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This paper seeks to historicise the formation of youth studies in Australia with a specific focus on how the absence of Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall and other race critical and postcolonial scholars has produced particular research cultures, trajectories and traditions that have thus far made it difficult to incorporate race and ethnicity as central to an Australian youth studies agenda, both theoretically and methodologically. Drawing on a range of historical and contemporary examples of how racialisation plays out in Australia, it will be argued youth studies, as a field, needs to respond to how race as a complex, global, structural phenomenon comes to bear on the development of young people's identity making, life choices and lived experiences a necessary scholarly development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people's relationship with politics is routinely deemed problematic by a range of influential actors. Amidst concerns over disengagement and the potential for radicalisation, the political participation of Muslim young people is often particularly scrutinised. In contrast to such 'crisis narratives', this paper reports on qualitative research with young Muslims in a northern English city. Consistent with research on young people in general, the findings reveal widespread disillusionment with electoral politics amongst this group. Despite this, most respondents were politically engaged and voiced claims for a substantive representation which addressed mainstream and often national political issues. These claims were articulated in contrast to an older generation who were seen as prioritising local issues and representation much more closely tied to kinship and ethnic identity. These Muslim young people were asserting claims for a more mainstream citizenship marked against the political and cultural orientations of an older migrant generation and a wider social context of ongoing racism, Islamophobia and marginalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to better understand the relationship between young people's aspirations towards education and jobs, and the context in which they are formed, especially to understand better the role of disadvantaged places in shaping young people's aspirations. Policy makers maintain that disadvantaged areas are associated with low aspirations and there is support for this position from academic work on neighbourhood effects and local labour markets, but evidence is slim. Using a two-stage survey of young people in disadvantaged settings in three British cities, the paper provides new data on the nature of young peoples’ aspirations, how they change during the teenage years, and how they relate to the places where they are growing up. The findings are that aspirations are very high and, overall, they do not appear to be depressed in relation to the jobs available in the labour market either by the neighbourhood context or by young people's perceptions of local labour markets. However, there are significant differences between the pattern of aspirations and how they change over time in the three locations. The paper then challenges assumptions in policy and in the literature that disadvantaged places equal low aspirations and suggests that understanding how aspirations are formed requires needs a nuanced approach to the nexus of class, ethnicity and institutional influences within local areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Education is the pathway that prepares young people for economic independence and social mobility in adulthood. However, school has not always been an experience that leads to success and quality of life. Opportunities and outcomes remain unequal, and subtle barriers are often entrenched in the school system, in themselves the cause of social exclusion. This paper draws on a select review of international studies of young people in historically vulnerable groups to investigate these issues, and finds that mainstream policy and educational institutions have yet to change focus from what is wrong with youth and the policy rhetoric around youth at risk, to what may be wrong with schooling and the consequent need of taking more wide-ranging actions. It also shows that when provided with an opportunity to reflect upon their experiences of education, young people can offer insights into those procedures and actions which have either supported or inhibited their learning. In too many instances, an expression of desire to listen to the voices of young people has been little more than a tokenistic gesture to appease the requirements of legislation or well-intentioned policies. The paper concludes with some conceptual platforms for transnational policy considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the ‘gangster’ subculture of boys aged 15–18 years in a secure care unit for young offenders in Denmark. By drawing on a specific case from a 2-month field study, the paper demonstrates how three boys teach a new boy to become a ‘real gangster’. This learning process not only reveals central elements in what constitutes the ‘gangster subculture’ in the secure care unit but also shows constituents of the subculture in which the boys live their everyday lives outside secure care. Learning to be a ‘gangster’ involves both short- and long-term learning processes. The short-term process is closely linked to learning the specific ‘gangster style’. The long-term learning is closely connected to experiences of growing up in areas of ‘advanced marginality’ and life on the streets celebrating values of respect, loyalty and crime, all subcultural values formed by the intersections of class, ethnicity and gender. The paper suggests that understanding the ‘gangster’ subculture calls for taking its cultural expressions seriously in terms of the intersection of