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This paper addresses a gap in the literature on youth justice in England and Wales by examining disaggregated patterns of juvenile court processing (i.e. proven offences) and custody. It provides new evidence to show that gendered effects are best observed over time. Looking at juvenile justice data over time allows us to see the effects of policy that are obscured in the short-term. This is especially important when considering small and specific populations, such as girls. It is often assumed that policy impacts smaller groups in the justice system (in this case, girls) in the same way as the larger group (in this case, boys), with boys' experiences representing the norm. In this paper, we call into question that assumption by considering female and male proven offences and juvenile custody over time in England and Wales and show why gendered impacts should be given proper consideration. We also examine changes in the gender gap in proven offences and juvenile custody over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the risks to Early School Leaving (ESL) as perceived by young people who are Early Leavers or at-risk of Early Leaving, and their educators in one region in South England. It draws on 38 interviews and focuses groups with 39 young people and 53 adults working in various roles across 11 educational settings including mainstream and specialist schooling, alternative learning provision and vocational education and training, as well as the local authority. Guided by a holistic framework to examine risks to ESL [Brown et al. (2021. "A Conceptual Framework for Researching the Risks to Early Leaving." Journal of Education and Work 24 (7–8): 723–739. )], the paper analyses findings according to five different categories of risk: personal challenges; familial circumstances; social relationships; institutional features of school/work and structural factors of policy, economic disadvantage and the educational system. The findings highlight that while educators focused upon structural factors and personal challenges, young people themselves identified social relationships and institutional features of school as the most significant influencers on ESL risk. The contribution of this paper is two-fold; firstly, in presenting a comprehensive analysis of the multiple risk factors to Early Leaving; and secondly, in reflecting on the difference in emphases between young people's perspectives of the key constituents of risk and those of the educators who support them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the creative group and individual interviews with young people aged 11–18 years old in England and Wales in 2018, this paper assembles data that addresses the changing nature of intimacies in young people's digitally-networked lives. Informed by Lauren Berlant's work (2008, viii), it maps how platforms such as Instagram and YouTube circulate certain 'fantasies of the good life' that orient young people towards heteronormative future imaginaries. It argues that publicising intimate relationships on social media works to both reify and unsettle fantasies of monogamy, marriage and domesticity by highlighting their inherent precarity. It also illustrates how smart technologies such as the virtual personal assistants Alexa and Siri reconfigure the good life fantasy. Moving beyond simplistic moral panics that seek to discipline young people's digital intimacies, this paper aims to engage with the nuances of young people's digital sexual cultures. Overall, this paper argues that attending to this complexity can enable practitioners to better attune to and support young people to navigate contemporary digital relationships and sexuality issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At first glance, the physical design of a setting ostensibly seems routine and neutral. However, it tends to powerfully govern who goes where and who can access certain places. Much of the literature on exclusion within education settings often overlook this significance. This paper therefore seeks to rectify this by examining exclusion by design and allocation of physical space at The Site, a fictional name used for the large general further education (FE) college in England's East Region. Adopting a case study approach over two academic years (2013–2015), qualitative research was undertaken with seven tutors and twenty-six so-called NEET and disengaged youth. Drawing on Wacquant's theoretical concept of the ghetto, my key findings demonstrated territorial exclusion by design: this employability course was delivered in Q-Block, a temporary prefabricated building positioned out of sight and primarily used to deliver programmes for disabled, mature and disengaged youth on the fringes of education. This article concludes that, whilst existing research on policy and outcomes is useful in understanding the negative educational outcomes of stigmatised youth, a sharper focus is needed on wider social processes and exclusionary continuities in seeking to elucidate how governance processes contribute to their social and spatial marginalisation in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses empirical evidence to explore the nature of employment transitions for a cohort of marginalised young people in England. The findings presented reveal the importance of past experiences, largely determined by prevailing opportunity structures, in shaping the present and reiterate the need to see transition as a historical process. Longitudinal data collected as part of an evaluation of a youth employment programme called Talent Match provides the evidence for the paper. The routes participants took in terms of securing and sustaining employment are examined. The paper develops a typology of different transitional groups to explore these routes based on the movement (or lack of) into and out of employment. The relative importance of different factors in explaining the groupings are assessed, with results underlining how the ongoing change participants were encountering in the present was inextricably linked to their past. In response, this paper suggests a reemphasis on understanding youth as both a stage of 'being' and 'becoming', seeing youth as both a condition in its own right but also part of the life course process, and calls for a more dynamic understanding of youth transitions among policymakers and those designing youth employment programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal definitions of sexual consent emphasise 'freedom' as central to valid consent; however, power inequalities may complicate freedom. This paper discusses findings from a two-stage focus group study with young people (aged 13–23) in England exploring the implications of power inequalities for sexual consent. In Stage 1, 77 participants explored and ranked the types of power inequalities they felt were common within young people's sexual relationships, with age, gender and popularity being identified as the most common power inequalities. In Stage 2, 43 participants discussed power inequalities using scenarios based on the Stage 1 findings and considered their implications for sexual consent. Thematic analysis of the data produced two themes: powerless and powerful