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Apprenticeship programs are promoted to facilitate youth's transition from school-to-work, especially for those who might not otherwise attend postsecondary education. These programs may help youth achieve other markers of adulthood earlier. In this paper, we draw on qualitative interviews with Canadian young men in the skilled trades to explore whether they believe their educational choices have given them an advantage in their transition to adulthood. We also draw from the 2011 GSS, a nationally representative survey, and Cox modeling to examine three early adult transitions – home-leaving, first union, and first marriage – to determine if apprenticeship programs facilitate earlier transitions compared to other educational streams. Our respondents expressed that they transitioned to adulthood more quickly than their peers, due to early employment and avoiding student debt, however, many also had trouble finding stable employment and often took on debt related to their training. Using nationally representative data, we find tradesmen tend to leave home earlier than their peers, they form first unions at younger ages but marry slightly later than their more highly educated counterparts. Our results contribute to our understanding of how apprenticeship programs in Canada facilitate transitions to adulthood among a recent cohort of young men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on the analysis of data collected from the National Canadian Homeless Youth Survey and addresses the question: why do some youth who received support from social service agencies that cater to the needs of homeless youth self-identify as being homeless while others do not? According to self-report survey data obtained from 1103 young people from over 50 youth homeless service centres from across Canada, findings show that youth who self-identified as being homeless shared several backgrounds and current situational characteristics not common among youth in the sample who did not consider themselves to be homeless. The findings illustrate the importance of past trauma and the intensity of day to day hardship in self-identifying as a homeless young person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on youth homelessness has documented the unique and complex ways that youth relate to one another on the street and engage with their social environments. This work draws from a varied set of concepts, including concepts from subcultural theory, the youth geographies literature, and Bourdieu's practice theory. However, little work to date considers how to integrate these different conceptualizations and perspectives on how young people experiencing homelessness engage culture and organize themselves socially in the course of their time on the street. This paper explores this question by using interviews and fieldwork with a group of 39 homeless and street-involved young people in Canada. Through this analysis, I outline a multilayered and practice focused perspective that focuses on the active way that young people engage and navigate the diverse social and cultural landscapes of street life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how young mothers in London, a mid-size city in Canada, utilize a drop-in centre service while attending an alternative programme to acquire secondary school credits. The central arguments made here are informed by key concepts in the field of girlhood studies. With its attention to the interconnections between gender, age, and generation as well as other aspects of social identity, girlhood studies provides crucial insight into the lived experiences of young mothers who straddle the space between girlhood and adulthood. We interpret the experiences of the young mothers who participated in this study in light of shifting meanings and expectations of girls and girlhood in the neoliberal era. Drawing on the concept of the ideal neoliberal girl subject embodied in the 'can do' and 'at risk' girl, this paper highlights the tensions in accessing a drop-in centre, which functions as both a site of security and surveillance, for a group of young mothers receiving social services. The findings revealed how girls who are mothers struggle to live in the present to assert a legitimate maternal identity even as they are prepared for the future through neoliberal public policies and other disciplinary practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both public opinion and experts who analyse voting statistics contend nowadays that young people are losing interest in politics. But should political participation be confined to electoral participation? Could the expression 'youth participation in political life' be confusing? At present, we observe young people mobilizing within organizations meant to influence decision-making and power centres, and we further see growing numbers of demonstrations targeting a wide array of issues--from high school students clamouring for the maintenance of cultural activities, to anti-globalization demonstrations. These movements necessarily suggest broadening the concept of political participation to include activities beyond electoral participation alone. Some authors see a new political generation taking shape in this enthusiastic involvement. This is the central hypothesis of this paper. To illustrate this hypothesis, the limitations of certain participation indicators will be challenged and new forms of involvement