class, ethnicity and gender formed in everyday practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper weighs in on discussions contemplating the current state of arts programing targeting ‘at risk’ youth as handmaiden to a strategic neoliberal cosmopolitanism. I examine a City of Toronto, Canada, youth governance initiative that sought to link graffiti abatement, neighborhood beautification and gentrification through mural production, and ‘at risk’ youth civic engagement and crime prevention. While these coordinates were designed to harness racialised youth within a matrix of disciplinary practices concerned with risk mediation and economic productivity, program participants and youth workers drew from the aesthetics of multiculturalism as resource to navigate the governance dictates of the Grafitti Transformation Project. I focus on one particular incident that unfolded over a week-long period at a youth serving agency located in one of Toronto’s designated ‘Priority Neighbourhoods’. The incident illustrates in granular detail a politics of multicultural citizenship and belonging articulating at the limits of what was conceived for the project. I then consider analytical and practice lessons to be learned about the political aesthetics and ‘cultures of youth praxis’ by examining the workings of power leveled in such moments of tension, and by assessing the contours of an alternative multicultural sensibility forwarded when disruption occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One of the greatest challenges for the juvenile justice system is to successfully reintegrate young offenders back to their communities so that they do not re-offend and return to detention. This challenge is even greater for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth who are over-represented in the Queensland juvenile justice system in terms of interactions with the police, the courts and in detention settings. This paper presents the outcomes of a two-year-longitudinal study which tracked 40 young Indigenous males as they made the transition from detention in North Queensland back to their communities. Over this period the majority of youth arrived at 'undesirable' destinations by re-offending and returning to detention, compared to a smaller cohort who arrived at 'desirable' destinations and desisted from crime. The paper presents qualitative data from the research which focused on gaining the perceptions of these young males by asking them to identify the risks which prevented them from making a successful re-entry back to their communities compared to those who desisted from further offending behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The local neighbourhood has an enduring significance for British urban, working-class youth in relation to their transitions, cultures and leisure practices. This paper examines these interrelated issues by drawing upon ethnographic research undertaken in 'Manor', a deprived, multi-ethnic East London neighbourhood. It explores the transitions taken by black, white and mixed-parentage young males (and some of their female peers), transitions that were formed by the interaction of paid work opportunities with youth cultures and leisure practices ('road' and 'grafter' cultures), ethnicity, gender and social networks. Even within a single deprived and stigmatized neighbourhood such as Manor, a number of transitions could be identified. These include 'grafting' at manual, masculine 'dirty work' in the construction industry; going to college allied to 'clean', service-sector work; and an 'alternative' route of 'working on road' by undertaking a variety of low-level, illegal money-making activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The language of young people is often viewed very negatively by some sections of the mainstream media and by some social commentators in the UK. While this is nothing new – older generations routinely despair of how the youth of today are ruining the language – what is different now is the added element of ethnicity, whereby young people of various ethnicities are perceived as using some kind of ‘ghetto grammar’ or ‘Jafaican’ which carry often explicit connotations of ‘sounding black’. This paper challenges the mainstream view by firstly introducing the linguistic take on this emerging Multicultural Urban British English, and then exploring the views of young people themselves on how they use language by taking qualitative data from a linguistic ethnography project involving 14–16-year-olds in a non-mainstream urban educational setting. The young people provide insights into their language that are in complete opposition to the views so often expressed in the media, and which instead suggest that linguistic features that were previously strongly associated with specific ethnicities are being used in new and innovative ways. Refreshingly, it would appear that for many young people ethnicity is simply not a consideration, at least in relation to language. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper explores processes of identity construction in young people of foreign origin living in Italy. The aim was to understand how youth construct their selves in the global era, characterized by an increase in the possibility of choosing but also in the perception of uncertainty; how they perceive this uncertainty, whether as a chance to construct multifaceted and continually changing identities or as a source of insecurity and loss for their identity. Drawing on 46 in-depth interviews, the research reveals that young people of foreign origin are continually shaping their identities mixing different cultural repertories related to their – or their parents’ – homeland, to the host country, global cultures and youth cultures. Several patterns of identity emerge and they are linked to different perception of uncertainty. A typology of these patterns was