roles in consent communication and power inequalities implicitly constrain freedom to consent. Consent communication was constructed as a unidirectional process whereby those with more power initiate, and those with less, gatekeep. Such roles require deconstruction to position consent as mutual and actively negotiated by partners. Further, since power inequalities were seen to place implicit constraints on freedom to consent, we advocate for an explicit exploration of power and privilege within Relationships and Sex Education to equip young people to recognise, challenge and negotiate these constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the work of Rein and Schon (1993. "Reframing Policy Discourse." In The Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and Planning, edited by F. Fischer, and J. Forester, 145–166. London: UCL Press., 1996. "Frame-Critical Policy Analysis and Frame-Reflective Policy Practice." Knowledge and Policy: the International Journal of Knowledge Transfer and Utilization 9 (1): 85–104), we explore the ways in which 'young people', 'vulnerability', 'risk', 'prevention' and 'prevention practice' were defined and framed by practitioners engaged in the design, delivery and commissioning of drug prevention interventions for young people in contact with the criminal justice system. We argue that practitioners describe their work in terms of both a preventative frame – based on a 'deficit' model – and a transformative praxis frame, more in line with an increasing shift towards 'positive youth justice' where practitioners aspire to actively involve the young person in a process of change. The implications of those, often competing, frames are discussed in relation to the development of prevention approaches and the challenges in designing drugs prevention for this group of young people. The paper is based on interviews and focus groups with thirty-one practitioners in England and is part of the EU funded EPPIC project (Exchanging Prevention Practices on Polydrug Use among Youth in Criminal Justice Systems 2017–2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to the call for more research on the 'missing middle' by reporting the findings of a small-scale qualitative longitudinal study in the North of England exploring the labour market transitions of young people completing compulsory schooling with mid-level qualifications and seeking employment. It found that participants desired training which aligned with their skills, interests and future work intentions. Participants were drawn to seek apprenticeships because they offered 'earning and learning' in a real-life work environment. However, for the vast majority, apprenticeships were not available, so they turned to college to articulate their choices and gain work-related training. Qualifications were gained in order to gain leverage in the job market and help them achieve 'getting on' work. However, often a period of 'pinballing' between their ambitions and the reality of the labour market ensued due to the lack of desirable quality work available. The majority of participants were still resisting 'going nowhere' work and making efforts to achieve 'getting on' work when interviewed, however, some had stopped making the effort and resigned themselves to on-going poor quality work. The process of biographicity was, for them, a reconciliation with on-going low-quality work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand why young women engage in the (sub)culture of badness whilst 'on road', as opposed to more conventional employment pathways, it's imperative to consider their access (or lack of) to legitimate opportunities. Living in deprived urban areas creates a set of conditions which can impact on life chances, thus demonstrating the continued importance of intersecting factors class, gender, race and place in their lives as they navigate precarious transitions against a backdrop of neo-liberalism and racial disadvantage. The Teesside transitions literature, based on white young people from a deindustrialised area of the north-east of England, is considered in terms of its usefulness of thinking about young women 'on road' in London, given that the interest in capturing and analysing their experiences has been notably absent in the British criminological literature. Consequentlyvery little is known about those who are entrenched in road culture as the majority of what we know around crime and violence is focused on the experiences of young men, so experiences of young women of colour are even more limited. This paper has begun to make some headway in terms of addressing these gaps so they are more visible in marginalised urban spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little attention has been given to young workers' uses of private employment agencies as part of their job search and this paper seeks to rectify this omission. It does so by presenting a critique of recent interventions into the sociological debate about young people's agency, especially as this applies to the transition from education to employment. By drawing upon recent realist sociology, the argument is developed that recent debate presents either an over-socialised or individualistic account of young people's agency unable to establish meaningful accounts of young people's decision-making and action. In contrast, the social realist emphasis on the reflective and deliberative human agent is used to construct an alternative understanding of young people's decisions to use employment agencies by emphasising the importance of reflective deliberation, subjective intentionality and opposition. These themes are then explored by drawing on a large qualitative research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and providing unique and original data of the experiences of 134 young people making transitions into precarious employment in three cities in the Midlands of England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the housing pathways of young adults following the breakdown of a first intimate relationship based on co-residence. In particular it explores the frequent recourse to shared housing and returns to the parental home, and how these options may be seen as steps backward, yet also offer opportunities for support. Findings are discussed in the context of the de-standardisation of transitions to adulthood characterised by uncertainties related to early years of employment and the shortage of affordable housing. Although often not as consequential as mid-life relationship breakdowns for future housing prospects, intimate relationship breakdowns linked to initial co-residence are nonetheless critical life events for young adults, leading to a re-evaluation of their existing relationships and of their plans in relation to housing and family formation. Our findings also indicate that the backwards and forwards movements associated with intermediary housing arrangements and in-between phases are deserving of greater attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The progressive commercialisation of motherhood, babyhood and childhood means that consumption is becoming an increasingly important terrain through which maternal identity, style and parenting practices are displayed and 'caring