described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on material from 30 interviews with Toronto-area teenage girls and their grandmothers, the present paper reviews five discourses of adolescence: storm, becoming, at-risk, social problem, and pleasurable consumption. I explore how these discourses are invested, deployed and experienced in relation to each other and as they span academic texts, popular discourses, and interviews. I contend that these discourses make up a powerful discursive framework in which activity undertaken by adolescents can be swept up into these discourses, and consequently dismissed. At the same time, tensions or contradictions within and between these discourses, and within the entire category of adolescence as a stage, can in fact undermine the weight of these discourses as truth statements. I end the paper with some reflections on how each discourse constructs potential for agency, and/or resistance among teenagers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese Canadian youth are usually represented as a model minority and are therefore rendered invisible in identity debates. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of capital, field, habitus, and distinction, this paper examines how racism affects the identity construction of Chinese youth in different school fields. Particularly, I raise and discuss a theoretical concept, racialized habitus, which is manifested as both intergroup exclusion and intragroup distinction. This theorization is grounded in interview data with 36 first- and second-generation Chinese Canadian youth in Alberta, Canada. This study indicates the continuing significance of research on racism. It calls for challenging racism as an act of distinction, habitus, and action, as well as a discursive practice of discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine the impacts of the mobility that Nunavut Inuit youth experience with Northern Youth Abroad (NYA), a Canadian volunteer travel program that sends northern youth to southern Canada and Botswana. Using a case study approach and drawing from archival research and interviews with 10 former participants, a staff member, and a member of the board of directors, we argue that NYA illustrates how volunteer travel programs for Indigenous youth can yield distinct benefits for its participants in comparison to mainstream volunteer travel programs, particularly with regard to participants' sense of cultural identity and pride. By enabling participants to foster career goals and a deeper sense of cultural pride, NYA presents a counter-example to some of the common critiques of volunteer tourism programs, and illustrates the complex interconnections between cultural pride, well-being, and career advancement for Nunavut Inuit youth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the links between the experiences of parents and youth within racialized immigrant families to gain a better appreciation of intergenerational dynamics, drawing on interviews and preinterview surveys with 47 immigrant youth and their parents. Our thematic analysis of data explores the diversity of families' immigration experiences, labor market challenges for parents, shared family discourses of sacrifice and opportunity, and differences in youth responses to the high expectations of parents. We conclude that the life course transitions experienced by parents have important consequences for their children; immigrant youth feel a strong sense of intergenerational obligation, and this obligation is problematic for a significant minority of youth. Our qualitative findings thus temper the optimistic picture of these youth presented in large-scale studies of their aspirations and attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hobbema, Alberta, Canada is a community comprised of four First Nations. As with many of Canada's Aboriginal communities, Hobbema's population is young. High rates of socio-economic disadvantage, violence, family dysfunction, and substance abuse are linked to colonization, residential school policies, and discrimination. Crime rates, including gang-related crime in the area, are disproportionately high. In 2005 two police officers created the Hobbema Community Cadet Corps, a program which offers youth a pro-social alternative to criminal activity and gang involvement. The program provides youth with the opportunity to learn the value of group identity, discipline, and camaraderie. It also provides opportunities for recreational activities and travel otherwise unavailable to many in this impoverished area. This paper provides a description of the HCCCP, an overview of its activities and structure, and situates it within the crime prevention through social development framework which emphasizes the importance of building protective factors and reducing risk factors surrounding youth. Finally, a preliminary evaluation which highlights some of the challenges faced by program instructors is offered. The authors caution against relying solely on individualizing imperatives in attempts to deal with social structural issues of the types faced by citizens in Hobbema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, Canadian legalized gambling has undergone a massive growth, resulting in numerous social problems such as crime, political corruption, and, most importantly, pathological gambling. When it comes to theorizing gambling in Canada, pathological gambling has been the centre of the attention for two related reasons: (1) the increasing