developed: young people constructflexible identitiesorhyphenated identities, or move from afixed identityto anundefined identity. These types of identity are respectively associated with the perception of uncertainty as aresource, as aconstraint, finally with a strategy ofreducing or eliminating uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to rhizomatic youth movements that inspired the ‘Arab spring’ uprisings and the ‘Occupy’ movements, youth political activism in Nepal was orchestrated by hierarchical political parties in part through political student unions. The ability of parties to deploy youth into the streets to enforce general strikes and force election participation has been critical to their success, but focus groups conducted with Nepali students in the spring of 2013 suggest that many youth are withdrawing from party activism. Youth disengagement in Nepal is the product of years of political instability and conflict that has impeded peace and development, rather than a globalizing individualism that is fragmenting traditional institutions. In this paper, I argue that the ability of political parties to mobilize youth in post-conflict Nepal is being challenged by two related conditions. First, the demands of political parties on students for personal sacrifice are weighed by students against their own personal aspirations and, secondly, the inability of the party hierarchies to sacrifice their priorities for greater political stability, development and peace – exemplified by the repeated failure to resolve constitutional issues – made this commitment to personal sacrifice harder to justify. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While African youth now feature among the most-researched phenomena in African Studies and Africa-focused social sciences, scholarship continues to shy away from the field's most daunting challenge. As the oversized analytical category ‘youth’ cannot tame the diversity and the ambiguity of the phenomenon ‘youth’, it remains difficult to develop tangible theories and reduce the fuzziness that characterises the current debate. In this paper, I review the most recent advances in the field of African youth studies and outline three comparative approaches to respond to the methodological challenges of diversity and ambiguity. Demonstrating how these comparative approaches can be used for youth-specific inquiries on different levels, I argue that comparison is effective in urging researchers to connect theory, methodology and empirical data more explicitly, to pay particular attention to the respective contexts that mark young people's attitudes and behaviour, and to address diversity as a puzzle rather than a ready-made answer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central to the post-2001 British policy shift from multiculturalism to community cohesion is the assumption that the disturbances were the product of youth identities that were shaped by ‘parallel lives’ and that there is a need for increased contact between communities. There is evidence to support the notion that many young British people, particularly in areas of significant ethnic physical segregation, favour distinct and racialised identifications, although the positional and situational nature of youth identification is sometimes understated. This paper draws on research techniques based on word association, carried out in Oldham and Rochdale, two towns in Greater Manchester often portrayed as epitomising ethnic segregation. The research provides some evidence regarding ways in which young people view the ‘other’ in relation to their self-identification, and also how they perceive their town and area. The research suggests that the factors structuring the development of identifications and categorisations are complex and multilayered, but that, although there is evidence of negative views of ‘out-groups’ held by both White and Muslim young people, the latter group have more positive place attachments and attitudes towards multiculturalism. The findings suggest that the context in which contact between groups takes place may be important for the success of enhanced contact as a strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artefacts containing national or ethnic symbols, such as flags and maps, are frequently used by 14-year-old youth in a multiethnic, suburban municipality in Stockholm. Appearing as ornaments or trinkets to outsiders, to the initiated they are distinctive group markers displaying multiple political and ideological affiliations. As visual symbols these artefacts invoke communicative, but non-verbal, processes: they interpellate viewers who answer with their reactions. Thus these objects serve to both banally reproduce nationalism and ethnicity and to serve as identity markers. These identities are primarily inclusive and non-aggressive. The symbols do not seem to be a sign of resistance to mainstream Swedish society in line with much work in the field of youth culture. Instead, they are used as a proud, visual display of additional identities complementing a Swedish identity. Ethnicity research often covers linguistic markers or ethnic and national identities. In contrast, the area of youthconsumptionof nationalism, in the form of objects featuring national, ethnic and religious symbols, is as yet not well documented. Based on a year-long fieldwork in a junior high school, this paper documents ways in which minority group students handle material artefacts and what these symbols involved mean to them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article intends to explore the pathways from youth radicalization into violent extremism in the post-war context of Sri Lanka based on the qualitative evidence collected from four provinces in 2018. Our results show that lack of opportunities, fragmented social and ethnic identity, complex identity formation, corruption, low quality