Youth Studies Australia articles from September 2005

Youth Studies Australia archives from September 2005

A characteristic common to all the young people featured in this edition.
September 1, 2005... A characteristic common to all the young people featured in this edition of YSA could be their vulnerability. In light of proposed Federal industrial relations changes, the research described in the first paper, which highlights the...

Conservatism as rebellion.(youth attitudes, opinions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... A survey of the 'habits of Australian youth' by market research firm Lifelounge indicates 16-19-year-aids are more conservative than their 20-something siblings or their baby-boomer parents. Co-author of the survey report, Damien Arthur, says,...

Safety a high-ranking issue.(youth attitudes, opinions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The annual youth survey by The Advertiser showed a swing to issues of finance and road safety as strong priorities for young people. Young people 'seem to be more motivated to answer issues affecting their community such as road safety'. There...

Hep C on the rise.(Drugs)
September 1, 2005... The first Hepatitis C Awareness Week was launched on 25 May this year. Approximately 210,000 Australians have Hepatitis C and around 16,000 new cases occur each year. It is the most common notifiable blood-borne virus in Tasmania. In response...

Smoking parents influence children's smoking.(Drugs)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's report A picture of Australia's children reveals that almost one in five Australian households with children under the age of 15 includes a person who smokes inside the home. Professor George...

Tas drug survey.(Drugs)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report released on 17 June 2005 found that ecstasy use in Tasmania in 2004 had doubled since 2001 (from 0.8% of to 1.6% of the population). Teen smoking rates rose 50% while nationally the rate fell...

Increase in alcohol-related harm.(youth )(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... According to research presented by National Drug Research Institute Director Steve Allsop at the Underage Drinking Forum at Parliament House, June 2005: * young people experienced disproportionate levels of acute harms, such as road injury...

Expose on postmodern theory in the classroom.(Education)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... A feature series by The Australian's Luke Slattery on the 'infiltration' into English classrooms of critical literacy (based on postmodern theory), which approaches all texts as bearers of suspect ideology, resulted in response at federal and...

Defining the generations.(youth attitudes, opinions)
September 1, 2005... The interesting but difficult exercise of defining and tracking the various generations and their habits is again manifest in a number of recent press items. * 'Post-everything generation', a feature by Kate Legge in the Weekend Australian...

Budget targets skills training.(youth attitudes, opinions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The 2005/06 Budget allocations to education significantly boosted vocational education and training expenditure: $2.5 billion was targeted to vocational and technical education over the next year; $350 million for 24 Australian technical...

Misperceptions of cost vs. benefit.(university education costs)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... A Canadian study found that children from low-income families believed that the cost of university outweighed the benefits and that those from low-income backgrounds thought university cost more than it actually does. The study, 'A little...

Are literacy and numeracy scores dropping?(youth, educational standards)
September 1, 2005... * According to a report by Sheldon Rothman of the Australian Council of Educational Research, the literacy and numeracy standards of 15-year-old Australians were lower at the end of the 1990s than in the mid-1970s. (The latest data available...

Apprentice drop-out rate rising.(Employment)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... * A soaring drop-out rate in trades training is contributing to the current skills shortage. A report from National Centre for Vocational Education Research shows that while the number of people entering trade training surged by 8900 or 14%...

Retention and completion key to work force numbers.(apprenticeship programs)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... A report from the Business Council of Australia and the Dusseldorp Skills forum, Increasing participation in education and training, released in June says that lifting the retention rate of teenagers who completed Year 12 or an apprenticeship...

A snapshot of family life.(children)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... In addition to looking at health, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's report, A picture of Australia's children, also considered other issues that affect children, including homelessness, violence and parental health and...

Cancers in teenagers and young adults.(Health)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Cancer in young people is more common than people realise--with more than 5,000 Australians aged 15 to 39 diagnosed with cancer each year. Cancers in teenagers and young adults are going undiagnosed because of shortcomings in the health...

Active girls may have stronger bones.(Health)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Australian Catholic University research comparing the musculoskeletal health of adolescent middle-distance runners with a control group of relatively inactive teenagers found that elite female runners had significantly greater bone densities...

