Youth Studies Australia articles from September 2001

Youth Studies Australia archives from September 2001

Rural youth issues.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The issues affecting young people in rural and regional Australia are the same as those affecting other young people -- education, training, employment, family and peer relationships, health and housing. What is different is the context in...

Not ocker. (Attitudes & Opinions).(Australian youth identity)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... A study by researchers from the Queensland University of Technology investigating attitudes amongst 721 young people aged 12-16 found that a large number of the subjects had a low sense of `Australianness'. Dr Nola Purdie, senior lecturer in...

South Australian survey. (Attitudes & Opinions).(support for recycling)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... The latest in the `Attitudes' series of youth surveys run by The Advertiser and the Youth Affairs Council of South Australia showed that almost 90% of the 609 respondents were in favour of recycling of materials. This environmental awareness...

Homophobia. (Attitudes & Opinions).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... Another finding in the South Australian youth survey was that more than a quarter of the male respondents across the 10-21 age range took the view that it is `always, mostly or occasionally acceptable' to physically assault homosexuals. Two out...

Quarter-life crisis? (Attitudes & Opinions).(anxiety in youth)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Some psychologists have noticed that people in their early twenties are facing a life crisis because they are excessively worried about too much choice and about success, and are hamstrung by uncertainty and confusion. The phenomenon was given...

Mackay's view. (Attitudes & Opinions).(social researcher Hugh Mackay)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The prominent social researcher Hugh Mackay, addressing a capacity audience in Canberra, said teenagers and those in their early twenties had reacted against the rampant individualism that left their parents mired in self-interest and ignoring...

Signs show at five. (Bullying & Violence).(predictors of criminal behavior)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... A study released by the Australian Institute of Criminology found that even after other factors were considered (such as poverty, gender and divorce) `aggression at age five is the strongest predictor of adolescent delinquency'. In the study,...

Help calls doubled. (Bullying & Violence).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... Kids Help Line, a national phone-in counselling service for 5-18-year-olds, says two issues that have accounted for a worrying increase in calls have been bullying and mental health. Calls relating to bullying or harassment have more than...

Young mediators. (Bullying & Violence).(preventing bullying)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Children as young as eight will become mediators in a new attempt to stamp out bullying in some South Australian primary schools. The students are to be equipped with the skills to deal with intimidators before they resort to getting help from...

Handguns in NSW. (Bullying & Violence).(New South Wales)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... In New South Wales, a study by the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research has shown that about 35% of the crimes involving firearms in the State last year were committed by young people aged 18 or 19 (Australian, 7/6/01, p.3).

Fostering grows. (Child Abuse & Protection).(foster children)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... A new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Child Protection Australia 1999-2000, says that a growing number of parents are giving their children to relatives or foster parents because they cannot look after them. Nearly...

Educational disadvantage. (Child Abuse & Protection).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Report Card 2001, released by the Create Foundation, a peak body for children in state foster-care, showed that less than half of the nation's 20,000 children in care complete high school. It also found that most of the states do not regularly...

Commission urged. (Child Abuse & Protection).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... In Victoria, the Chief Justice of the Family Court, Alistair Nicholson, launched a discussion paper called Are You Listening to Us? which supports the case for a Victorian children and young people's Commission. He said such a body should have...

Early deaths. (Crime & Justice).(juvenile delinquents)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... Boys and young men released from Victorian juvenile justice centres are dying at rates 10 times those of the general community, a study has found. Young women released from custody had 40 times the death rate of similarly aged women in the...

Graffiti diverts? (Crime & Justice).(prevention of hard-core criminal activity)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The initial findings of a study by Mark Halsey, a lecturer in criminal justice at Flinders University, suggest that doing graffiti may divert young people from more hard-core crime. Mr Halsey interviewed 15 practising and former graffiti...

Controversial detection kits. (Drugs).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Mail-order drug-testing kits that can be used in the home have become available in Australia. Sold under the trade name Detect Now, the product has separate kits to detect cannabis, cocaine, heroin and ecstasy. It has been available in the...

Marijuana. (Drugs).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... A Federal Government survey of 25,480 students at government, independent and Catholic schools shows that 11% of 12-year-old schoolboys say they have at some time tried marijuana. Among male 17-year-olds the proportion is 53%. The comparable...

