Youth Studies Australia articles from March 2004

Youth Studies Australia archives from March 2004

Ready, set, go ...
March 1, 2004... 2004 is off to an 'active' start. Our first issue for the year focuses on sport, with contributions from participants at the International Youth Sports Congress held in Atlanta in September 2003. With fitness and physical activity being an...

Finders keepers & sharers of youth studies information.
March 1, 2004... In order to improve our communication processes and extend our information services ACYS has three new projects in development: a Taxonomy for Australian Youth Studies (TAYS), the Australian Youth Facts and Stats (AYFS) service, and, in...

SA opinion survey.(Attitudes & opinions)
March 1, 2004... Almost three-quarters of the respondents to a South Australian youth survey, called BHeard, in September-October 2003 said they liked living in South Australia and planned to stay there for most of their adult lives. The survey was a joint...

Democrats' survey.(Attitudes & opinions)
March 1, 2004... Young Australians feel disengaged from the political process, and three-quarters of them believe there should be more people their age in parliament, according to the Australian Democrats' annual survey of young people. Other findings were...

National coalition against bullying.(Bullying & violence)
March 1, 2004... A national coalition, NCAB, has been launched to raise public awareness of bullying. Its first major activity was to hold a two-day conference in November 2003, where the NCAB chairman, Alastair Nicholson, who is also Chief Justice of the...

South Australian deaths.(Child abuse & protection)
March 1, 2004... The Adelaide Sunday Mail reported on 10 children having died of physical abuse or neglect in South Australia since 1998. Six of them were aged under three and were known to the Department of Family and Youth Services. All 10 deaths were caused...

Swift intervention.(Child abuse & protection)
March 1, 2004... Commenting on the large increase in reports of child abuse in Victoria and New South Wales in particular, and in Australia more generally, John Fogarty, a former judge of the Family Court, suggested that while some extreme cases demand...

Jail and juvenile detention.(Crime & justice)
March 1, 2004... Addressing a conference in Victoria in December 2003, Peter Norden, a former prison chaplain, said that putting teenagers in adult jails makes them vulnerable to rape and other atrocities. Mr Norden, now policy director for Jesuit Social...

School crime.(Crime & justice)
March 1, 2004... Many Victorian schools are installing spy cameras and hiring security guards; police and security officers arrest about 20 youths a month for crimes committed at schools. Security guards make up to 25 patrols a week at some schools and...

Alcopops and binge drinking.(Drugs)
March 1, 2004... A study report commissioned by the Australian Divisions of General Practice expressed concern about the link between alcoholic sodas, or 'alcopops', and heavy drinking in young people. Alcopops usually have a base of wine or spirits and sweet...

Spiked drinks.(Drugs)
March 1, 2004... The federal government announced a $200,000 funding package to investigate drink spiking. The money will fund research at the Australian Institute of Criminology. Statistics on the incidence of drink spiking are few, and are often based on...

Withdrawal and respite service.(Drugs)
March 1, 2004... Western Australia's first withdrawal and respite centre for young people opened in December after six months in a temporary location. The centre, which is open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, is funded by the state government and managed...

Drinking and smoking risks.(Drugs)
March 1, 2004... Health experts in Western Australia have warned that one in six young West Australians risk developing mouth cancers because of combining alcohol with smoking. Anti-smoking lobbyist Maurice Swanson said that the state could face a similar trend...

Chroming in Queensland.(Drugs)
March 1, 2004... A survey conducted in May 2003 showed that 52.5% of the clients of the Brisbane Youth Service were currently chroming. The problem is said to plague the state, where another report found 32% of 12-year-olds had tried sniffing. The Brisbane...

Dangers in air fresheners.(Drugs)
March 1, 2004... Cheap air fresheners are emerging as a preferred drug for many teenagers in Australia and New Zealand. Called 'huffing', inhaling air fresheners has caused the death of three teenagers in one month in New Zealand. Experts in Australia believe...