projects' are enacted. Whilst all mothers may seek to act meaningfully by consuming for their children, this paper argues that aspects of material culture hold particular value for teenage mothers who are positioned outside the boundaries of normative mothering and are often managing on limited financial resources. Consumption emerges as an important site for oppositional strategies through which the young women who took part in this study seek to re-image themselves as respectable carers and deflect negative associations of poverty away from their children. The young mothers' investment in consumer goods, however, is often subject to public scrutiny, criticism and ridicule, and their spending is a site for policy intervention. This paper argues that these young mothers' consumption practices should not be seen as problematic, trivial or pathological, but rather they can be understood as an expression of resilience in the face of a sensation of public visibility, judgement and condemnation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental policies and practices have maintained a high status internationally, nationally and locally, but limited literature relates to the perspective of social disadvantage in England, with a particular under-representation of young people. The research presented in this paper has been driven by the supposition that a lack of knowledge and research into the views of socially deprived young people, and a lack of engagement with them at a policy level perpetuates the notion that such groups not only have a lack of environmental concern, but may also be seen to be part of the problem. However, exploring the local environmental comprehension of young people allows the assessment of their potential value in local decision-making processes. This research is of continuing relevance, as environmental issues are increasingly highlighted as a major concern for those who experience social disadvantage. This paper presents the findings of a research project conducted in 2008 with socially disadvantaged young people in a youth club setting and makes use of environmental images based on a range of themes. The core aims of this paper are to increase understanding about the environmental views, concerns and knowledge of socially disadvantaged young people, to contrast this understanding with existing evidence relating to socially disadvantaged adults, and then to consider any implications for participation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a time of heightened international debate about youth precarity, how do we understand and support transitions to adulthood for people who have been in care? This paper reports on a qualitative longitudinal study of 75 young adults (aged 16–32 years) from Norway, Denmark, and England. All had been in care during childhood and at the time of their recruitment to the study all were in education, employment or training. Against the context of a literature largely focused on transitions specific to 'leaving care', our analysis addresses aspects of early adulthood which are not specific to being care experienced; some (such as romantic break-ups, or moving home) might be considered normative, whilst others (such as changing course or dropping out of university) are less common. Cross-national analysis shows how care and wider welfare systems intersect with informal networks in everyday lives, functioning to scaffold young people, or to exacerbate precarity, as they navigate biographical transitions in early adulthood. The research shows the importance of developing socially and culturally located biographical accounts of 'transition' that recognise the complexities, uncertainties and essential interdependence of everyday lives and emerging adulthoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, young women in the West have been addressed as ‘Top Girls’, symbols of social progress and emblems of a new meritocracy. The 2008 financial crash and subsequent implementation of austerity measures have further called into question the realisation of such promise and potential as evidence suggests that the young and women have suffered disproportionately within the post-crash landscape in the UK and beyond. This paper draws on longitudinal data to interrogate the promises and failures of neoliberal and post-feminist articulations of aspiration and meritocracy as these are lived and negotiated by young women making transitions in the midst of the ‘crisis’. Attending to the biographical accounts of two participants occupying different class locations, I explore their transitions and perceptions of the uncertainties and risks characterising ‘austere times’. I demonstrate how, despite similarities in their experiences of a stunted graduate labour market, social class shaped how they responded to and made sense of the pressures and predicaments they encountered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Young graduates in England often return to the parental home after a period of living away during their university studies. Little is known, however, about why they return and how coresidence with parents fits within a life trajectory. This paper reports upon an in-depth cross-sectional qualitative study of young graduates’ coresidence with their parents. It identifies a five-part typology of the purpose of coresidence as perceived by the graduates: a base camp for exploration before settling into adulthood; a launch pad for careers; a savings bank, in particular for future property purchases; a refuge for respite and reflection; and a preferred residence, whether on account of comfort, cultural practice or to support parents. The paper further explores how far these purposes were associated in young adults’ accounts with social structures, individual agency or some combination of these. It concludes that the default understanding of graduates’ return and coresidence as a residual function when other options fail is insufficient. Such a generalisation obscures the different purposes which the return can enable; it overplays some notion of a broken biography rather than the positive contribution of coresidence to graduates’ trajectories towards adulthood and to their life experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper critically assesses the contemporary mainstream state-led youth work tradition in England. Its particular focus is possibilities within this tradition for engaging disadvantaged young people in activities that facilitate resistance to oppression. The basic thesis presented is that the current framework for youth work policy and practice is closing off opportunities for progressive ways of working with young people and, as a corollary, is stifling their capacity to overcome the constraints limiting their life chances. The data were gathered in 2010 while the author worked at an open-access youth club in a deprived inner-city district of an English city. While the majority of the young people using the club suffered severe social disadvantage, both the macro and micro political frameworks for state-led youth work worked against imagining strategies of resistance and social change. The paper draws on Bourdieu's notion of ‘symbolic violence’ to shed light on the way the operations of social institutions