Middle school and early high school dropouts have long troubled educators. However, research on this sad phenomenon has been far less than definitive as to the causes. In this research-based book, Roderick examines two critical factors impacting graduation or dropping out. They are school transition to middle school and from there to high school and, secondly, grade retention. The subjects of the study were students from an urban Massachusetts public school system. The author contends the notion that middle and high school dropouts can be predicted based on their grades and attendance in 4th grade. She also provides the strongest evidence to date that the experience of being retained in grade increases a student's chances of dropping out. This book gives us a new conception of the nature of school dropout in schools with high dropout rates.

Adolescence in India: An Interdisciplinary Perspective highlights the need and importance of studying adolescence in the domain of education. Using an interdisciplinary approach, it discusses adolescence from the perspective of sociology, psychology, education and health studies. Against the backdrop of economic development and globalization, the book looks at adolescence in the changing social milieu. It offers an understanding of adolescence by exploring the socio-cultural influences on adolescents and their interactions in various spaces like the school, among peers, family and the media. The book reflects on classroom group processes and instructional practices for better psychosocial growth of adolescents as well as discusses the need for a greater emphasis on making resources available for adolescents to realise and strengthen their skills and agency. The book outlines various life-skills policies and programmes in India and uses vignettes, anecdotes, emerging classroom discussions, case studies, activities, and self-assessment tools and questionnaires to facilitate a deeper understanding of the concept. The book will be of interest to students, teachers, and educators in teaching programmes including educational psychology, adolescent psychology, and human development. It will also be useful for policymakers, NGOs, and public and private sector bodies who work in the field of adolescent psychology.

Adolescence in India: An Interdisciplinary Perspective highlights the need and importance of studying adolescence in the domain of education. Using an interdisciplinary approach, it discusses adolescence from the perspective of sociology, psychology, education and health studies. Against the backdrop of economic development and globalization, the book looks at adolescence in the changing social milieu. It offers an understanding of adolescence by exploring the socio-cultural influences on adolescents and their interactions in various spaces like the school, among peers, family and the media. The book reflects on classroom group processes and instructional practices for better psychosocial growth of adolescents as well as discusses the need for a greater emphasis on making resources available for adolescents to realise and strengthen their skills and agency. The book outlines various life-skills policies and programmes in India and uses vignettes, anecdotes, emerging classroom discussions, case studies, activities, and self-assessment tools and questionnaires to facilitate a deeper understanding of the concept. The book will be of interest to students, teachers, and educators in teaching programmes including educational psychology, adolescent psychology, and human development. It will also be useful for policymakers, NGOs, and public and private sector bodies who work in the field of adolescent psychology.

During China's Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao Zedong's "rustication program" resettled 17 million urban youths, known as "sent downs," to the countryside for manual labor and socialist reeducation. This book, the most comprehensive study of the program to be published in either English or Chinese to date, examines the mechanisms and dynamics of state craft in China, from the rustication program's inception in 1968 to its official termination in 1980 and actual completion in the 1990s. Rustication, in the ideology of Mao's peasant-based revolution, formed a critical component of the Cultural Revolution's larger attack on bureaucrats, capitalists, the intelligentsia, and "degenerative" urban life. This book assesses the program's origins, development, organization, implementation, performance, and public administrative consequences. It was the defining experience for many Chinese born between 1949 and 1962, and many of China's contemporary leaders went through the rustication program. The author explains the lasting impact of the rustication program on China's contemporary administrative culture, for example, showing how and why bureaucracy persisted and even grew stronger during the wrenching chaos of the Cultural Revolution. She also focuses on the special difficulties female sent-downs faced in terms of work, pressures to marry local peasants, and sexual harassment, predation, and violence. The author's parents were both sent downs, and she was able to interview over fifty former sent downs from around the country, something never previously accomplished. China's Sent-Down Generation demonstrates the rustication program's profound long-term consequences for China's bureaucracy, for the spread of corruption, and for the families traumatized by this authoritarian social experiment. The book will appeal to academics, graduate and undergraduate students in public administration and China studies programs, and individuals who are interested in China's Cultural Revolution era.

