peoples' physical activity and sedentary behaviors is important for the development of effective interventions. The family structure in which children ...grow up may be one such factor. As the prevalence of single parent and reconstituted families have increased substantially over the last decades, the objective of this study was to examine whether these family structures are differentially associated with young people's MVPA, participation in organized sports and screen-time activities (screen-based passive entertainment, gaming, other screen-based activities) as compared to traditional nuclear families.
The data stem from the 2013/2014 "Health Behaviour in School- aged Children (HBSC) study". A large Norwegian sample of 11-16 years old students (n = 4509) participated. Cluster-adjusted regression models were estimated using full information maximum likelihood with robust standard errors (MLR).
After adjusting for covariates, living with a single parent was negatively associated with days/week with 60 min MVPA (b = -.39, 95%CI: -.58, -.20), and positively associated with hours/weekday of total screen time (b = .50, 95%CI: .08, .93). Young people living with a single parent were also more likely to report no participation in organized sports (OR = 1.40, 95%CI: 1.09, 1.79). Living in a reconstituted family was negatively associated with days/week with 60 min MVPA (b = -.31, 95%CI: -.53, -.08), and positively associated with hours/weekday of total screen time (b = .85, 95%CI: .37, 1.33). For all outcomes, the interaction effects of family structure with sex, and with having siblings were not statistically significant. For material affluence, a significant interaction effect was found for participation in organized sports (χ
4 =13.9, p = .008). Those living in a reconstituted family with low or high material affluence had an increased risk for not participating in organized sports whereas those with medium material affluence did not.
This study suggests that living with a single parent or in reconstituted families was unfavorably associated with physical activity, sport participation and screen-based behaviors among Norwegian youth. The findings indicate that family structure could be an important factor to take into account in the development and testing of interventions. More in-depth research is needed to identify the mechanisms involved.
There is increasing knowledge that the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on mental health of children and young people. However, the global evidence of mental health changes before compared to ...during the COVID-19 pandemic focusing on children and young people has not been systematically reviewed. This systematic review examined longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional studies comparing before and during COVID-19 pandemic data to determine whether the mental health of children and young people had changed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Web of Science, PubMed, Embase and PsycINFO databases were searched to identify peer-reviewed studies that had been published in English and focused on children and young people between 0 and 24 years of age. This identified 21 studies from 11 countries, covering more than 96,000 subjects from 3 to 24 years of age. Pre-pandemic and pandemic data were compared. Most studies reported longitudinal deterioration in the mental health of adolescents and young people, with increased depression, anxiety and psychological distress after the pandemic started. Other findings included deteriorated negative affect, mental well-being and increased loneliness. Comparing data for pandemic and pre-pandemic periods showed that the COVID-19 pandemic may negatively impact the mental health of children and young people. There is an urgent need for high-quality research to address the impact, risks and protective factors of the pandemic on their mental health, as this will provide a good foundation for dealing with future health emergencies and other crises.
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