Victorian sting. (Drugs).(selling cigarettes to minors)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... More than 140 retailers were caught selling cigarettes to minors during a six-month operation carried out by the Victorian Government's teenage tobacco `flying squads'. From January to June this year, 15 teenagers employed by the Department of...

Boys. (Education).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Many boys believe secondary school is an unpleasant waste of time, according to a study of declining male student achievement and retention rates. Professor Faith Trent and Malcolm Slade from Flinders University surveyed 1,800 male students in...

Early leavers. (Education).(high school dropouts)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... In a feature article on students who leave secondary school without completing Year 12, Diana Bagnall drew partly on the study Patterns of Participation in Year 12 and Higher Education in Australia: Trends and Issues, published by the...

Australia not lagging. (Education).(funding for education)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... The Organisation for European Cooperation and Development's latest survey comparing education expenditure across nearly 40 countries is called Education at a Glance. Commenting on aspects of it in a feature article in the Financial Review, John...

Queensland schools surveyed. (Education).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Teaching practices in Queensland schools had suffered under an overloaded curriculum, social pressures and federal education policies, according to the report on a three-year survey of 24 of the State's government schools. The leader of the...

School innovation. (Education).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Competition between schools, rather than more money, is the pathway to a better education system, according to a new Federal Government report. The 270-page report, School Innovation: Pathway to the Knowledge Society, was based on an assessment...

Going private. (Education).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that the number of students at nongovernment schools across Australia rose by more than 20,000 in the year 2000. This continued the growth pattern of the previous year. In stark...

Unhappy meals. (Education).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... In New South Wales, teachers have criticised the Education Minister, John Aquilina, for allowing McDonald's, a fast-food chain of franchises, to have access to schools through free meals, vouchers and fund-raising incentives for parents. The...

Using the Web. (Education).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... A study suggests that Australians visit more educational web sites than any other nation. More than seven million of them are regular Internet users, and they spent an average of 28 minutes on educational sites in April this year. That compares...

Lost in a maze. (Employment).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... A report compiled by the brotherhood of St Laurence, Hanover Welfare Services, Melbourne Citymission and the Dusseldorp Skills Forum says young people are victims of too many well-meaning programs that fail to help them into jobs and training....

SA funding. (Employment).(South Australia)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Young people in South Australia will be given assistance to find jobs and to become more involved in making decisions affecting their community under a $10.4-million youth funding package. Over three years, $2.4 million will be allocated to...

Share-house living. (Families).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... A new report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggests that share-house living is expected to grow in popularity as young adults continue to defer marriage and children. The figures in the report show that while more 18-19-year-olds are...

Staying at home. (Families).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Professor Terry Burke, of Swinburne University, said soaring rental costs were forcing young adults to stay at home longer. `Historically, they have tended to go into private rental in inner urban areas and that's where rents have increased...

Counting the cost. (Families).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... In an article called `Foregone Earnings from Child Rearing: Changes between 1986 and 1997', Matthew Gray and Bruce Chapman estimated that an Australian woman with a secondary education will forgo after-tax income worth $162,474 over her...

Parenting styles. (Families).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Antisocial teenagers tend to have parents who are harsh, inconsistent disciplinarians, according to a study examining links between parenting styles and teen problems. The study, released by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, found...

Injuries. (Health & Safety).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... A study undertaken in Brisbane by the Mater Hospital's Injury Surveillance Unit considered the cases of more than 31,000 children aged under 15 arriving at emergency departments of 14 Queensland hospitals between 1998 and 2000. It found that...

Obesity. (Health & Safety).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... The prevalence of obesity among Australian children more than tripled in a decade, and the number of children carrying excess weight has doubled. Applying a new international definition of childhood obesity to two existing studies that were...

Body piercing. (Health & Safety).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... A paper published in the journal Communicable Diseases Intelligence, reporting research conducted by a team led by Professor Ian McAllister, director of the the Australian National University's Research School of Social Sciences, revealed that...