Preventing sudden cardiac deaths in the young.(Health)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Speaking at the annual meeting of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, associate professor Chris Semsarian, from Sydney's Molecular Cardiology Group, said that more young people were dying from genetic cardiovascular problems. For...

STD increase in Tasmania.(sexually transmitted diseases)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... In the first quarter of 2005 there was a 60% increase in cases of chlamydia and a 50% increase in cases of gonorrhoea in Tasmania compared to 2004. Most of the increase in chlamydia was in young people, especially women aged 15 to 24. The...

Constant supervision of play unreasonable.(teacher supervision of students)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... In June this year, the High Court of Australia decided that an eight-year-old girl injured in the playground had failed to make a case of negligence against her school. In their judgment, the majority of judges stated that it was unreasonable...

Too much care is bad for young people's health.(protective parents harm cognitive learning, reduce physical activity)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... A group of medical experts, including psychiatrist and epidemiologist George Patton, have written an editorial in the Medical Journal of Australia expressing their fears that focusing on children's safety has unintended consequences, such as...

Report card on children's health.(Health)
September 1, 2005... A report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare titled A picture of Australia's children paints a mixed picture of the health of Australian children. On the one hand, the infant mortality rate has halved in the past 20...

MJA says disadvantaged children may be at risk.(Medical Journal of Australia, information on child obesity, mental health not up-to-date)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The Medical Journal of Australia has published an editorial on the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's report A picture of Australia's children. The MJA says the report reveals 'huge gaps' in knowledge about obesity and mental illness....

Mental health targeted by federal government.(youth mental health)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Youth mental health initiatives will receive $69 million of a $151 million increase in funding for mental health initiatives announced by the federal government in May this year. The funds are to be used to provide better detection, early...

Self-harm epidemic.(Kids Help Line, self injurious behavior)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Kids Help Line, the national telephone counselling service for children and young people, says that the number of children and young people engaging in self-harm has reached epidemic levels. The service received almost a million calls in 2004,...

Young people in adult psychiatric wards.(Health)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Figures obtained by the Weekend Australian indicate that more than 1000 mentally ill young people were admitted to adult psychiatric wards in past year, despite warnings from leading psychiatrists that the practice risks condemning the young...

Asthma deaths halved in 10 years.(Health)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The Asthma in Australia 2005 report shows that asthma deaths here have halved, except for within the Indigenous population, in rural areas and among the elderly and poor, who are still over-represented in statistics. Guy Marks, director of the...

Indigenous children's health.(Aboriginal Australians)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Indigenous children continued to fare worse than other children on all indicators measured in the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's report A picture of Australia's children. They are almost six times more likely to be the subject of...

Budget funding for Indigenous education.(Aboriginal Australians )(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The federal government budget for 2005/2006 included $40 million of programs for Indigenous education. The main program is a $23 million scheme over five years to assist young Indigenous people to move from remote areas to larger centres for...

G-G calls for teaching of Indigenous history.(Governor-General Michael Jeffery )(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... While welcoming delegates to a national reconciliation conference, the Governor-General Michael Jeffery renewed his calls for the teaching of Indigenous history in Australian schools. He said, 'My feeling is that if Indigenous history and...

Early intervention to reduce road deaths.(child behavior, traffic accidents)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Behavioural traits detected in children as young as five have been linked with their high-risk driving in early adulthood. Based on data from the Australian Temperament Project, which followed more than 1100 children from infancy to early...

Cannabis linked to crash deaths of young people.(Road safety/driving)
September 1, 2005... Preliminary results of research undertaken by Dr Jane Freemantle of the Institute for Child Health Research in Western Australia revealed that cannabis was second only to alcohol as the most common drug present in the bodies of young people...

Research on young drivers.(Road safety/driving)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... A report by Monash University found that in their first year of holding a licence, WA drivers aged 17 to 18 had a crash rate up to five times higher than drivers aged 19 and over. However, being over 19 may not mean drivers are safer; the...