Cannabis.(Drugs)
March 1, 2004... A shift in attitudes to cannabis among young people has been identified in a report by the Australian institute of Health and Welfare. Many more young people think of cannabis and heroin when people talk about problem drugs, than think of...

The Big Book on Party Drugs.(Drugs)
March 1, 2004... In Victoria, the Uniting Church has released a booklet aimed at teenagers on the 'feeling good' and 'feeling bad' effects of 10 party drugs. The book talks about taking ketamine, GBH, ecstasy and LSD, in a harm-minimisation context. While...

Schools' values.(Education & training)
March 1, 2004... Nearly 40% of Australian teenagers now attend private secondary schools and one in three children do not attend a government-run school. In an interview, the Prime Minister, John Howard, said parents were removing their children from government...

Public perceptions.(Education & training)
March 1, 2004... In a feature article, Professor Tony Vinson, an honorary professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney and chair of a recent independent inquiry into public education in New South Wales, observed that 'the...

Unemployment-suicide link.(Employment)
March 1, 2004... Young jobless males are 8.6 times more likely to commit suicide than their peers who are working or studying. This is a finding of a report by the Smith Family and the AMP Foundation. The report also calculates the cost of lost earnings and...

School 'not an optional extra'.(Families)
March 1, 2004... The federal Leader of the Opposition, Mark Latham, has proposed that courts be given the power to compel the parents of unruly and truant children to be more responsible for their children's behaviour. He pledged support for a parenting model...

Reforming family law.(Families)
March 1, 2004... The report of the House of Representatives Family and Community Affairs Committee has recommended a radical overhaul of family law, designed to encourage more separating parents to share custody. Under the new proposals, the Family Court would...

Divorce and after.(Families)
March 1, 2004... Writing on the effects of parental divorce on children, Jeni Harvie noted that since 1975, when no-fault divorce laws came into force in Australia, 1.2 million children under 18 have experienced the divorce of their parents. She quotes Dr Bryan...

Adoption rarer.(Families)
March 1, 2004... The number of children being adopted in Australia is at its lowest level since we began compiling such statistics in the 1960s. Greater social acceptance of single mothers has largely contributed to the decline in adoptions. A new report from...

Family costs.(Families)
March 1, 2004... A report from the Australian Council of Social Services says that as children get older, the gap between rising costs and family and youth payments widens; a teenager costs 1.5 times as much to raise as a three-year-old, the report says. ...

Equity policy.(Gender issues)
March 1, 2004... Following a parliamentary inquiry into boys' education in 2003, the Ministerial Council on Education, Training and Youth Affairs has appointed Richard Fletcher, a lecturer in the Faculty of Health at the University of Newcastle, to a team to...

Recruitment for cancer trials.(Health & safety)
March 1, 2004... New research published in The Medical Journal of Australia has shown that adolescent and young adult cancer sufferers in Victoria are poorly recruited into clinical trials, despite the rise in cancer cases in those age groups. The study's...

Less smoking in WA.(Health & safety)
March 1, 2004... In Western Australia, youth smoking rates have decreased by 7% since 1999. A survey of 3,315 school children found that 10% of the young people were smokers in 2002 compared with 17% in 1999. The biggest fall was in the 12-15-year age group,...

Dieting and body image.(Health & safety)
March 1, 2004... The Victorian government has set up an inquiry into the growing trend in teenagers for crash diets and eating disorders. The Youth Affairs Minister, Jacinta Allan, said that anorexia nervosa was the third most common chronic illness for teenage...

beyondblue survey.(Health & safety)
March 1, 2004... A national survey of 285 people aged 18-25 has been conducted by beyondblue, the national initiative against depression. It found that young people rank drug and alcohol abuse, depression and other mental health problems among the most serious...