often conceal the power relations behind the violence of oppression and thereby add their own symbolic force to those relations. In the case of contemporary youth work practice, the force of this symbolic violence is having profound material consequences in the form of denied dreams and aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores normalised drug use as an aspect of young people's leisure careers. Qualitative data generated by 24 single-sex focus groups with 153 (85 males; 68 females) 15-16-year-olds attending seven schools in north-west England and north-east Wales revealed that young people's drug use tended to be both heterogeneous and situation specific. Indeed, rather than being actively sought out, 15-16-year-olds' drug use was often characterised by propinquity - either in terms of place (e.g. parties), relationships (in particular, friends and peers), similarities of outlook and style (e.g. engagement in drug-oriented leisure) and time (in the sense of age cohorts) - and by sociability - especially as a means of enhancing friendships - as well as a search for pleasurable excitement in the company of others. Thus, the paper concludes that the illicit use of drugs by 15-16-year-olds can only be meaningfully understood when viewed in light of these leisure preferences that are among the social processes through which drug use can become normalised in some young people's leisure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the work on youth cultures and subcultures that emerged from Birmingham's Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (hereafter CCCS) during the 1970s. I engage with a number of recent critiques of the 'youth sub/cultures project', including Thornton's influential work on rave and club cultures and its troubled engagement with class. I argue that the focus of the youth sub/cultures project on mediated cultural practices through which young people constitute themselves and their (gendered, classed and racialised) positions remains of value, especially the emphasis on a 'symptomatic reading' that locates these processes in a 'conjunctural analysis'. I end by exploring the legacy of this project for understanding youth, class and culture in contemporary late modern society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of a 'death' of class in popular and policy discourse, this paper argues that social class is still a major force at work in young people's lives, particularly in the context of schooling. We argue that young people's subcultural groups are classed, in the way in which they are constructed in discourse. Drawing on a data set of 68 interviews with white, middle-class young people in three different cities in England, we argue that class can be seen and felt in young people's constructions of the 'chav', where white, working-class young people's ways of being and doing in the context of schooling, stand in stark contrast to the normative middle-class subject, and become pathologized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that young people's subcultural styles and identities are closely bound up with social class. We show that youth subcultures have been explained in a number of ways since emerging as a subject of serious study in the second half of the twentieth century, and that these explanations are located within a broader social scientific discourse. Fieldwork data collected through interviews with young people in Edinburgh and Newcastle indicate that, rather than being a free-floating lifestyle choice, young people's membership of subcultural groupings is largely determined by social class. In particular, the study shows that young people labelled as ‘Chavs’ or ‘Charvas’ should be understood as a subcultural group with specific social class affiliations. The paper concludes by considering some implications of these findings for theory, for further field research and for practical action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on two ESRC research studies involving longitudinal engagement with a small cohort of young people from 1995-99. The studies 'followed' these young people from their last year in secondary school through three years of post-compulsory education, training and (un)employment. Each of the young people was interviewed several times about their 'career' and life 'choices' and family and social lives. The paper presents the 'time-space biographies' of three of the young people - Michael, Wayne and Rachel - and discusses their participation in the 'new' urban economies, their spatial horizons and their different experiences of post-adolescence. We argue that the 'new' urban economies generate new and compound old inequalities and present new risks and possibilities as young people 'struggle for subjectivity' (McDonald, 1999). A number of interpretational possibilities are 'tried out for size'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is the standard qualification undertaken by pupils in England and Wales at the end of year 11 (age 15–16). GCSEs continue to play an important and central role in young people's educational and employment pathways. Within the sociology of youth, there has been recent interest in documenting the lives and educational experiences of ‘ordinary’ young people. In this paper, we analyse school GCSE attainment at the subject area level. This is an innovative approach and our motivation is to explore substantively interesting patterns of attainment that might be concealed in analyses of overall attainment or attainment within individual subjects. We analyse data from the Youth Cohort Study of England and Wales using a latent variable approach. The modelling process uncovered four distinctive latent educational groups. One latent group is characterised by high levels of overall attainment, whereas another latent group is characterised by poor GCSE performance. There are two latent groups with moderate or ‘middle’ levels of GCSE attainment. These two latent groups have similar levels of agglomerate attainment, but one group performs better in science and the other performs better in arts GCSEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most advanced countries, young people are now expected to remain in education until the age of 18 and, in a context of poor opportunities for those who leave at an early stage, there are concerns about those who are being left behind. In this paper we use comparable survey data to focus on the destinations of young people in two contrasting societies, England and Wales and Japan. We compare the destinations of 19/20-year-olds in the two countries, with a strong focus on those who leave education at an early stage, and go on to explore the extent to which young people's socio-economic backgrounds and their orientations to education explain their post-school experiences. We argue that, in both societies, those who enter the labour market before the age of 20 face severe difficulties irrespective of their social background. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In moving the first significant steps into a meaningful graduate career, young adults need to elaborate strategies, which consist in identifying and activating what seems useful in one's own context of reference. Specifically looking at the meaning of being young adults in two countries belonging to different welfare systems and thus diverging regimes of transitions to adulthood, i.e. Italy and England, this paper analyses how two groups of early career professionals conceive of and forge the specific position they occupy in the life cycle in the course of developing particular strategies of career construction. The findings of 60 in-depth interviews compare and contrast a first dimension of young adulthood accounted for as a favourable condition to delimit, emphasise and be collocated within in order to maximise its potential. This is the case of young adults based in England, who 'squeeze' their youth to enact career strategies. The second dimension is constructed as a penalising condition not to be associated with, in an effort to reduce the discomfort it causes. It is the case of young adults based in Italy, who work out their strategies while feeling caught in the blurred and indefinite condition of youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jones' (2002) discussion of polarised transitions and the 'fast and slow lanes to adulthood' espoused by Bynner et al. (2002) are good examples of how dualistic language often permeates youth transitions discourses. This often results in transitions research concentrating on a dichotomy of experience during the youth phase. The primary purpose of this article is to develop the argument for the inclusion of detailed documentation and analysis of the transitions of intermediate groups who fall between the lines of this dualism. These young people constitute a 'missing middle' in relation to youth studies and UK educational policy. To support this argument, the paper turns to the results of a qualitative study of 18-24-year-old, male, front-line, retail employees in the South-East of England to illustrate how some young people do not find themselves neatly situated on one side of such categorical cleavages. These young men are following neither a NEET (not in education, employment or training) pathway nor a 'tidy', government preferred, route through post-compulsory education. Thus, studying such seemingly ordinary young people can contribute towards developing a more holistic understanding of youth in the contemporary period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While entitlements are often expressed as universal and linked to the rights citizens should have, young people's access to them is shaped by their social positioning, meaning that whether, and in what sense, they are citizens is pertinent. If citizens have access to universal entitlements, does this position certain young people who do not have such access as 'lesser youth' because their entitlements are reduced and citizenship diminished or non-existent? This paper examines whether and how young, separated migrants wanting refuge may be positioned as 'lesser youth'. It draws on a sample of them and multisector professionals examining qualitative data on accessing health care, sexual exploitation and rebuilding lives. The data suggest that the legislative and institutional framework they face militates against their enjoying the 'universal' entitlements of citizens. This reflects their positioning as 'lesser youth' excluded from the full rights citizens are entitled to. Such a positioning is in large part underpinned by contested notions of nationhood, belonging and entitlement central to communitarian citizenship but which exclude them. We argue that a meaningful citizenship for these youth requires a contestation of restrictive communitarian ideas and practices in ways forwarding a more inclusive and socially just multicultural UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizenship education was introduced as a statutory subject in England in September 2002 with the aim of promoting civic and political engagement. However, whilst education is undoubtedly a powerful socialisation force, it is not the only factor that is likely to influence young people's civic and political participation. Political science theories regarding adult participation highlight the role of variables such as socio-economic background, political efficacy, individuals' assessments of the costs and benefits of participation and interest in politics. The questions therefore arise as to how much citizenship education can influence young people's participation above and beyond these other factors and whether this is more likely if a school adopts a particular approach to the subject's delivery. To answer these questions, this paper draws on data from the nine-year Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study (CELS), and more particularly from its 2004-05 survey of 13,646 English students aged 13-14. Structural equation modelling is used to examine students' intentions to participate and ascertain the relative contribution that education and other factors make to young people's intentions to participate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reduction of teenage pregnancy has attracted much interest in research, practice and social policy. Little is known about teenagers who report their pregnancies as ‘planned’. Forty-one in-depth interviews were undertaken, in six different parts of England, among young women who reported their pregnancy as ‘planned’. The mean age at conception for a ‘planned’ pregnancy was 16.8 years. Three key themes emerged when analysing the interview data. Firstly, young women reported varied accounts in the extent their pregnancy was planned (from clear discussions with partner, through to ‘positive ambivalence’). Secondly, the women associated childhood experiences and their social and personal backgrounds with their decision to ‘plan’ pregnancy (including an unsettled background and negative educational experiences). Thirdly, more explicitly and directly, young women viewed pregnancy as a chance to gain a new identity and change direction in life. Young women perceived this decision as highly rational and one that had contributed to a dramatic improvement in their life. The paper debates the current policy emphasis on reducing teenage pregnancy and young motherhood, draws reference to theoretical foundations of fragmented transitions to adulthood and class cultural constructions of motherhood, and outlines implications for teenage pregnancy reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the minds of many Irish youngsters, a career in professional football with one of the leading teams in England (Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool or Leeds United) is a dream that may never be realized. The present paper (drawing on a recently completed study) details the career paths of those who have spent time with an English club during the 15-year period 1984–1999. The aims of the research endeavour were to identify the reasons why many Irish youngsters opt for a career in professional football, and do so in England. While the theory of career decision making and development is pertinent to the topic, there is little evidence of its application among the participants in the study. Study findings reveal that the majority of players surveyed decided on a career in football because they loved the game, and sought a move to an English club for career enhancement