The tenth anniversary edition of this national bestseller goes beyond raging hormones and peer pressure to explain why adolescents act the way they do and what parents and teachers can do about it--and it's now thoroughly revised and updated to address the issues facing kids today: social media, online bullying, prescription drug abuse, stress, and nutrition.
"Why Do They Act That Way?" was the first book to explain the scientific, brain-based reasons behind teens' impulsive behavior, lack of focus, self-consciousness, territoriality, fatigue, and their quickness to anger and take risks--to name just a few common teen problems. All these behaviors are linked to physical changes and growth in the adolescent brain. Ten years ago, there was no Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat. Now every kid has a smartphone and a Twitter account. Award-winning psychologist Dr. David Walsh has now updated his 2004 classic with the most current research into the adolescent brain, and he's also updated his guidance for parents and teens on navigating the new challenges of the 24/7 online world.
With real-life stories and reassuring guidance, Walsh provides realistic solutions for dealing with everyday and major challenges. Sample dialogues help teens and parents talk civilly and constructively with one another; behavioral contracts and Parental Survival Kits provide practical advice for dealing with issues like curfews, disrespectful language and actions, and bullying. As a parent, psychologist, coach, and trusted expert, Dr. Walsh offers the best advice to help adolescents thrive and parents survive.

This book revolves around neoliberal notions governing children and youth - a trend that permeates and dominates contemporary perceptions of "the young." In fact, given how the disciplinary power of neoliberalism swiftly becomes a common conceptual currency across national and cultural borders, discussing the way in which neoliberal self-governance permeates the cultures of childhood and youth is even more pertinent. This is followed by research on media discourses of children and their cultural practices in Norway, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Serbia, Greece, and the US.

What shapes the cultural, political and ideological values of young people living in Southeastern Europe? Which identities matter to them? How are their values changing, and how can they be changed? Who is changing them? Europe's periphery is the testing ground for the success of European values and identities. The future stability and political coherence of the Union will be determined in large measure by identity issues in this region. This book examines the ways in which ethnic and national values and identities have been surpassed as the overriding focus in the lives of the region's youth. Employing bottom-up, ethnographic, and interview-based approaches, it explores when and where ethnic and national identification processes become salient. Using intra-national and international comparisons of youth populations of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Vojvodina, contributors uncover the mechanisms by which ethnic identities are evoked, reproduced and challenged. In addition to exploring political, regional cultural generational and class identities, the contributors examine wider questions of European unity. This volume offers a corrective to previous thinking about youth ethnic identities and will prove useful to scholars in political science and sociology studying issues of ethnic and national identities and nationalism, as well as youth cultures and identities.

This volume focuses on the theme of Technology and Youth; advancements in communication and leisure technologies over the past decade have radically transformed the role of technology in the lives of youth. Around the globe, children and adolescents are often seen as being the first to embrace new technologies, such as new forms of social media. Having a cell phone, once regarded as an adult technology, has become a necessity within youth culture in many societies. Even video games, once limited to stand-alone computers, have become a venue for social gatherings of youth. The rapid pace of technological advancement has brought about profound changes in the very nature of childhood and adolescence.This volume of examines the role of technology in the lives of children and adolescents. Topics addressed include: cyberbullying, video games and aggressive behavior, online gaming and the development of social skills, sexuality, child pornography, virtual communities for children, social networking and peer relations, and other related issues.

Ceryl Teleri Davies' research in female-only spaces informs this illuminating guide to young women's experience of intimate relationships. Essential reading for those working with young people, the book makes a vital contribution to the study of gender-based violence. Her research reveals young women's understandings of what it means to have a healthy relationship, and considers the influence of gendered social norms within both healthy and abusive relationships. While contributing to the debate on how young women negotiate the conflicts inherent in contemporary constructions of gender, the book then suggests a pathway towards gender equality.