Mental health treatment.(Health & safety)
March 1, 2004... An Australian specialist has called for more research into the treatment of mentally ill adolescents, saying that the area was neglected in research, which concentrated on adults. Joseph Rey, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the...

Medicare cards.(Health & safety)
March 1, 2004... In November 2003 the Prime Minister said that legislation would be introduced to parliament before the end of the year to stop individual Medicare cards being issued to young teenagers, and to increase the right of parents to find out what...

Age group in transition.(Health & safety)
March 1, 2004... An age group in transition is how 12-24-year-aids have been described by Fadwa al-Yaman, a co-author of Australia's young people: Their health and wellbeing 2003. Her report, published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, shows a...

Graduate pay.(Income & expenditures)
March 1, 2004... The Graduate Careers Council of Australia's Graduate Destination Survey reports that 80.9% of new university graduates found a full-time job within four months during 2003. While that percentage was slightly lower than in 2001 and 2002, the...

Debt levels.(Incomes & expenditures)
March 1, 2004... Telephone bills are a big cause of financial difficulty for more than a third of young consumers seeking help from financial counsellors. A study of more than 2,300 people advised by members of the Financial Counsellors Association of NSW last...

Victoria acts.(Incomes & expenditures)
March 1, 2004... Money management and financial planning will be on the curriculum for Victoria's 70,000 secondary students this year. In what is said to be an Australian first, consumer education is being added to the 2004 curriculum of the state's 310...

Mentoring in the Centre.(Indigenous youth)
March 1, 2004... The Gap Youth Centre Aboriginal Corporation is to be given $155,300 over two years to increase mentoring opportunities for young people in Central Australia, especially those at greatest risk of disconnection from their families, community,...

Not only money.(Poverty)
March 1, 2004... In a feature article on the means of alleviating poverty, Patrick McClure, chief executive of the welfare organisation Mission Australia, pointed out that beyond the ordinary controversies over the extent of poverty in Australia there lies a...

Effects of drought.(Rural & isolated)
March 1, 2004... A new report describes the severe impact of the drought on rural families. The Charles Sturt University, at Bathurst, found that the drought has exacerbated social isolation, and that among many other problems it has led to the loss of...

New advisory services.(Services & welfare)
March 1, 2004... A new web site has been set up to offer online support for young people needing health advice. 'Tribalwell' is an interactive site that offers peer-based online support targeted at the 300,000 young people with illnesses such as cystic...

Abuse by under-10s.(Sexuality)
March 1, 2004... Speaking in Sydney at the Australasian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect, Cassandra Tinning, a social worker from the Canberra Hospital's Child At Risk Assessment Unit, presented recent research on child protection and the Internet. She...

Mixed picture.(Sport & leisure)
March 1, 2004... In the 2003 Youth Survey undertaken on behalf of the state government in Western Australia, the top six leisure choices among the 8,000-odd respondents (aged between 12 and 25) were sedentary. Sport and physical activity rated seventh....

National Youth Week.(Technology)
March 1, 2004... A web site to celebrate National Youth Week has been launched. National Youth Week, which this year will be from 27 March to 4 April, aims to raise awareness of, and celebrate the value of, Australians aged between 12 and 25. The web site,...

International developments in youth sports.(Special Focus)
March 1, 2004... Welcome to this special edition of Youth Studies Australia, which focuses on international developments in youth sports, and flags a 2005 issue of Youth Studies Australia that will focus on youth sport and leisure activity in Australia and New...

National Alliance For Youth Sports.
March 1, 2004... The National Alliance For Youth Sports is America's leading advocate for positive and safe out-of-school sports and activities for youth. It was founded in 1981 by Fred Engh, the Alliance's current President and CEO. The organisation originally...

Harvard, soccer & over-scheduled families.
March 1, 2004... The over-scheduled child-rearing style is currently being touted in the USA and in much of the rest of the developed world as the best way to raise children. However, this over-scheduled lifestyle may be damaging marriages; getting unhappy...