of governance, marginality in economic and political spheres, ethnoreligious politics, and securitization of state appear to be key potential driving factors that are more likely to propel radicalization and violent extremism in the post-war scenario. The article finds the causal mechanism among the potential push factors and how each of these drivers are interconnected and influence one another negatively. Based on the evidence, we argue that no single pathway implicates radicalization into violent extremism –various forms of vulnerabilities, including individual, group, and socio-economic and political, are more likely to increase the propensity to radicalization. It informs that post-war Sri Lanka's youth radicalization into violent extremism is multifaceted, contextually driven, and constantly evolving and exist in a complex reality. In deeply divided societies, collective crisis plays a critical role in radicalization, suggesting that policy measures considering violence prevention must pay attention to address community grievances and marginalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the implications of identity for the adaptation of immigrant children in the European context. Using the migrant sample from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU), this study examines how identity is related to the outcomes of well-being and delinquency of high school students. Results from multilevel models lend partial support to the theorized role of acculturation identity. Integrated students had higher well-being compared with assimilated students, challenging the notion that sole national affiliation is the most advantageous strategy for adaptation and thereby supporting a selective acculturation perspective. In addition, separate analyses of European and non-European immigrant students produced divergent results. While the ethnic identity of students with non-European backgrounds was negatively associated with delinquent behavior, separated students of European background reported higher delinquency compared with their assimilated counterparts, suggesting that acculturated identity works in different ways between immigrant groups and that the protective effect of ethnic identity against delinquency is only present for migrants students of non-European backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescent mental well-being may be affected in various ways by the experience of migration. Socioeconomic resources and social support affect adolescent well-being, but little is known about the importance of such resources among ethnic groups in immediate versus more distant environments. The aim of this study is to explore ethnic differences in well-being by family affluence, social support and ethnic diversity at both individual and neighborhood levels. This study is a population-based cross-sectional survey and is a part of the international research network Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC). Participants were 11-, 13- and 15-year-old Icelandic students present in their school at the day of administration (N = 9565, 50% males) in 156 compulsory schools. The results show that while family and friend support is associated with greater adolescent well-being, foreign-origin adolescents benefit more from supportive parents than native-origin adolescents. The study shows that belonging to an affluent family benefits well-being, as well as belonging to an affluent neighborhood. Closer inspection shows that this neighborhood effect benefits adolescents of foreign-origin less. More attention should be paid to useful and approachable resources in the environment of native and foreign-origin adolescents and ways to better mobilize the resources within families and neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have examined risk factors associated with poorer behavioral health among low-income African American youth, such as low school engagement, delinquency, mental health problems, drug use, and risky sex. However, fewer studies have examined protective factors for such behavioral health risk behaviors. This study sought to address this gap by examining whether high levels of self-esteem were associated with better behavioral health factors for this population. A survey was administered to a sample of 638 low-income African American adolescents in Chicago to examine the degree to which high selfesteem was associated with less delinquency, substance use, and sexual risk behaviors, and more school engagement, and whether such associations varied by gender. Stepwise linear and logistic regression models were estimated to assess the influence of selfesteem. Higher self-esteem for this sample of low-income African American adolescents was associated with lower rates of delinquency, drug use, and risky sexual behaviors and increased rates of school engagement. Gender moderated only a few of these relationships. These findings suggest that programs that promote high self-esteem alone or in combination with other resilience factors may promote better behavioral health factors for African American adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the theoretical development of subcultural theory. It first provides a brief history of subcultural theory. It then attempts to outline the central requirements which should be fulfilled by a neo-Birminghamian conception of subculture that takes valid critiques of the CCCS into account, while maintaining the theoretical richness and analytical qualities of the concept. This includes putting social structures, including class in intersection with gender and ethnicity, back into subcultural theory, in a way that allows for grasping complexity. The article moves on to argue that the development of such a conception of subculture could potentially be realized by entering a theoretical dialogue with Bourdieu’s sociology and feminist accounts of