concern with individual and social harms resulting from it; and (2) priority given by grant-giving institutions to 'useful' scholarly efforts related to it. A major drawback, however, has been that these explanations often overlook the impact of broader social conditions on gambling behaviour and, instead, provide politically and ideologically conservative, microlevel analyses that point to the individual gamblers as the source of the problem. These theories, therefore, present partial accounts of an enduring and growing, socially produced problem. The argument of this paper is that Canadians' gambling behaviour, and its consequences, must be understood primarily as a social problem and within the nexus of (a) the Canadian state's pro-gambling policies (prompted by the need to generate revenues); (b) the gap between commonly shared Canadian cultural values - monetary success - and legitimate means of achieving them; and (c) capitalist processes of profit-making and commodification. Only then can we have a better understanding of a persistent and growing problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper picks up from Bynner's recent critique of the current formulation of emerging adulthood as presented in his recent exchange with Arnett in the Journal of Youth Studies (2005, volume 8(4) and 2006, volume 9(1)). It pays particular attention to the exclusion processes in education and the workplace that prevent young people in some socio-economic contexts from experiencing the developmental processes presumed to be of benefit to all 'emerging adults'. In addition, an alternative to Arnett's psychological, free-choice model of emerging adulthood is offered that identifies the social and economic conditions that have produced the prolonged transition to adulthood. We argue that this hiatus in the life-course, which is increasingly referred to as emerging adulthood, can be better explained in terms of changing economic conditions leading to a lowering of the social status of the young that is contributing to increasingly precarious trajectories, and in terms of the decline in the social markers of adulthood associated with the individualization process. When these structural conditions are examined, it appears that Arnett's model 'begs the question' about emerging adulthood (i.e. takes for granted the very thing under contention), and mistakes the coping mechanisms of many young people for freely chosen options to delay their entry into adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, through the theoretical lens of life-course research and reproduction theory, we employ 15 years of longitudinal data from the British Columbia, Canada Paths on Life's Way project to examine the extent to which educational and career pathways of this cohort of 1988 high school graduates are gendered, individualized, prolonged, diversified; to determine marriage and parenthood patterns in relation to educational and occupational participation and outcomes across time; and to assess the extent to which social class still matters. We employ a transition probabilities analysis to follow the journeys of over 730 individuals from high school through the post-secondary system and work by identifying a sequence of significant stages. We then correlate these transition rates with relevant factors that influenced respondents' lives. We demonstrate quantitatively that although the life courses of young women and men are experienced differently, there is an overall regularity in outcomes. Their 'choices' at key transition points are to large extent shaped by external structures and social class and gender differences are evident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the analysis of 1981, 1991 and 1996 census data and results from a survey on migration patterns conducted with 5518 youths aged between 20 and 34 in the province of Quebec, Canada, this paper sets out the general patterns of leaving home in Quebec. Particular attention is paid to age group, gender and regional-urban differences. Findings are discussed in the light of notions of disembedding (Giddens) and risk (Beck), and their interplay in theories of transition to adulthood. The analysis focuses on the appropriateness of individualization theories in explaining the transition to adulthood. The empirical evidence raises questions as to whether trends in leaving home indicate increased individualization among youths or patterns of social reproduction. Research and social implications of prolonged home staying and limited geographical mobility during youth are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to examine students' values in "relationship to their studies." After defining the concept within this rubric, we attempt to define the values at work from the perspectives of (1) the motivation for pursuing post-secondary studies; (2) the pace of studies; (3) the time devoted to study; (4) the time spent in the institutions; and (5) student culture. The study focuses on students enrolled in the medicine and sociology programs. Our paper draws primarily from the results of an online survey and interviews of a sampling of the target student population, with the analysis in both cases developed in light of the distinction between "instrumental" values and "expressive" values. The analysis presented here is based on theories recently developed in France and Quebec regarding values, students and student attitudes toward their program of study. (Contains 6 notes, 2 tables, and 2 figures.)