States respond to young driver deaths.(road safety, driving)
September 1, 2005... * The New South Wales Government has introduced three new regulations for probationary drivers. Holders of P1 and P2 licences will not be able to drive high-powered cars, and provisional drivers who lose their licence will only be able to carry...

Country life bad for you.(Rural youth)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Despite the image of a country life being a healthy one, those who live outside cities are likely to smoke and drink more, be fatter and die younger than their city cousins. A report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare...

Young rural drinkers at risk.(Rural youth)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Young Australians in rural areas are almost twice as likely to die due to alcohol consumption as city dwellers. National Drug Research Institute director, Steve Allsop, said an estimated 2643 Australians aged 15-24 died between 1993 and 2002...

Young men most homophobic.(Sexuality)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... A survey on homophobia released in July by the Australia Institute found that more than one-third of Australians view homosexuality as immoral. The most homophobic section of the population was young men aged between 14 and 17 with 43% agreeing...

Abuse of gay students continues.(Sexuality)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Young people perceived to be gay and lesbian are being abused by fellow school students at alarming rates. Almost one in two of the 1750 young people surveyed in a new report had suffered verbal abuse and 16% had been physically assaulted. The...

Mobiles keep the tribe together.(youth, cellular telephones)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Hugh Mackay believes that because today's youth culture is intensely tribal, there is an emphasis on maintenance of almost continuous contact between members of tribes. However, the widespread perception that young people are over-using their...

Why buy when you can nick?(Technology)
September 1, 2005... A survey of the behaviour and attitudes of young and old music fans has found that 63% of the younger fans downloaded unauthorised music files compared to just 12% of the older fans. The study, conducted by Geoffrey Lee of the University of...

Texting wins hands down.(youth, short messaging service)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The Wireless World Forum (W2F) mobileYouth 2005 report shows that texting is now the favoured form of youth communication. The report is the result of a five-year study into how young people around the world use their mobile phones. W2F chief...

Who is upholding the rights of young workers? A profile of advocacy groups in Australia.(Peer reviewed)
September 1, 2005... Young people make up one-fifth of the Australian labour force, yet are often subjected to poor working conditions, compromised health and safety standards, workplace bullying and harassment and unsatisfactory pay. These problems are compounded...

Australian apprentices and gambling.(problem gambling in youth)
September 1, 2005... Recent evidence suggests that young people are at an increased risk for developing problem gambling compared to adults. However, relatively little is known about the gambling behaviour and gambling-related problems of young workers. This survey...

Mental health services: what young people who are homeless say ...(Peer reviewed)
September 1, 2005... The Young People's Health Service at the Centre for Adolescent Health in Melbourne undertook a literature review and a small research project to evaluate the mental health service it provides to young people who are homeless. Nineteen young...

Homeless youth in the country: exploring options for change.(Peer reviewed)
September 1, 2005... There has been little research into rural youth homelessness despite the fact that significant numbers of young people in rural areas experience problems relating to their accommodation. This paper reports on an initial exploratory study that...

Young drivers: developing personal control.(Peer reviewed)
September 1, 2005... Focus group discussion on questions relating to control of motor vehicles, control of other external conditions and self-control has been part of ongoing research into the social and cultural factors affecting young people's approach to...

Pathways and pitfalls: the journey of refugee young people in and around the education system in Greater Dandenong, Victoria.(Peer reviewed)
September 1, 2005... Young refugees in Australia are provided with six months of intensive English language instruction, but for many recent arrivals with disrupted or non-existent educational backgrounds, this amount of instruction does not provide them with...

An agenda for change: developing good practice principles in working with young refugees.(Programs & Practice)
September 1, 2005... Workers in organisations and agencies that serve young refugees have highlighted the need for guidelines to direct practice. To address this need, good practice principles have been developed by a refugee young people working group in Victoria....

Making up for lost time: the experiences of Southern Sudanese young refugees in high schools.(Programs & practice)
September 1, 2005... How are recently arrived refugee young people from Southern Sudan faring in Australian high schools? A project undertaken with young refugees from three schools in the Western Sydney suburbs of Blacktown and Bankstown suggests that schools can...