intersectionality. Furthermore, it suggests that such a theoretical conception may be highly relevant to current research areas such as gangs/street culture and Jihadism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study utilizes an asset-based approach to examine inner-city African-American and Latino adolescent non-marijuana use. Interview findings suggest that the common theme in adolescent narratives is why they avoid marijuana use. Specifically, adolescents formulate several reasons situated in their perceptions of self, peers, and parents to avoid marijuana use. Drawing on resiliency theory and to broaden our scope of inquiry, we utilize these findings to further delve into the relationship between perceptions of self, peer communication, parental monitoring, and marijuana use avoidance utilizing survey data analysis. Findings can be used to leverage prevention programs with this population. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the dreams and aspirations of mobile young Aboriginal Australian people aged between 13 and 25 years, who move in, out and through remote, regional and urban locations. Considering dreams and aspirations in the context of cultural difference is the central focus of this article, which uses a critical and deconstructive approach to the Eurocentric conceptualisation of youth policy terminology in Australia. Participatory and ethnographic techniques were used for this research study which engaged directly with mobile young Aboriginal Australian people. Through exploring the dreams and aspirations of this cohort of participants, this study challenges popular stereotypes depicting young Aboriginal Australian people as delinquent and disengaged. All young participants in this study expressed the dream of wanting to contribute positively to society. Aspirations for the future were expressed and formed by a set of values which were found not to reflect dominant cultural assumptions of successful transitions into adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the early career occupational mobility of people from a Turkish or Moroccan descent in Flanders (Belgium). Previous research showed that second-generation migrants are less successful than natives when entering the labour market. We compare the progress in socio-economic status (SES) that youngsters of native and non-native descent make from their first to later jobs at the start of their career. Both second-generation immigrants and native majority young adults experience upward occupational mobility during this crucial phase of their occupational career. The gap between native and ethnic minority youth, however, does not narrow over the course of the years. The first job offers less SES for non-natives compared to that of natives, and the minority-native gap in occupational attainment remains constant afterwards. The future career is largely determined by the characteristics of the start of the occupational career, and educational attainment even before. Promising, however, might be the finding that a first job with a relative low occupational status does offer better opportunities for Turkish and Moroccan second-generation migrants than for native majority youth to do some catching up later on. In combination with a long-term negative impact of initial unemployment, ethnic minority youth perhaps are best off with starting to work as soon as possible after school leaving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the transition from a comprehensive compulsory school to differentiating upper secondary schools, young people in Norway are forced to choose their future educational path and look ahead. How does educational choice and transition to upper secondary school affect their educational aspirations? In this study, an Oslo-based cohort sample (N= 1660) of young people's educational aspirations is analysed over three time points; before, during and after choosing upper secondary education. The analyses show that many change their educational aspirations during the three-year period, and that decreasing aspirations before transition to upper secondary school is related to low or decreased achievement and school effort, as well as male gender, majority ethnic background and lower social class. Reduced educational aspirations after the transition to upper secondary education are related to decreased effort as well as low and decreasing achievement, but not to structural characteristics. This may be interpreted as an indication that structural background characteristics play a stronger role in shaping aspirations during the decision process proceeding educational choice, than in the transition itself. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigated the life satisfaction of adolescents from diverse cultures in Hong Kong. The total sample consisted of 1644 secondary school students. Life satisfaction was measured by the validated 6-point questionnaire instrument, multidimensional students' life satisfaction scale (MSLSS). The research found that, among the five domains of life satisfaction, the Friends domain received the highest and the School domain received the lowest score from the participants. Significant statistical differences were found in the variables of level of study, gender, student groups and religious affiliation. Students from non-Chinese cultures and associated with religion are reported to have greater life satisfaction than their non-religious Chinese counterparts. There is a strong relationship between religiosity and self-appraised life satisfaction among the student groups. Gender and the level of study are also strong predictors of subjective well-being. Religious non-Chinese female students in the junior level are generally giving more positive self-appraisal report on their life satisfaction than the other groups. In contrast, non-religious senior Chinese male students reported to have the least