Rave dance parties have been growing in popularity during the past decade. This paper describes the rave scene in Metropolitan Toronto, Canada, based on eight participant observations and personal interviews with 75 rave attendees. The data reveal that people defined raves and were attracted to the parties because of the interesting venues, to be with friends, and to enjoy the music. While drugs were also mentioned as one of the appealing aspects of parties, those who attend raves only to use drugs were not felt to be attending for the right reasons. Respondents commented on the numerous changes in the scene over time (e.g. increased commercialization, fewer people attending in order to contribute to the scene) and suggested means for ensuring the safer use of drugs in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people's financial lives have undergone change, with delays and struggles attaining stable employment, home ownership, and financial independence. Despite such change, research on the future thinking of young adults suggests the persistent significance of such financial milestones. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 36 young adults aged 18–32 in a mid-sized, prosperous Canadian city, inquiring into their goals and perceptions of their future financial lives in light of their current situations. Findings revealed young adults' overarching desire for financial security, notably through goals of a steady job, debt reduction, and home ownership. These findings affirm that during this transitional time of life, many young adults are involved in a search for security, hoping to attain financial independence and stability in a conventionally linear and upward fashion. This search for security and stability manifests differently across sociodemographic positions (namely age, gender, birthplace, and socioeconomic status), reflecting differing experiences of precarity, cultural representations of the life course, and positions along financial trajectories. Participants' visions of their financial futures also appear to connect to factors in the local context, including its relative prosperity, persistence of traditional gender roles, and a relatively modest cost of living compared to other urban centres in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource extraction has always played an important role in shaping Canada's economy and identity. Over the past several years, the province of Alberta has led the charge in helping Canada become a petro-state. Fort McMurray in particular has been significantly impacted by the rapid development of the oilsands in northern Alberta. This article explores how young people living at the center of this resource extraction project viewed the impacts that oilsands development had on the environment and the economy. In total, 60 in-depth interviews were conducted with young people aged 15-29. The findings indicate that young people perceived the need to balance environmental risks with economic growth but provided a range of risk justifications (i.e. companies were good environmental managers, oil was a societal necessity, people were hypocrites, and personal experiences) in articulating their understandings. This article utilizes young people's understandings to argue for a conceptual micro-level counterpart (intravidualization) to Ulrich Beck's theorizing on individualization and that place must be brought back into theorizing on social change, risk, and youth in contemporary times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth are often perceived as passive and disengaged from civic and political life. However, many researchers have countered such discourses of youth passivity and isolation, highlighting young people's active and interactive political engagement through less traditional outlets, especially online. In this article, we are influenced by a poststructural orientation to agency to identify themes across the social change-oriented YouTube channels of eighteen young Canadians. The themes we have identified counter a dominant focus on youth civic disengagement, political apathy, and isolation, instead highlighting the diverse political issues young Canadian vloggers address, the strategies they use, their multiple subjectivities, the interaction and support of their online community, and the relevance of inequality. We show how YouTube has become an important venue for the production and dissemination of youth perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies suggest that street-involved youth may have more robust and diverse social networks than previously thought. However, the supports offered by their social relationships have not been studied in detail. We analyzed descriptive quantitative data and open-ended interviews with 130 street-involved youth aged 14-18 in Victoria, Canada, to investigate the perceived roles and supportive functions of their most-valued social relationships. Our results show that most participants were embedded in supportive social relationships. For a substantial minority, these were familial and friendship ties forged prior to street involvement. These off-street relationships were often viewed as reliable and stable long-term sources of social support, including emotional, instrumental and informational support, particularly in times of need. This was the case despite perceived relational difficulties and limited face-to-face contact. Approximately half located themselves primarily within new street-based relationships. In comparison with off-street contacts, street-based social ties provided more consistent, immediate social support, and there was greater diversity in terms of the depth and supportive functions of these relationships. However, street-based relationships were often not perceived as being particularly stable over the long-term. Only a small minority of participants reported having no social contacts to turn to for support. Our results highlight the distinct roles that on- and off-street social relationships play in supporting street-involved youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the cultural and linguistic strategies of immigrant youth to negotiate inclusion/exclusion, including language discrimination in Vancouver, Canada. My theoretical framework draws upon the Arendtian notions of ‘public space’, and ‘action and speech’ as well as Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘symbolic violence’ and ‘habitus’. My methodology is a critical qualitative approach. Fourteen immigrant youth, aged 15–25, were involved in this research. The findings of this study indicate that unlike second-generation immigrants, first-generation immigrant youth face cultural and linguistic challenges. Non-recognition of youths’ distinct linguistic and social capitals, the imposition of official languages