Depression. (Health & Safety).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... A study of 1,340 teenagers aged 13-17 found that 70 of them (5.2%) had clinically significant depression. Similar rates of depression have been recorded among adult Australians. The new survey, which was initiated by Professor Joseph Rey,...

Attention deficit disorder. (Health & Safety).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... In New South Wales, Professor Beverley Raphael, from the State's Department of Health, told a parliamentary inquiry that despite the fact that psychostimulant drugs such as Ritalin could help many of the children showing symptoms of attention...

Classroom ergonomics. (Health & Safety).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... In a conference paper on classroom ergonomics, Henry McNaught, occupational health and safety coordinator for the Catholic diocese of Rockhampton, said that although computers .were now commonplace in classrooms that accommodate children as...

Homeless profile changing. (Housing & Homelessness).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... According to a study reported by the Wesley Mission, families with young children are the fastest-growing group among Australia's homeless, constituting almost a third of the total number. The report suggests that domestic violence and...

Mobile phones. (Incomes & Expenditures).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The NSW Minister for Juvenile Justice launched Phonewize, an educational comic-style book that is aimed to show teenagers how to avoid mobile-phone debt. It seeks to inform young people aged 12-18 about their rights and responsibilities when...

University enrolments. (Indigenous Peoples).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... Aboriginal enrolment in university courses is declining for the first time in nearly a decade. A fall of 15.2% in these enrolments last year is expected to continue, and by 2005 there are expected to be 2,000 fewer Indigenous students....

Digital television. (Media).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... SBS will launch a digital television channel for teenagers from multicultural backgrounds, whose special needs have been neglected, the network says. Just days after the ABC started broadcasting on its new digital channel for young children,...

Cadets. (Participation).(military policy)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, Dr Brendan Nelson, announced plans to overhaul the cadet system and bring it firmly under the wing of the Australian Defence Force. He indicated that more cadets would be taught how to fire guns if they...

Youth Parliament. (Participation).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Tomorrow's leaders got a taste of the political process when the YMCA 2001 Youth Parliament met for four days in Melbourne. To mark the centenary of Federation, the official opening ceremony was held in the Exhibition Building and sought to...

Below the line. (Poverty).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... According to figures quoted by Michael Raper, president of the Australian Council of Social Service, many jobless people and students are living on social security payments that are well below the poverty line. Unemployed people under 21,...

Heading to the city. (Rural & Isolated).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... In South Australia, growing numbers of young people are seeking employment in Adelaide because of a lack of interesting jobs in the country. The Attitudes youth survey (for details see `Attitudes & opinions', above) suggests that finding work...

Help with reading. (Services & Welfare).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The Smith Family, a national charity, is plugging gaps in the multi-million-dollar literacy programs of schools by recruiting teenagers to help disadvantaged students to improve their reading. The program, called `Student 2 Student', in which...

Tasmanian web sites. (Services & Welfare).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Online information that is aimed to help young people can be found at a new web site established by the Tasmanian Government. It covers health, law, housing, recreation, employment, entertainment, sport and relationships. Its address is...

Myth vs facts. (Sexuality).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Dr Terri Foran, medical director of FPA Health, a New South Wales family-planning organisation, said that while popular culture presents `early sex as the norm', the average age at which Australian teenagers lose their virginity has not changed...

`Morning-after' contraception. (Sexuality).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... In a research project undertaken as part of her PhD studies at Flinders University, Helen Calabretto interviewed 42 young women aged between 13 and 24 and found that most of them had a poor knowledge of `morning-after' contraception. Only 14 of...

Chlamydia and gonorrhoea. (Sexuality).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The Queensland Young People's Mental Health Survey found that 54% of sexually active young people said they had not used a condom during recent sex. The finding echoes statistics from Queensland Health which indicate a marked increase in the...

Risky priorities. (Sexuality).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Heterosexual men appear to be more concerned about getting a partner pregnant than about contracting HIV, according to Dr Michael Flood, of the Australian National University. He said his PhD research had shown that young heterosexual men did...

Preventing abuse. (Sport & Leisure).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Under national guidelines launched by the Federal Sports Minister Jackie Kelly, all adults applying for positions in children's sporting associations will undergo a screening process. Sporting organisations will also have to play a larger role...