reasons and possible financial rewards. Less than one-half of the study participants sought career guidance while attending secondary school, and aspiring professional footballers do not undertake any preparation prior to making the move to England. Given the lack of preparedness, it is not surprising that many encounter difficulties during their first year in England—should the 'information gap' be bridged, perhaps some players might seek alternative routes to a professional football career, and those who do might have a better chance of 'success'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the transition from school to work in the Republic of Ireland and England in the context of different national labour market structures. It draws upon comparable analysis of Irish and English Labour Force Data from 1988 onwards. There are both significant differences and points of comparisons in the transition experiences of Irish and English young people. The lack of employment opportunities for young Irish people meant that traditionally the youth labour market was never as strong compared to England. The majority of young Irish people tended to stay on in post-compulsory education. While young English people are now remaining in education in much greater numbers than in the past, they are still deeply attached to the idea of getting a job. This is particularly evident in the growth of student employment. While the transition from school to work in Ireland and England encapsulates greater diversity with now no clear distinction between education and employment, it illustrates the way in which young people have adapted to labour market flexibility. However, this has benefited qualified rather than unqualified young people, the latter now facing increased risk of social exclusion and marginalization in both labour markets where the bond between educational attainment and labour market success has tightened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young adults who provide unpaid care for older relatives have poorer outcomes than their peers in education, employment, health and wellbeing. Services that can potentially have a positive impact on their lives include services provided to the person they care for. However, survey research in England has indicated that receipt of such services is not necessarily linked to fewer negative consequences for young adult carers. We conducted in-depth interviews with fourteen young adult carers who had responded to the original survey. We explored their experiences with services for the care recipient and what factors limit or enhance the usefulness of those services. We found three interrelated themes. First, difficulties accessing services can add to stress, and make problems harder to address when services are implemented; second, lack of continuity of services, and practitioners, undermines relationships and future trust in services, whereas consistent relationships are beneficial. Third, young adult carers described the benefits that resulted from their being involved in discussions and decisions about services, and the problems when this does not happen. The wellbeing of the young adult carer and the person receiving care are shown to be inextricably interrelated; we draw out implications for efforts to improve services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International research reveals underrepresentation and problems of retention, amongst care leavers in higher education, are universal. Drawing upon qualitative research in England, we highlight legacy as an under-explored and double-edged feature of care leavers' motivations to enter and persist in university study. While restricting access to the propulsive power of material resources, in the context of a widening participation policy mandate, our interviewees' care experiences also shaped an 'orientation framework' providing a strong desire to 'prove people wrong' through study. Supporting this orientation were examples of significant other relations; but interviewees' linked lives also meant the past could resurface in the present, resulting in strong emotional reactions. These could threaten orientation to university study by undermining self-reliance and fragile mental health. As the problem of care leavers' retention occurs across different higher education systems with varied structural and cultural specifics, it appears to transcend such issues. We conclude further study of the nuanced issue of legacy may help better elucidate the problem of retention and we advocate for 'corporate parenting' moving beyond an objective list approach to well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large proportion of long-term care for people with disabilities and/or long-term health conditions is provided by unpaid carers, including young people, with potential impacts on their education, employment and health. Supporting carers is a focus of long-term care practice and policy in many countries. A key part of this support in England is through provision of services to the person with care needs (often called 'replacement' care). We aimed to explore the role of replacement care services in supporting young adult carers' health, education, and employment. We used a mixed-methods approach: self-completed questionnaires and in-depth follow-on interviews. We found ways in which services supported young adult carers but, contrary to previous research, receipt of services by the person with care needs was not associated with better reported carer outcomes in our survey. One key reason for this finding was that not enough services were received to meet care needs and alleviate unpaid caring to a level or type compatible with better outcomes. The wider economic and political context of our study, during fiscal austerity and cuts to social care budgets, and the particular circumstances of young adult carers may offer further explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first section of the paper addresses criticisms of the 'developmental psychological model' as it applies to youth studies and addresses and clarifies these by introducing the concept of developmentality. The concepts of 'independence' and 'maturity' are identified as crucial aspects of developmentality and as increasingly problematic both for researchers and for young people. The second section addresses this problem empirically by presenting findings from a 'Q methodological' study into understandings of independence and maturity amongst young people aged between 16 and 18 years attending Further Education colleges in East London. Five interpretable 'Q' factors are explicated as 'individual independence', 'maturity as adherence to religious moral codes', 'all you need is love', 'resolute, authentic individualism', and 'material and practical maturity'. The final section discusses the implications for research and policy of these various distinct understandings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the use of leisure spaces and leisure times by young men and women tourists in Torquay, England. Behavior of young tourists during their holiday in the beach-oriented resort; Importance of the young beach-oriented tourist to the tourism industry.