A woman is incomplete without a man, motherhood is a woman's destiny, and a woman's place is in the home. These conservative political themes are woven throughout teen romance fiction's sagas of hearts and flowers. Using the theory and interpretive methods of feminism and cultural studies, Christian-Smith explores the contradictory role that popular culture plays in constructing gender, class, race, age and sexual meanings. Originally published in 1990, Becoming a Woman through Romance combines close textual analyses of thirty-four teen romance novels (written in the United States from 1942-1982) with a school study in three midwestern American schools. Christian-Smith situates teen romance fiction within the rapidly changing publishing industry and the important political and economic changes in the United States surrounding the rise of the New Right. By analysing the structure of the novels in terms of the themes of romance, sexuality and beautification, and the Good/Bad and Strong/Weak dichotomies, she demonstrates how each has shaped the novels' versions of femininity over forty years. She also shows that although romance fiction is presented as a universal model, it is actually an expression of white middle class gender ideology and tension within this class. This high readable, comprehensive and coherent work was the first to combine in one volume three vital areas of cultural studies research: the political economy of publishing, textual analysis, and a study of readers. The first full-scale study of teen romance fiction, Becoming a Woman through Romance establishes the importance of the study of popular culture forms found in school for understanding the process of school materials in identity formation.

University student-run communications agencies allow students to work with real clients and get real world experience before they graduate from college and enter the workforce. Student-run agencies are increasing in popularity, but building a successful agency is challenging. With more than ten years of experience supervising a student-run agency, Swanson examines the three critical roles a student agency must fulfill in order to be successful. First, the agency must be an exceptional environment for learning. Second, it must be a successful business-without satisfied clients, the agency will not survive. Third, it must be a supportive partner in both on- and off-campus communities. As the first book to address student-run agencies, Real World Career Preparation offers extensive 'how to' guidance, and is supported by 22 Agency Spotlight best practice examples from student-run agencies across the U.S. The book ends with a comprehensive directory of 158 university student-run agencies in operation all over the world. Real World Career Preparation is essential reading for any faculty member or administrator who is involved with an agency, or who plans to launch one in the future. This book is also valuable for college students working in an agency who seek 'the big picture' view of how their work for clients has long-lasting impact on the campus and the community.

The notion of 'vulnerability' is now a prominent motif in social policy in the UK and beyond, with important implications for those deemed 'vulnerable'. Yet the effects of recalibrating welfare and criminal justice processes on the basis of vulnerability often escape attention. This distinctive book draws together lived experiences of vulnerability with academic and practical applications of the concept, exploring the repercussions of a 'vulnerability zeitgeist' in UK policy and practice. Through a focus on the voices and perspectives of 'vulnerable' young people and the professionals who support them, it questions how far the rise of vulnerability serves the interests of disadvantaged citizens. Illuminating where support shades into more controlling practices, the book is important reading for scholars, students and policy-makers interested in exclusion, precariousness, deviance and youth.

The Passage from Youth to Adulthood explores a society unanchored from culturally endorsed rites of passage, in which young people and adults appear to build their identities within a culture of dependency. In this book, author Pierluca Birindelli interviews Italian young adults still living with their parents, and focuses on how those individuals view the bedroom and the objects therein. From there, he analyzes self-narrations and longer autobiographies written by university students, measuring his impressions against sociological, psychological, and anthropological literature. Birindelli explores the paradigm of what he calls "intergenerational collusion," in which fathers and sons are playing to the same script, heedless of the common good, the other, and the future. Finally, integrating the experience of young Americans abroad sparks transcultural reflections about the concept of play and the authenticity of social performance.

Conduct disorder is the most prevalent emotional disorder in children and adolescents, and therefore requires special attention from clinicians. "Conduct Disorders in Children and Adolescents" is first in providing a comprehensive and balanced view of this field. It addresses the biological, psychological, and interpersonal aspects of aggressive behavior and conduct disorders, and includes the most current clinical research.

"Conduct Disorders in Children and Adolescents" first examines the phenomenology, etiology, and diagnosis of conduct disorders, then describes therapeutic and preventive interventions. It covers the range of treatments now available, including individual, family, group, and behavior therapy; hospitalization; and residential treatment. Special chapters address the new therapeutic interventions of pharmacotherapy and parent management training.