and the regulation of the education and language market according to the dominant linguistic norms include forms of discrimination against Turkish minority youth in Canada. Taken together, the findings suggest that immigrant youths’ cultural and linguistic experiences of inclusion and exclusion cannot be dissociated from the wider politics of the nation-state, popular hegemony and social inequalities in the host society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term ‘young carer’ refers to those youth under the age of 25 years who provide substantial unpaid support to a family member due to factors including, but not limited to, familial or parental absence, disability, mental health issue(s) or problems with alcohol and/or other drugs. In the UK, national statistics have been integral to tracking the prevalence of young carers while serving as an important tool towards the development of (and justification for) a national legislative framework supporting these youth. In Canada, research and awareness for young carers remains in its infancy and available national datasets have yet to be examined in relation to youths providing unpaid caregiving. As a result, this research provides the first trend analysis of youth-based caregiving in Canada using census data for the 1996–2006 time-period. Methodological limitations of official statistics are also discussed in terms of conceptual and operational constraints limiting the full identification of all those potential young carers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new scale, the Student Perception of University Support and Structure Scale (SPUSS), was developed for research on the transition to university. The scale was based on concepts derived from Baumrind's (1971) theory of parenting styles. Data were obtained from two separate cohorts of freshmen (n=759 and 397) attending six Canadian universities of varying sizes. The scale demonstrated excellent psychometric properties with Cronbach alphas of 0.87 and 0.89 for internal validity (0.84-0.90 and 0.85-0.91 across universities) and alphas of 0.86 and 0.88 for split-half reliability (0.80-0.94 and 0.86-0.89 across universities). Component analyses supported the use of a full-scale score. SPUSS scores were correlated with the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire, supporting the predictive validity of the scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey, this article examines the roles of parental human capital and social capital in the pursuit of university education among immigrant youth in Canada. We find segmented patterns across the largest minority groups in Canada, with the Chinese and the south Asians, such as Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, obtaining the highest levels of education, while Blacks show the lowest rate of university education. Our study highlights the need to go beyond human capital models by assessing the benefits of and downsides to social capital. Minority language retention at home is beneficial for post-secondary education while language usage with friends outside the minority community entails the need to be proficient in one of the official languages of Canada, English or French. Having a strong sense of trust is crucial for the pursuit of university education, especially for Blacks. Our findings underscore the importance of examining what forms of social capital are unique to each minority group and the various ways these different forms of social capital are utilised in achieving success in the educational sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This ethnographic study aimed at developing a richer understanding of how youth, their schools, and the communities in which they are emplaced coincide to generate a set of local social processes that affect marijuana use. We trace the interplay between high school staff and students with regards to marijuana use in the proximity of a local high school and the shifting geographies of use in this setting. Although marijuana use was a concern for teachers and administrators, they seemed unaware of how their strategies tended to reinforce use among teens. In and around the physical space of the school, social spaces for marijuana use were co-created by the actions of students and teachers. Groups of students would leave the school and smoke marijuana in school time. Students were aware that they needed to keep their use discrete. Teachers and staff unintentionally conveyed the message that marijuana use was acceptable provided it did not take place on school property. Students and staff thus enacted and reinforced the barriers to open communication about marijuana use. The teen appropriation of space to use marijuana can be interpreted as a counter-positioning of youth and adult norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on semi-structured interviews conducted with young offenders as part of ‘The Automobile of the 21st Century’ (AUTO21) national research initiative. AUTO21 is a Canadian research project that aims to strengthen and improve Canada's automotive industry. As part of this initiative, an exploratory research project was undertaken to examine how young people understand their participation in auto theft. Interviews with young auto thieves revealed different patterns of auto theft between young men and women and different practices of femininity and masculinity. Despite having both participated in the same crime (auto theft), it was found that young men's masculine identities formed in dialogue with hegemonic masculinity while young women's feminine identities formed in dialogue with hegemonic femininity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines trends in the age-specific turnout rates of Canadians in federal elections between 1965 and 2000 in order to understand the present problem of declining voter turnout among young Canadians (18-29 years of age). While a number of Canadian studies have framed the present-day problem of youth voter turnout as a 'cohort' one, unspecified in terms of content, the role of political era and demographic change in shaping these trends has been largely obscured, if not ignored. This study examines the utility of these two factors as explanations for trends in youth voter turnout. It is concluded that political era along with the changing demographic weight of youth in the population of voting age have interacted to politically alienate and marginalize Canadian youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines relationships among parental background, post-secondary attainment, occupational status and extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction of youths in British Columbia. Cultural reproduction theory; Route of educational and occupational attainment; Comparison of job satisfaction between women and men.