Fun and games? Myths surrounding the role of youth sports in developing Olympic champions.(Peer Reviewed)
March 1, 2004... Daniel Gould and Sarah Carson argue that the professionalisation and specialisation of youth sports disadvantages the majority of young people who will never be elite athletes, and does not optimise the development of Olympic champions. They...

Getting physical: the importance of physical activity in the prevention of overweight and obesity in youth.(Peer Reviewed)
March 1, 2004... In this article Han C.G. Kemper presents an overview of recent research findings regarding the international epidemic of overweight and obesity in young people. The research includes his own longitudinal studies conducted on young people in the...

Leave no child behind: recreation and sports: instruments for world peace Jimmy Calloway articulates the relevance of creating cultures of achievement through youth sports as an instrument for peace and inclusion throughout the world.
March 1, 2004... Cultures of achievement are defined as programs and activities that introduce, build upon and create stimulating learning environments that instill self-esteem, psychological growth, and autonomy within individuals. Cultures of achievement are...

Local initiatives: background notes on obesity and sport in young Australians.
March 1, 2004... As a lead-up to next year's special issue of Youth Studies Australia, which will focus on youth sport and leisure activities in Australia and New Zealand, we are including here, first, a selective overview of recent literature in the area of...

Sport, physical activity and antisocial behaviour in youth.(Cover Story)
March 1, 2004... Sport and physical activity programs provide an effective vehicle through which personal and social development in young people can be positively affected. This paper summarises the main findings from a report by the Australian Institute of...

National Indigenous Youth Leadership Group 2003.
March 1, 2004... The 15 members of the National Indigenous Youth Leadership Group (NIYLG) 2003 met with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Larry Anthony, at Parliament House on 15 October 2003, to discuss issues important to them as young Indigenous...

Your first coaching book: a practical guide for volunteer coaches.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... National Alliance for Youth Sports, Square One Publishers, NY 2002, ISBN 0757002005, 72pp., (USD)$4.95. This small format American booklet is what it sets out to be--a practical guide for volunteer coaches. Any small sports group working...

Young, free and single? Twenty-somethings and household change.(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... S. Heath and E. Cleaver, Palgrave MacMillan, 2003, ISBN 140390124, 225pp., $45 (HB). Given the cultural similarities among twenty-somethings across Western society, this book by British academic researchers Sue Heath and Elizabeth Cleaver...

Media fascinations: Perspectives on young people's meaning making.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... Ingegerd Rydin (ed.), Nordicom, Goteborg University, 2003, ISBN 9189471202, 168pp. This edited collection with contributions from eight different authors focuses on the way young audiences make sense of the media (screen-based media,...

New from streetwise.
March 1, 2004... * Getting on Track: Drug treatment comic for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples This comic has two stories, 'Done is done' looks at the issues involved in getting on to a methadone treatment program, and 'Bupe n' up' covers the...

Taking Participation seriously.
March 1, 2004... NSW Commission for Children and Young People, 2003. This colourful and sturdy three-booklet kit answers a multitude of questions about participation and offers practical and fun ideas on how to achieve it. Participation has been a noble...

A guide for newly arrived young people: Understanding the Victorian education and training system.
March 1, 2004... Centre for Multicultural Youth issues, 2003, 2nd edition, ISBN 0975023349, 30pp. This resource booklet is 'designed to meet the needs of young people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds' and is produced by the Refugee Young...

Creating the space for dialogue: a guide to developing a local youth shopping centre protocol, NSW shopping Centre Protocol Project.
March 1, 2004... University of Western Sydney, 2003, 24pp. The banning of young people from shopping centres in recent years, and evidence that there are alternative forms of action, prompted the formation of a steering committee to show how protocol could...

Stop the bullying: a handbook for schools.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... Ken Rigby, ACER Press, revised and updated edition 2003, ISBN 0864315686, 84pp. Ken Rigby's popular handbook has been revised to include, among other things, a questionnaire 'to help teachers discover where they and their colleagues stand,...