It's in the post: reading The Post-Subcultures Reader.(Book Review)
September 1, 2005... Title: The Post-Subcultures Reader Editors: David Muggleton & Rupert Weinzierl Publisher: Berg, Oxford Year of publication: 2003 ISBN: 1859736688 Price: $69.00 There was a time, in a mythic era called 1980s, when academics...

Doing it down under: just the facts.(Doing it down under: The sexual lives of Australians)(Book Review)
September 1, 2005... Title: Doing it down under: The sexual lives of Australians Authors: Juliet Richters & Chris Rissel Publisher: Allen & Unwin, Sydney Year of publication: 2005 Pages: 198 ISBN: 1741143268 Price: $22.95 Doing it...

Having our voices heard.(National Indigenous Youth Leadership Group, Having Our Voices Heard: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth Perspectives, survey report)
September 1, 2005... The National Indigenous Youth Leadership Group (NIYLG) provides an opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people and the Australian Government to exchange ideas on a range of issues that impact on young people in an...

Brief report: labelling effects on the perceived deleterious consequences of pop music listening.(Culture, subcultures)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... A.C. North & D.J. Hargreaves, Journal of Adolescence, v.28, n.3, 2005, pp.433-40. Prior research, often correlational, has suggested an association between listening to pop music and adolescent problem behaviours. In this study, 80 British...

The influence of smoking imagery on the smoking intentions of young people: testing a media interpretation model.(Drug & alcohol issues)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... J.P. McCool, L.D. Cameron & K.J. Petrie, Journal of Adolescent Health, v.36, n.6, pp.475-85. The authors have developed a 'media interpretation model' that predicts associations between factors of film exposure, imagery pervasiveness,...

Young people and illicit drug use in Australia.(Drug & alcohol issues)
September 1, 2005... M. Holt, Social Research Issues Paper, n.3, Feb., 2005, pp.1-4. It has been argued that drug use among young people in the UK is becoming increasing normalised. To ascertain whether drug use among young Australians is following this...

Winning the hearts and minds of academics in the service of neoliberalism.(Education)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... B. Davies, Dialogue, v.24, n.1, 2005, pp.26-37. The author of this paper is interested in exploring Gramsci's observation that 'if you can occupy people's heads, their hearts and hands will follow', in the context of 'the takeover in...

Accessing opportunities.(youth employment)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... B. Jones, Parity, v.18, n.4, 2005, p.26. Accessing opportunities (AO) is an employment program developed by Youth Futures, a community-based organisation that 'provides a range of services to disadvantaged young people across Northern...

Young people, drug use and family conflict: pathways into homelessness.(Housing, homelessness)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... S. Mallett, D. Rosenthal & D. Keys, Journal of Adolescence, v.28, n.2, 2005, pp.185-99. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 302 young homeless people in Melbourne (average age 17.53). Four pathways involving drugs in...

Places to go, places to grow: youth shelters in the 21st century.(National Youth Coalition for Housing, youth homelessness)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... M. Leebeek, D. Curtis, S. Parkin, M. Coffey & N. Clay, Parity, v.18, n.4, 2005, pp.4-6. This short history of the youth shelter movement in Australia begins with the establishment of the National Youth Coalition for Housing (NYCH) in 1982....

The mental health of homeless young people.(Housing, homelessness)
September 1, 2005... R. Creek, S. Crulli & M. Hamilton, Parity, v.18, n.4, 2005, pp.22-23. According to this paper, it is likely that at least half of the young people who are homeless in Australia have at least one diagnosable mental illness. The most common...

Media influences on body image and disordered eating among indigenous adolescent Australians.(Indigenous youth)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... M.P. McCabe, L. Ricciardelli, D. Mellor & K. Ball, Adolescence, v.40, n.157, 2005, pp.115-27. This is the first study to investigate body image concerns and body change strategies among Indigenous Australians. Subjects were 50 Indigenous...