The Grief Support Group Curriculum provides a basis for assisting children and teenagers as they learn about mourning through facing death of a close or special friend. The aim of this curriculum is to facilitate healthy variations of mourning and positive adaptations following the death of a friend or family member. The work illustrates mourning in four stages of development and is accordingly divided into four separate texts. The texts focus on preschool-aged children, children in kindergarten through grade two, children in grades three through six, and teenagers.
This format affords participants opportunities to meet peers who have also experienced loss. The participants are helped to approach and express their grief through a variety of activities including drawing, sculpting, music, games, keeping a journal, problem-solving, drama, stories and movements. By providing death education, coping, and self-care techniques, the group sessions help youths get in touch with their feelings and the pain of loss.
Each curriculum contains ten ninety-minute sessions that should be implemented over a period of ten weeks. By employing age-appropriate themes to engage the child and provide continuity throughout the sessions, the division of material within the curricula assures that the activities reflect the developmental level of the grieving child or adolescent. Each person grieves differently, and Mourning Child Grief Support Group Curriculum addresses the issues related to mourning while recognizing the importance of individuality in grieving.

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What does it mean to be a young undocumented immigrant? Current public debate on undocumented immigration provokes discussion worldwide, and it is estimated that there are more than 11.1 million undocumented immigrants in the US, yet what it really means to be an undocumented immigrant appears less explicitly delineated in the debate. This interdisciplinary volume applies theories from Media, Cultural, and Literary Studies to investigate how undocumented immigrant youth in the United States have claimed a public voice by publishing their video narratives on YouTube. Case studies show how political protest significantly shapes these videos as activists narrate and perform their 'dispossession', redefining their understanding of the mechanisms of immigration in the Americas, and of home, belonging, and identity. The impact of the videos is explored as the activists connect them to Congressional bills and present their activities as a continuation of the legacy of the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s. This book will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and students involved in debates on migration, communication, new media, culture, protest movements and political lobbying.

This book draws on the findings of a two-year European research project, this book combines elements of critical theory, psychosocial criminology and applied existential philosophy to present a new model for responding meaningfully and effectively the 'problem' of how to respond to violence involving young people that continues to challenge youth workers and policy makers.

Explores how young people from communities targeted in the War on Terror engage with the "political," even while they are under constant scrutiny and surveillance Since the attacks of 9/11, the banner of national security has led to intense monitoring of the politics of Muslim and Arab Americans. Young people from these communities have come of age in a time when the question of political engagement is both urgent and fraught. In The 9/11 Generation, Sunaina Marr Maira uses extensive ethnography to understand the meaning of political subjecthood and mobilization for Arab, South Asian, and Afghan American youth. Maira explores how young people from communities targeted in the War on Terror engage with the "political," forging coalitions based on new racial and ethnic categories, even while they are under constant scrutiny and surveillance, and organizing around notions of civil rights and human rights. The 9/11 Generation explores the possibilities and pitfalls of rights-based organizing at a moment when the vocabulary of rights and democracy has been used to justify imperial interventions, such as the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maira further reconsiders political solidarity in cross-racial and interfaith alliances at a time when U.S. nationalism is understood as not just multicultural but also post-racial. Throughout, she weaves stories of post-9/11 youth activism through key debates about neoliberal democracy, the "radicalization" of Muslim youth, gender, and humanitarianism.

This engaging book paints a picture of passionate grassroots youth workers, at a time when their practice is threatened by spending cuts, target cultures and market imperatives. Using interviews, dialogue and research diary excerpts the author brings youth work practice and theory to life. The book will interest researchers and practitioners in youth and community work, education, social work, and health and social care and its rich, empirical research will resonate internationally.

In this innovative book, Professor Alan France tells the story of what impact the 2007 global crisis and the great recession that followed has had on our understandings of youth. Drawing on eight countries as case studies he undertakes an in-depth sociological analysis of historical and contemporary developments in post-sixteen education, training, work, and welfare policy to show how the ecological landscape of youth has been affected. He maps the growing influence of neoliberalism as a political strategy in each of the countries, showing how, after the crisis, it is accelerating the reconfiguration of institutions and practices that are central to the lives of the young. This book is essential reading for students of youth studies, sociology and policy, seeking a greater understanding of international public and social policy in relation to the youth question.

Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives, Youth, Place and Theories of Belonging showcases cutting-edge empirical research on young people's lifeworlds. The scholars demonstrate that belonging is personal, infused with individual and collective histories as well as interwoven with conceptions of place. In studying how young people adapt to social change the research highlights the plurality of belonging, as well as its temporal and fleeting nature. In the field of youth studies, we have seen a recent emphasis on studying the ways youth live out everyday multiculturalisms in an increasingly globalised world. How young people negotiate belonging in everyday life and how they come to understand their positions in fragmented societies remain emerging areas of scholarship. Composed of twelve chapters, the collection references key sites and institutions in young people's lives such as schools, community/cultural centres, neighbourhoods and spaces of consumption. Drawing from diverse areas such as the rural, the urban as well as displacements and mobilities, this international collection enhances our understanding of the theories employed in the study of youth identity practices. Written in a direct and clear style, this collection of essays will be of interest to researchers working in geography, theories of affect, gender, mobility, performativities, and theories of space/place. Investigating how young people come to belong can open up new spaces and provide critical insights into young people's identities.

Sexual citizenship is a powerful concept associated with debates about recognition and exclusion, agency, respect and accountability. For young people in general and for gender and sexually diverse youth in particular, these debates are entangled with broader imaginings of social transitions: from 'child' to 'adult'and from 'unreasonable subject' to one 'who can consent'. This international and interdisciplinary collection identifies and locates struggles for recognition and inclusion in particular contexts and at particular moments in time, recognising that sexual and gender diverse young people are neither entirely vulnerable nor self-reliant. Focusing on the numerous domains in which debates about youth, sexuality and citizenship are enacted and contested, Youth, Sexuality and Sexual Citizenship explores young people's experiences in diverse but linked settings: in the family, at school and in college, in employment, in social media and through engagement with health services. Bookended by reflections from Jeffrey Weeks and and Susan Talburt, the book's empirically grounded chapters also engage with the key debates outlined in it's scholarly introduction. This innovative book is of interest to students and scholars of gender and sexuality, health and sex education, and youth studies, from a range of disciplinary and professional backgrounds, including sociology, education, nursing, social work and youth work.

Young people's lives continue to be the topic of public scrutiny and recurring 'moral panics'. Smoking cannabis, speeding, and engaging in street-level fights are depicted as activities based on 'poor choices' or simple hedonism, putting young people's futures at risk. Based on comprehensive, qualitative research with young people in Denmark, this book illustrates how such individualised accounts miss out on the inherently social character of risk-taking activities. Youth, Risk, Routine introduces a new approach to risk-taking activities as being an integral and routinised part of young people's everyday life. By applying social theories of practice, this insightful volume presents a framework for understanding the routinised dimensions of young people's engagement in risk-taking and how this is embedded in, intertwined with, and held in place by other everyday practices. Indeed, through extensive empirical analyses of the rich material at hand, the authors explore how routinisation, coordination, embodiment, and social context are central aspects for understanding how, why, and when young people engage in risk-taking practices. Youth, Risk, Routine will be of interest to students and scholars in sociology, criminology, and social work as well as wider social science audiences, particularly those interested in exploring the empirical potential of social theories of practice.

Mass youth unemployment is now endemic and almost ubiquitous in the global north and south alike. This book offers an original and challenging interpretation of the ways in which young people's unemployment and general non-participation is becoming marginalised and criminalised. It re-examines the causes and consequences of non-participation from an unusually wide range of disciplines, using an innovative theorisation of the fast-changing relationships between extended studentship, welfare provision, labour market restructuring and crime. This approach offers an important contribution for understanding what it means for young people to be socially re-positioned and economically excluded in increasingly unequal societies, in and beyond the UK.

Complicates the process of scholarly inquiry into two-spirit lives, identities, and communities in service of creating a more just world by focusing on the needs, desires, and refusals of young Indigenous people. Addresses the distinct experiences of Indigenous trans, queer and two-spirit young people, which no published scholarly monograph has done to date. Expands the literature on two-spirit identities and communities using a methodology that centers the expertise of Indigenous youth.