The PLAN: Prospects for life and now.
March 1, 2004... Sisco Career Pathways, 2003, 52pp. This diary-style booklet was developed by the Gold Coast Youth Commitment and trialled there with students in Years 10 and 11. The colourful design provides space for the users to write in themselves and...

Census of Population and Housing: Australia's youth 2001.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2004, ISBN 0642181764, ABS Catalogue No. 2059.0, 136pp. This publication of a range of stats from the 2.001 Census relates to the 15 to 24 age-group and is analysed by population characteristics, cultural...

Promotion, prevention and early intervention for mental health: National consultation.
March 1, 2004... J. Parham and D. Rickwood, AUSEINET, 2003, ISBN 0957791585, 30pp, This report describes a national consultation undertaken in 2001-2002 which aimed to examine the progress made in promotion, prevention and early intervention (or PPE0 for...

Findings from Youth, Citizenship and Social Change.
March 1, 2004... Economic and Social Research Council, Trust for the Study of Adolescence (UK), 2003. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the UK's leading research funding and training agency addressing economic and social concerns, recently...

Sharing a new story: Young people in decision-making--a report for the Foundation for Young Australians.
March 1, 2004... Ani Wierenga with Anna Wood, Gabrielle Trenbath, Jessie Kelly and Olivia Vidakovic, Australian Youth Research Centre, Working Paper n.23, 2003, ISBN 0734029683, 80pp. Sharing a new story is a very contemporary look at youth participation,...

Engaging young people in school through the arts: SCRAYP--youth arts with an edge, an evaluation.
March 1, 2004... Helen Stokes, Australian Youth Research Centre, Working Paper n.24, 2003, ISBN 0734029675, 36pp. SCRAYP: Youth arts with an edge (formerly known as the School Community Regional Arts Youth Program) is a drama program that works across...

PARTYline: newsletter of the National Rural Health Alliance.
March 1, 2004... September 2003 The NRHA is the peak body working to improve health and well-being in rural and remote Australia. The wide-ranging articles in this issue demonstrate the fact that rural health issues are themselves complex and, as one of...

Parity.
March 1, 2004... v.16, n.10, November 2003. The Council to Homeless Persons has collaborated with the Women's Domestic Violence Crisis Service for this issue of Parity which has as its focus, 'New dimensions in responding to domestic violence and...

FaCS research news.
March 1, 2004... Issue 17, September 2003. 'Growing up in Australia: The longitudinal study of Australian children' is described in this issue of FaGS Research News as 'one of the largest and most complex studies of its type that has ever been undertaken...

Young People Now on youth and sport activities in the UK.
March 1, 2004... The following articles from Young People Now, the UK monthly magazine 'for everyone working with young people' describe some projects of interest to Australian readers. For more information go to: . * 'The Great Outdoors'--The outdoor...

Childhood obesity: do parents recognise their health risk?(Health)
March 1, 2004... D. Etelson, D.A. Brand, P.A. Patrick & A. Shirali, Obesity Research, n.11, 2003, pp.1362-68. This study reviewed parents' understanding of excess weight as a health risk, knowledge of eating habits and recognition of obesity in their...

The costs of weight control: what do young women pay?(Health)
March 1, 2004... K. Ball, S. Andajani-Sutjahjo & D. Crawford, Medical Journal of Australia, 2003, n.179, p.586. This study investigated the weight-management strategies utilised among a randomly selected, nationwide sample of 445 women aged 18-32 years....

Public perceptions of the causes and prevention of obesity among primary school children.(Health)
March 1, 2004... P.M. Hardus, C.L. van Vuuren, D. Crawford & A. Worsley, International Journal of Obesity, n.27, 2003, pp.1465-71. The aim of the study was to gain an understanding of the perceptions of lay individuals regarding the causes and prevention of...