A dissident voice. (Technology).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Alison Armstrong, who is one of the authors of a book challenging the value of computers in early education, has called for a moratorium on buying computers for primary schools in her native Canada. The Child and the Machine: How computers put...

Alcohol-related social disorder and rural youth victims and perpetrators. (Peer Reviewed)(Cover Story).
September 1, 2001... The consumption of alcohol is embedded in the cultural psyche of rural Australia. By their early teens, most rural youth have tried alcohol, and some consume alcohol regularly. When they drink, the young often do so at hazardous and harmful...

Leadership from within: rural community revitalisation and the school-community partnership. (Peer Reviewed)(Cover Story).
September 1, 2001... COMMUNITY development literature (for example, Kenyon 1999a; Heartland Center for Leadership Development 1987) identifies the development of youth and their active participation in the community, as well as a strong belief in and support for...

Rural resilience: youth `making a life' in regions of high unemployment. (Peer Reviewed)(Cover Story).
September 1, 2001... Given the lack of post-compulsory education and employment opportunities in many rural areas, Year 10 school leavers are often encouraged to live away from home to engage in further education, and therefore broaden their employment prospects....

Hopes & fears: the life choices, aspirations and well-being of young rural women. (Peer Reviewed)(Cover Story).(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... Penny Warner-Smith and Christina Lee examine the possible implications of young rural women's life choices for their well-being in the current economic climate. In the light of on-going restructuring of services, it is argued that there is a...

Anxiety and depression in young people: a collaborative rural and remote service model. (Peer Reviewed)(Cover Story).(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... Mental health issues for young people, particularly anxiety and depression, are increasing in severity and frequency. Rural and remote health areas generally have limited specialist services to assess and manage young people with mental health...

Rural youth run RYOT. (Programs and Practice).(Rural Youth Organisation of Tasmania )(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... In 1983 an agricultural field event called Agfest was first held in rural Tasmania. It attracted III exhibitors and 9,000 patrons and was a two-day event. Now Agfest is a three-day event which this year attracted over 68,500 visitors and 615...

Rural CAMHS for better or worse? (Programs and Practice).(Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services )
September 1, 2001... Recruitment difficulties and technological advancements are factors that greatly impact on remote community mental health service delivery. This paper looks anecdotally at the issues of introducing new services and concepts into remote...

`Tell Me About It': A community-based project to reduce the rate of teen pregnancy in Wagga Wagga. (Pprograms and Practice).
September 1, 2001... In the final year of their occupational therapy degree course, Jacinta Makin and Susan Butler collaborated with local agencies to conduct a 10-week project aimed at addressing the high rate of teen pregnancy in the Wagga Wagga district of New...

Rural Youth Information Service.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The Rural Youth Information Service (RYIS) plays an integral role in the lives of many communities, assisting young people with access to employment, education and training opportunities, as well as accommodation, health and income support...

Rural links. (Get It).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Australian Rural Education Research Association http://www.nexus.edu.au/TeachStud/arera/INDEX.HTM This network includes researchers in education, health, economic development and geography who are interested in rural communities, in...

New sites. (Get It).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... NCYLC http://www.ncylc.org.au/ The organisation behind the innovative Lawstuff web site, the National Children's and Youth Law Centre, now has its own site, providing information and insight into the workings of Australia's only national...

Kids help line newsletter. (Newsletters and Magazines).(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... Kids Help Line, June 2001 The characteristics of rural and remote callers to Kids Help Line (KHL) are the subject of an article in this issue of the KHL newsletter. The proportion of calls to KHL from rural and remote Australia closely...

Campus review. (Newsletters and Magazines).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... v.11, n. 29, 2001 An article on the qualifications of Australian academic staff, reveals that males holding higher degrees outnumber females by more than two to one. The perpetuation of this trend in a climate of `moral panic' around the...

Policy research raper number 8: social indicators for regional Australia. (Journals).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... J.R. Bray, Department of Family and Community Services, ISSN 14427532, 2001, 140pp. The figures for youth payments in regional Australia are perhaps the only direct indicator for young people in this publication; however, several other...

Heywire -- the ABC gives regional youth a voice. (Kits and Resources).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Heywire is an ABC Radio award scheme for regional and rural youth aged between 16 and 22. Young people are invited to submit a script for a three-minute radio story about anything that is important to them, as long as it relates to life outside...