overall life satisfaction across the domains of MSLSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many commentators have observed that late modernity has profoundly reshaped the nature of employment such that workers have become more reflexive, mobile, individualistic and entrepreneurial, free to re-invent themselves as they choose in a world of endless possibilities. Theorists of reflexive modernity suggest that the family unit and class have been usurped by an inherent individual mobility. This article challenges this discourse of the new economy arguing instead that young people (Gen Y as market researchers would call them) are not as free as these proponents of the new individualism would have us believe. This article is based on interviews with young people from Western Sydney of Arabic-speaking backgrounds. It considers the way they form ambitions to work in ‘creative industries’ and their struggles to account for, and explain these ambitions to members of their families/communities. It illustrates the ways biographical narratives exemplify struggles to pursue aspirations in the face of class/ethnic positioning and intergenerational misunderstanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does it mean to be young in El Alto, a Bolivian shantytown? Based on ethnographic research, this article looks at cultural resilience among young people in a vulnerable urban context. It emphasises how young people value informal youth groups as a tool to valorise their own indigenous culture. This is echoed in the world of adults, implying that the collective is a value shared by all. By giving an insight into everyday life in El Alto, the article aims to shed light on issues of identity among second generation migrants, looking at the experiences of rural-urban migrants’ children within Bolivia. The article begins by setting the scene and providing information on young people in El Alto. Later, the article focuses on one of the informal youth groups in the city, looking at the importance of dancing and music for their collective identity. This article is about youth and how they negotiate their rural-urban identity as children of rural-urban indigenous migrants. As my young informants often say, the model offered by their parents is described as ‘good’ and ‘morally rich’, while the one offered by the city is ‘bad’ and ‘amoral’. However, there is a tension. If they decide to follow the model of their parents, they will be excluded and discriminated against in the national context. By exploring the political-economic contexts in which youth are growing up in El Alto, the article sheds light on the long-term effects of migration, indigenous and urban identities and cultural resilience in an Andean indigenous city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose in adolescence is linked to positive developmental outcomes, and yet little is known about how youth purpose is supported by people and institutions that occupy the ecologies in which young people are embedded. Little is known too about how African-American youths envision themselves in the future, and understanding the nature of their purposes may uncover critical information about these adolescents’ aspirations. Associations between purpose and social supports were examined in a sample of 46 adolescent girls in the southeastern United States (Mean age = 12.83 years; SD = 1.14 years) (African-American/Black = 78.3%; Multiracial = 15.2%; White/Caucasian = 6.5%). Qualitative content analysis of interviews identified five forms of purpose experienced by these young people. Surveys measured perceived presence and importance of social supports of parents, teachers, close friends, classmates, and school environment, as well as emotional, informational, appraisal, and instrumental support across these sources. Adolescents with more diffuse purpose forms reported greater social support from school, and in some cases, from teachers, than did adolescents with more complete purpose forms. The diffuse purpose form groups reported that school support was more important to them than did the other groups. Implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The family and social network support of adolescents in three ethnic groups (African-American, Caucasian, and Latino) were studied. A repeated-measures MANOVA was performed using a within-subjects design to examine how adolescents appraised the quality of their relationships with various members of their social networks. Overall, the quality of support did not vary significantly across ethnic groups. However, they varied within groups. Interactions by gender and ethnicity emerged across specific subscales that represent support for personal development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the perspectives of Caribbean young people in Britain in order to examine the issue of friendship networks. The research shows that the young people interviewed have a vast array of friendship networks across diverse ethnic groups. However, the majority of the Caribbean young people in the study acknowledged that their three closest friends or 'best friends' shared their own ethnic background. It was these friends that most strongly matched the values associated with social capital, such as trust, reciprocity, emotional support, community, and identity. By drawing on the theory advanced by Robert Putnam, the analysis explores how Caribbean young people use 'bonding' social capital to establish same-ethnic friendship networks and 'bridging' social capital to develop cross-ethnic friendship bonds. It will also investigate the particular factors that facilitated these same-ethnic friendship networks, including transitions to secondary school and university, and family and parental influence on friendship choice, as well as more wider changes that occur in the life course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]