Severe obesity and personality: a comparative controlled study of personality traits.(Health)
March 1, 2004... A. Ryden, M. Sullivan, J.S. Torgerson et al., International Journal of Obesity, n.27, 2003, pp.1534-40. The personality traits between severely obese people seeking treatment and a non-obese reference group were assessed. Using the...

Breastfeeding and obesity in childhood: cross sectional study.(Health)
March 1, 2004... L. Li, T.J. Parsons & C. Power, British Medical Journal, n.327, 2003, pp.904-05. With inconclusive evidence that breastfeeding protects against obesity, a British birth cohort was used to assess whether breastfeeding influences body mass...

Longitudinal impact of weight-related intentions with the initiation and maintenance of smoking among adolescents.(Health)
March 1, 2004... E.B. Chesley, T.A. Roberts, P. Auinger, R.E. Kreipe & J.D. Klein, Journal of Adolescent Health, v.34, n.2, 2004, p.130. The longitudinal impact of weight-related intentions (trying to lose, gain or maintain weight, or not trying to do...

Obesity among inner-city high school students: psychosocial and academic associations.(Health)
March 1, 2004... J. Rieder & S.B. Friedman, Journal of Adolescent Health, v.34, n.2, 2004, pp.128-29. In order to study the relationship between overweight and psychosocial and academic variables in young people, the school-based health clinic records of...

Intake of snack foods does not predict weight gain among children and adolescents.(Health)
March 1, 2004... A.E. Field, S.B. Austin, M.W. Gillman, B. Rosner, H.R. Rockett G. A. Colditz, Journal of Adolescent Health, v.34, n.2, 2004, pp.130-31. Intake of snack foods and annual change in body mass index (BMI) were assessed in 1996 through to 1998...

The association between parental lifestyle behaviors and adolescent knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and nutritional and physical activity behaviors.(Health)
March 1, 2004... P. Pakpreo, S. Ryan, P. Auinger & M. Aten, Journal of Adolescent Health, v.34, n.2, 2004, pp.129-30. In light of the rapid increase in adolescent obesity in the USA, this study examined lifestyle behaviours among adolescents in urban...

High body satisfaction in adolescent girls: Association with demographic, socio-environmental, personal, and behavioral factors.(Health)
March 1, 2004... A.M. Kelly, M. Wall, M. Eisenberg, M. Story & D. Neumark-Sztainer, Journal of Adolescent Health, v.34, n.2, 2004, p.129. Data from a study of eating, physical activity and weight-related issues were used 'to determine the prevalence of high...

Health behaviors and physical activity: are they related?(Health)
March 1, 2004... S.N. Sylvia, Journal of Adolescent Health, v.34, n.2, 2004, p.128. In 2002 and 2003, 5,093 suburban high school students in the mid-west USA completed the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). The majority of students were White (73%) or Black...

Predictors of change in body mass from childhood to adolescence.(Health)
March 1, 2004... R. Viner, Journal of Adolescent Health, v.34, n.2, 2004, p.121. Although there is an association between fat mass in childhood and fat mass in adolescence and adulthood, not all obese children become obese adolescents or adults. To study...

Factors affecting change among obese adolescents.(Health)
March 1, 2004... S. Pappadis Corrado, J. Patashnick & M. Rich, Journal of Adolescent Health, v.34, n.2, 2004, p.112. To better understand what life is like for adolescents living with obesity, 13 subjects aged 11 to 18 years were supplied with video...

Predicting change in physical activity, dietary restraint, and physique anxiety in adolescent girls: Examining covariance in physical self-perceptions.(Leisure, sport and recreation)
March 1, 2004... P. Crocker, C. Sabiston, S. Forrester, N. Kowaiski, K. Kowalski & M. McDonough, Canadian Journal of Public Health, v.94, n.5, 2003, pp.332-37. Three objectives were examined in this study. The first was changes in BMI, global self-esteem,...