The changing nature of youth (under)employment in England since the start of the new millennium is explored through a comparative analysis of three cohorts of young working class men searching for work in English towns between 2001 and 2017. Labour market changes, including the rise of precarious work and forms of self-employment, as well as increasing inequality and cuts in youth services since the financial crisis in 2008, are having a serious impact on the least qualified young men. However, changes in the nature of employment at the bottom end of the service suggest the re-evaluation of earlier claims about the relative disadvantage of (some) young men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young men tend to be constructed as being at low risk of harm and able to extract value from sexting, compared to young women. Drawing upon findings from a qualitative study exploring practices and perceptions of sexting among 14–18 year-old participants in southeast England, I discuss the meanings and norms surrounding young men's sexting practices. I outline how these meanings and norms underpinned perceptions regarding the value available to young men through sexting. Young men were not, however, equally able to extract value and social capital through sexting, and participants discussed examples of the social shaming of young men who sext. I discuss how young men took up diverse positions with regard to masculine heterosexuality within youth sexting culture, in which they reworked and challenged the ideals and assumptions inherent to 'hegemonic masculinity'. I draw two conclusions: firstly, it should not be assumed that young men are inherently able to gain value through sexting; secondly, narratives of risk and shame may mean that while young men distance themselves from sexting, gendered assumptions and inequalities regarding bodily and sexual expression remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within youth studies there is a growing body of research that pays attention to the importance of place in shaping young people's identities, life opportunities and intergenerational relationships [Cuervo, H., and J. Wyn. 2014. "Reflections on the Use of Spatial and Relational Metaphors in Youth Studies." Journal of Youth Studies 17 (7): 901–915; Farrugia, D. 2014. "Towards a Spatialised Youth Sociology: the Rural and the Urban in Times of Change." Journal of Youth Studies 17 (3): 293–307; Woodman, D., and J. Wyn. 2015. Youth and Generation: Rethinking Change and Inequality in the Lives of Young People. Sage Publications]. Of critical importance to these discussions is the need to explore notions of 'belonging' and social citizenship, interrogating the extent to which differing perceptions and experiences contribute towards variations in the outcomes and life chances of disadvantaged young people. This article draws upon ethnography, participatory arts-based research, and semi-structured interviews (n31) with young people (15–25) who live in a deprived coastal town in the North of England. The research investigated processes of marginalisation and disconnection from the perspectives of young people who were deemed as disengaged, or 'at risk' of disengagement, from education, employment or training. The research took place during a time of rapid change and uncertainty as Britain voted to leave the EU. The findings of this study will 'throw light' on the how contemporary classed subjectivities are formed, how experiences of inequality and austerity are made sense of, and how, within a turbulent political context, young people negotiate complex transitions to adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education (HE) students have often been viewed as important political actors in wider society, stemming largely from their activities in the 1960s. Nevertheless, like much of the literature on youth political participation, research has rarely explored the extent to which student political participation varies across nation-states. This article begins to redress this gap by drawing upon data collected from focus groups with undergraduate students in England and Ireland, alongside an analysis of relevant policy documents from both countries. Overall, we argue that, whilst English and Irish students expressed similar desires to be politically active, they differed in the extent to which they felt empowered to take up such roles and the perceived scope of their influence. Similar differences were evident, to some extent, in the way in which students' political activity was seen by policymakers. These cross-national differences are explained with reference to contextual factors and, in particular, variation in the degree of HE marketisation in the two countries. There is also evidence to suggest that students are sensitive to the way in which they are constructed in policy, which affects their sense of themselves as political actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research examined the effects on participants of an employment enhancement programme (EEP), which was delivered by a work-integration social enterprise in an area of high unemployment in the South-East of England. The EEP was designed to increase the employability of young people aged 16–24 years who are not in employment, education or training (NEET). In order to measure the effects of the EEP on the participants, 24 NEET young people completed questionnaires designed to measure their general self-efficacy (GSE) before and after (Time 1 and Time 2) their engagement in the EEP. Fifteen of the original 24 NEETs also took part in semi-structured interviews with a researcher at Time 1 and Time 2. Results of the analysis of the questionnaire data revealed a statistically significant increase in the levels of GSE for the 24 participants after engagement in the EEP. Results of the analysis of the interview data with 15 participants revealed eight overall themes, four at Time 1 and four at Time 2. The triangulation of the quantitative and qualitative results of this research revealed the psychological benefits to this NEET group of young people after engagement in the EEP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent debates concerning the age of electoral majority in the UK have focused on the levels of knowledge and maturity of young people. However, little research has explored the ways in which adolescents orient to these concerns themselves. In this article, we present analyses from a qualitative interview investigation in Northern England, and explore the ways in which our adolescent participants treated voting as a responsibility which should be exercised on the basis of a rational, autonomous and informed decision. Such arguments were frequently used to argueagainsta reduction in the age of electoral majority. These findings are discussed in relation to policy and educational debates in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws from ethnographic research that examined the impact of neighbourhood based community safety policies on young people living in social housing in the south of England. It begins with a brief examination of what local community safety practitioners considered the primary crime and disorder 'problem' on the estate - youth 'anti-social behaviour'. It then shows that the most significant generator of fear and