Tourette Syndrome. (Kits and Resources).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Material from the Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia. Tourette Syndrome (TS) is a neurological disorder that generally appears before the individual is 18. it is characterised by repeated involuntary movements and vocalisations...

Community space poster. (Kits and Resources).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... YAPA, 2001. The West Sydney office of the Youth Action and Policy Association (YAPA) recently launched its community space poster project. Focusing on the rights and responsibilities of young people in shopping centres, the project has...

Finding the Way Home. (Kits and Resources).(Brief Article)(Review)
September 1, 2001... Video recording, Children's Welfare Association of Victoria, 2001. The Children's Welfare Association of Victoria (CWAV) provided the following description of the video it commissioned to promote foster care in rural Victoria: "This...

Supporting children after suicide: Information for parents and other caregivers. (Kits and Resources).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... K. Noonan & A. Douglas, South Western Sydney Area Health Service. Written by two psychologists with the assistance of children and parents, this slim booklet provides basic information for adults supporting children affected by suicide....

Lifetimes Worth of Caring: School-based young carers survey. (Reports).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... M. Gays, Marymead Child and Family Centre, ISBN 0957902700, n.d., 27pp. The number of young people caring for sick or disabled families members is on the increase; however, there is little known about school-aged carers in Australia. This...

Suicide and the media: a critical review. (Reports).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Full report, J. Pirkis & R.W. Blood, Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, ISBN 0642735417, 2001, 94pp. This report is a review of scientific studies that have been conducted over the past 30 years on whether media portrayals of...

Getting it right! models of better practice in youth health. (Reports).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... J. Silk, New South Wales Association for Adolescent Health, 1999, 122pp. This background paper aims to `enhance the quality of health services for young people by generating discussion on issues in youth health and providing a model which...

Small town renewal overview and case Studies: summary of full report. (Reports).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... P. Kenyon & A. Black (eds) et al., Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation Publication No. 01/043, 2001, 3pp. The widespread economic and demographic decline of many small towns in Australia has been well documented; however,...

The office for youth FReeZA, program: Policy, program and service delivery evaluation report. (Reports).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Undertaken by Victoria University, Institute for Youth Education and Community, n.d. The FReeZA Program is a Victorian Government initiative designed to assist communities to implement drug-and-alcohol-free cultural events for young people...

Illicit Drug Use in Regional Australia, 1988-1998. (Reports).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... P. Williams, Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice No. 192, Australian Institute of Criminology, ISSN 0817-8542, ISBN 0642242135, 2001, 6pp. While the number of people using drugs has increased in both metropolitan and regional...

Economic Transformation and Regional Crime. (Reports).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... C. Carcach, Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice No. 209, Australian Institute of Criminology, ISSN 0817-8542, ISBN 0642242313, 2001, 6pp. The third in a series devoted to the study of crime in regional Australia, this paper...

The Rural Book. (Books).(Review)
September 1, 2001... Tenth edn, Commonwealth of Australia, ISBN 0642456429, ISSN 1326-2769, 2001, 352pp. Now in its tenth edition, The Rural Book is a popular resource that provides information about Commonwealth Government programs and agencies to people...

On Target: Creating text for a purpose. (Books).(Review)
September 1, 2001... J. Schill, Heinemann, ISBN 0864623526, first published 1998, also 2001, 226pp, RRP $33.55. On Target is one of a series of English texts for senior secondary students written by Janne Schill. It is designed to help students develop their...

Being Fair: A procedural manual for Australian schools. (Books).(Review)
September 1, 2001... D. Bartholomew & J. Kidd, National Children's and Youth Law Centre, ISBN 0958646376, 1999, 55pp., RRP $33.00 (20% discount for 10+ copies) Making decisions that affect young people's education, particularly those concerning suspension and...

Yes, I am: Stories by young queer people. (Books).(Review)
September 1, 2001... AIDS Action Council ACT Inc., ISBN 0646411861, 2000, 46pp. As the subtitle suggests, this is a collection of very short stories, poems and images by young people who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual. The book is the final product of a...