This study examines the education experiences of refugee youth in Canada. Using data obtained from a random sample of 91 refugee youths between the ages of 15 and 21, plus data from 123 of their parents, the purpose of this study is to identify the factors influencing their educational success. The study finds that the majority of refugee youth are doing well in the education system, with about 50 per cent expecting to complete high school and to continue to post-secondary education. The remaining 30 per cent are experiencing some difficulty finishing high school and about 20 per cent do not expect to finish their secondary education. Ethnicity, refugee camp experience, appropriate grade placement on arrival, parents' health, urban residence, and number of months in Canada are correlated with academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research separately acknowledges two emerging trends in adolescence but neglects to integrate them. These are that many changes have occurred in the school to work transitional processes, and that there is substantial need for adolescents, especially young women, to pursue science career pathways. In this study, we link these trends and develop predictive, interactive models of science pursuit for 836 Canadian secondary school graduates living through a period of massive change in school to work transitional processes. Separate logit analyses were conducted for males and females. Results suggest that young women are not under-represented in the pursuit of science careers in high school. Young women aspire more frequently to medical and health sciences, and young men to natural sciences, engineering and mathematics. For young women, father's occupation in science, curriculum track and level of occupational expectation were significant in the model, correctly predicting 72% of membership in science. For males, socioeconomic status, family support, level of occupational expectation, regional unemployment levels and items measuring work environment were significant in the model that predicted 81% of membership in science. The findings suggest the salience of gender-differentiated school to work transition models in determining pursuit of health and science career pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol use appears to be equally prevalent among rural and urban teenagers, but teenage drinking and driving may be more widespread in rural areas. An analysis of casualty collisions involving teenage drivers who had been drinking provides support for this hypothesis, revealing higher rates of such accidents in rural than in urban areas of the Canadian province of Alberta. A case study of rural teenagers in a single Alberta county replicates previous findings of more widespread drinking and driving among older youth and among males. These survey data also show that rural youth who spend more time 'driving around' with friends and those with more disposable income are more likely to drink and drive. Those with greater educational ambition and with more respect for authority figures are less likely to do so, as are those who more often attend a place of worship. An explanatory framework making reference to 'routine activities' and 'social bonds' is used to interpret these relationships, and to suggest policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the links between the experiences of parents and youth within racialized immigrant families to gain a better appreciation of intergenerational dynamics, drawing on interviews and preinterview surveys with 47 immigrant youth and their parents. Our thematic analysis of data explores the diversity of families' immigration experiences, labor market challenges for parents, shared family discourses of sacrifice and opportunity, and differences in youth responses to the high expectations of parents. We conclude that the life course transitions experienced by parents have important consequences for their children; immigrant youth feel a strong sense of intergenerational obligation, and this obligation is problematic for a significant minority of youth. Our qualitative findings thus temper the optimistic picture of these youth presented in large-scale studies of their aspirations and attainment.

Hobbema, Alberta, Canada is a community comprised of four First Nations. As with many of Canada's Aboriginal communities, Hobbema's population is young. High rates of socio-economic disadvantage, violence, family dysfunction, and substance abuse are linked to colonization, residential school policies, and discrimination. Crime rates, including gang-related crime in the area, are disproportionately high. In 2005 two police officers created the Hobbema Community Cadet Corps, a program which offers youth a pro-social alternative to criminal activity and gang involvement. The program provides youth with the opportunity to learn the value of group identity, discipline, and camaraderie. It also provides opportunities for recreational activities and travel otherwise unavailable to many in this impoverished area. This paper provides a description of the HCCCP, an overview of its activities and structure, and situates it within the crime prevention through social development framework which emphasizes the importance of building protective factors and reducing risk factors surrounding youth. Finally, a preliminary evaluation which highlights some of the challenges faced by program instructors is offered. The authors caution against relying solely on individualizing imperatives in attempts to deal with social structural issues of the types faced by citizens in Hobbema. (Contains 6 notes.)