insecurity amongst young people themselves was the sudden, and often violent, deaths of peers. This article examines the extent of the peer bereavements that punctured the lives of the young people in Hillview and demonstrates that these experiences left them feeling profoundly vulnerable and acutely fearful of their own safety and for the safety of friends and family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of risk has found increasing prominence in social policy, human services management and front-line practice in recent years. This is particularly the case in relation to children and young people, who, in the UK, have been subject to a range of interventions based on the identification of population-based risk factors. Through the analysis of UK publications (primarily covering England) relating to children and young people during the Labour Government (1997–2010), this article identifies how risk has proliferated across a wide range of youth-related fields, becoming a social, political and moral entity in itself rather than a tool for primarily criminological prediction and intervention. The article concludes that this proliferation demands further empirical study and theoretical scrutiny beyond the criminal justice sphere in which it is often contained and also questions the extent to which the construction of youth both ‘at-risk’ and ‘as-risk’ is a useful and effective way of driving policy and practice interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The policy commitment in England to raise the participation age (RPA) for continuing in learning for all 17-year olds from 2013 and for all 18-year olds from 2015, brings with it the responsibility of ensuring that education and training are available, accessible and relevant to the needs of all types of learners. In recent years, little policy focus has been given to young people who leave education at the end of compulsory schooling to enter 'jobs without training' (JWT). Furthermore, there appears to be scant understanding of their transition into the labour market or of their aspirations. As a result, recognition of their needs and appropriate support mechanisms are conspicuous by their absence. Drawing on data from two recent studies of the JWT group, this article seeks to lift the lid on the post-16 education and training agenda, and its neglect of this group. It concludes with a series of recommendations of how this issue must be addressed if the drive to RPA is to be implemented successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The themes of mobility and transformation occupy centre stage in many sociological accounts, where 'movement' references people and places in 'new' times, often without situating how movements may actually be embedding or reconstituting inequalities, spatially, culturally and materially. Attention to how gender and class may be reconfigured queries straightforward notions of change, even 'crisis', pointing towards the reshaping of exclusions and their intersecting dimensions. Based on interviews in the North-East of England, this article aims to explore younger women's spatial negotiations in the context of change and continuation, where regional efforts on regeneration can be conceptualized against the backdrop of de-industrialization and (urban) rebranding; the 'past', 'present' and 'future' sit uneasily in these (re)imaginings. These reconstitutions force consideration of the different forms and consequences of social transformation, negotiated in the dis-identifications made by women where, for some, their presence was marked as distinctly out of place, as opposed to others who could more easily claim a movement and placement compatible with the sense of regional change and mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people's experience of education in a 'risk society' is characterised by a terrain of 'initiative overload' which appears to make the routes through which young people are seeking to plot a path evermore perilous. This article is concerned with the impact of creative learning on young people, as represented by the UK Government's initiative Creative Partnerships in Durham Sunderland. The article considers the degree to which creative learning can help young people prepare for the realities of an uncertain future. It is argued that if young people are to be as reflexive as both the economy and transitions demand, then the market-oriented system of education deployed in England needs to be far more reflexive and biographically oriented than is currently the case, and that creative learning could play a key role in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people increasingly comprise the key demand group for private rented accommodation and are over-represented in the sector. For many young people this is their first experience of independent living, managing a tenancy and dealing with a landlord. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews, this article focuses upon young people's experiences of living in the private rented sector and explores the range of strategies they adopt to manage relationships with their landlords. Three broad types of strategies adopted by young people are identified: restructuring tenancy relationships, mobility, and maintaining tenancy relationships. This article questions existing assumptions about young people's use of the sector and argues that young people's satisfaction with the internal structure of relationships with landlords, as well as the standard of property and the services provided, are likely to influence their decisions about how to manage tenancy relationships and whether they remain in or leave their current accommodation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interface between labour market commitment, shared household living, and the maintenance of couple relationships amongst graduates and young professionals in their twenties and early thirties is explored. Following a discussion of the growth of independent living amongst this group and some of the factors that have led to this trend, evidence is presented from a study of relatively affluent sharers living in the south of England. Perceptions of labour market mobility, preferences for independent living and the negotiation of couple relationships across households are all considered. Shared living appears to be particularly suited to young adults who are strongly committed to the labour market: it is a flexible household form, but one which can provide 'professional standard' accommodation as well as ready access to a social life for time-constrained and geographically mobile employees. The presence of other household members, however, is both its greatest weakness and its greatest strength, at best providing close emotional support for members conducting couple relationships under adverse conditions, at worst placing additional pressures on these already strained relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the contemporary housing circumstances of young people in England between the ages of 16 and 24 who live in rural areas. Household and housing circumstances in the late 1990s; Relationship between young people's preferences and housing conditions; Implications on the prevailing socioeconomic structures.