Looking back on September 11, 2001: appraised impact and memory for emotions in adolescents and adults.(Mental health)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... L.J. Levine, C.K. Whalen, B. Henker & L.D. Jamner, Journal of Adolescent Research, v.20, n.4, 2005, pp.497-523. Eighty-one adolescents aged 14 to 18 and 99 parents completed surveys three and eight months after 9/11, which assessed how felt...

The impact of adolescent spirituality on depressive symptoms and health risk behaviours.(Religion, spirituality)
September 1, 2005... s. Cotton, E. Larkin, A. Hoopes, B.A. Cromer & S.L. Rosenthal, Journal of Adolescent Health, v. 36, n., 2005, pp.529.e7-e.14. If religiosity is 'the formal, institutional and outward expression of the sacred', then spirituality 'may include...

Driving in America: a convergence of public policy and science (editorial).(Safety)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... C.E. Irwin, Journal of Adolescent Health, v.36, n.6, pp.452-53. Motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) are the number one cause of death in the USA, although the number of deaths from MVAs has decreased from 1981 to an all-time low in 2003. The...

The illogic of youth driving culture.(traffic safety)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... K.C. Tilleczek, Journal of Youth Studies, v.7, n.4, pp.473-98. The proportion of young people involved in car crashes in much higher than the proportion of young drivers. To ascertain the nature of youth driving culture in a Canadian...

Male adolescents' reasons for participating in physical activity, barriers to participation, and suggestions for increasing participation.(Sport)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... K.R. Allison, J.J.M. Dwyer, E. Goldenberg, A. Fein, K.K. Yoshida & M. Boutilier, Adolescence, v.40, n.157, 2005, pp.155-70. Considerable research has been undertaken into the decline of female participation in sport during adolescence...

What is life like for young Australians today, and how well are they faring?(Transitions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... D. Smart & A. Sanson, Family Matters, n.70, autumn, 2005, pp.46-53. In 2002, the Australian Temperament Project collected data from 1,157 young people aged 19 to 20, and from 1,100 parents. Analysis revealed that almost three-quarters of...

What employers look for: the skills debate and the fit with youth perceptions.(Transitions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... A. Taylor, Journal of Education and Work, v.18, n.2, 2005, pp.201-18. In Australia, there has been a push to move credential-based vocational education and training into the secondary school. Young people's perceptions of the skills and...

Earning and learning: how term-time employment impacts on students' adjustment to university life.(Transitions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... A. Broadbridge & V. Swanson, Journal of Education and Work, v.18, n.2, 2005, pp.235-49. In the United Kingdom, the number of people going to university has trebled since the 1970s and is expected to reach 50% of school leavers. Forty-one...

'Of never quite knowing what I might be': using chaos counselling with university students.(Transitions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... R.P. Davey, J.E.H. Bright, R.G.L. Pryor & K. Levin, Australian Journal of Career Development, v.14, n.2, 2005, pp.53-62. In contrast to traditional career counselling interventions that aim to 'eliminate uncertainty in career...

The pathways framework meets consumer culture: young people, careers, and commitment.(Transitions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... K. Vaughan, Journal of Youth Studies, v.8, n.2, pp.173-86. School-to-work transition in New Zealand is underpinned by a '"pathways" framework that says to young people: no matter what your background and how successful or unsuccessful you...

Youth work and managing behaviour.(Youth work)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... G. Stuart, Youth and Policy, n.85, autumn, 2004, pp.19-36. Interviews and focus groups with a total of 20 young people and 31 youth workers in NSW provided insight into strategies used to manage behaviour. The strategies employed by youth...

Values versus competencies: implications for the future of professional youth work education.(Youth work)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... T. Corney, Journal of Youth Studies, v.7, n.4, pp.513-27. Historically, youth work in Australia has been linked to the value-driven activities of various organisations and institutions. The current study uses qualitative methodology to...

Youth affairs peak organizations.(youth services)(Directory)
September 1, 2005... Government Australian Government Youth Bureau Department of Family & Community Services Box 7788, Canberra Mail Centre ACT 2610 Ph: (02) 6212 9117 Fax: (02) 6212 9451 Email: renata.rustowski@facs.gov.au Youth...