In this paper, I compare socio-economic experiences and community perceptions expressed by socially and economically disadvantaged young people with those of university students living in the same post-industrial community. I consider markers of distinction among these young people in relation to their family and educational experiences. I also critique overlaps in their perceptions of their community with specific focus on recreational infrastructure and physical environment. Youth insights suggest that the downturn in the economy has had an impact on their families' ability to provide the traditional kind of support expected of working-class families. The resulting gaps in local cultural and social capital influence school successes and ultimately, economic life chances for youth in already marginalized communities. Despite varying life chances, all participants held similar perceptions of their community. Their shared views beg the question: can collaborations among fractions of young people strengthen efforts to advocate for social and economic security and comfort for all youth within and across disenfranchised communities? (Contains 9 figures and 1 note.)

Through a feminist content analysis of young women's writing and reflections, this study gives evidence of how a school-based new literacy project shared knowledge in a public voice about the irreducible and complex world of "becoming" a girl. This project, called "The Pink Voice," was conducted in a large urban centre on the West Coast of Canada. The paper explores the development of school-based new literacy practices that takes up forms of feminine subjectivity that are acknowledged through performative practices of creative writing and reading. Educators need to consider how to develop responsive pedagogical spaces within public education that can expand into the indeterminate and as yet unknown hybrid subjectivities of youth with creative energy and commitment to nurturing active participation and engagement with multimodal networks, designs, and embodied forms of literacy. (Contains 1 note.)

Since the 1980s, Canadian legalized gambling has undergone a massive growth, resulting in numerous social problems such as crime, political corruption, and, most importantly, pathological gambling. When it comes to theorizing gambling in Canada, pathological gambling has been the centre of the attention for two related reasons: (1) the increasing concern with individual and social harms resulting from it; and (2) priority given by grant-giving institutions to "useful" scholarly efforts related to it. A major drawback, however, has been that these explanations often overlook the impact of broader social conditions on gambling behaviour and, instead, provide politically and ideologically conservative, microlevel analyses that point to the individual gamblers as the source of the problem. These theories, therefore, present partial accounts of an enduring and growing, socially produced problem. The argument of this paper is that Canadians' gambling behaviour, and its consequences, must be understood primarily as a social problem and within the nexus of (a) the Canadian state's pro-gambling policies (prompted by the need to generate revenues); (b) the gap between commonly shared Canadian cultural values--monetary success--and legitimate means of achieving them; and (c) capitalist processes of profit-making and commodification. Only then can we have a better understanding of a persistent and growing problem.

This paper picks up from Bynner's recent critique of the current formulation of emerging adulthood as presented in his recent exchange with Arnett in the "Journal of Youth Studies" (2005, volume 8(4) and 2006, volume 9(1)). It pays particular attention to the exclusion processes in education and the workplace that prevent young people in some socio-economic contexts from experiencing the developmental processes presumed to be of benefit to all "emerging adults". In addition, an alternative to Arnett's psychological, free-choice model of emerging adulthood is offered that identifies the social and economic conditions that have produced the prolonged transition to adulthood. We argue that this hiatus in the life-course, which is increasingly referred to as emerging adulthood, can be better explained in terms of changing economic conditions leading to a lowering of the social status of the young that is contributing to increasingly precarious trajectories, and in terms of the decline in the social markers of adulthood associated with the individualization process. When these structural conditions are examined, it appears that Arnett's model "begs the question" about emerging adulthood (i.e. takes for granted the very thing under contention), and mistakes the coping mechanisms of many young people for freely chosen options to delay their entry into adulthood. (Contains 2 tables, 2 figures and 1 note.)

In this paper, through the theoretical lens of life-course research and reproduction theory, we employ 15 years of longitudinal data from the British Columbia, Canada "Paths on Life's Way" project to examine the extent to which educational and career pathways of this cohort of 1988 high school graduates are gendered, individualized, prolonged, diversified; to determine marriage and parenthood patterns in relation to educational and occupational participation and outcomes across time; and to assess the extent to which social class still matters. We employ a transition probabilities analysis to follow the journeys of over 730 individuals from high school through the post-secondary system and work by identifying a sequence of significant stages. We then correlate these transition rates with relevant factors that influenced respondents' lives. We demonstrate quantitatively that although the life courses of young women and men are experienced differently, there is an overall regularity in outcomes. Their "choices" at key transition points are to large extent shaped by external structures and social class and gender differences are evident. (Contains 9 tables, 4 figures and 3 notes.)