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Young people form the primary target demographic of new ‘buy now pay later’ (BNPL) and digital credit services. Despite consistent data showing young people as a cohort are particularly vulnerable to unsustainable levels of indebtedness, little is known about how young people define and make sense of the experience of being in debt through consumer credit services. This paper explores how indebtedness is experienced and understood in relation to wellbeing through a qualitative study using interviews alongside arts-based participatory methods of bodymapping and sandboxing with 24 young people in the Hunter region of NSW, Australia. These methods enabled particular attention to the embodied and affective elements related to the experience of indebtedness to understand debt’s significance for wellbeing for young people. The embodied and affective registers of indebtedness are integral for understanding the conditions informing how wellbeing is negotiated and felt in this context. This study considers the role of BNPL services in young people’s economic lives as part of broader processes of financialisation, and the significance of extended and ubiquitous forms of credit for young people’s wellbeing. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This paper explores our efforts to capture the imaginations of first-year anthropology students and draw them into a space where they could learn to think anthropologically and experience the insights this perspective provides. Usually, creating field-based opportunities for undergraduate students is difficult, but the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible. Faced with limited opportunities to advance the students’ ethnographic experience and learning, we decided to focus our attentions on a subject that students were very familiar with, and which became almost a symbol of lockdown: the family dog. Through our focus on dogs, we explored key theorists and theoretical concepts, kinship and nonhuman relationships, and the changing construction of the modern family. This paper reports on the exercise and the insights it brought forward in terms of human-dog relationships in contemporary Australia.

This paper describes the process of engaging young people in a user centred, co-design strategy to define their perfect condom. Our aims were 1) to find a way to destigmatise discussions about sexu...

In this article we visit a car junkyard in the small Arnhem Land outstation of Nalawan in the top end of Australia’s Northern Territory. Using both a mobilities paradigm and recent theorizing of waste from the global south, we will argue through our ethnographic observations that the wrecked cars become mobile, reassembled, and reconceptualized in a range of surprising ways. Though now immobile, the stories they encapsulate continue to circulate and reverberate with the complexities and tensions of Indigenous mobilities.

This article seeks to understand Indigenous Australian young people's relationships and their experiences of sexual intimacy. A cohort of Indigenous 16–25-year-olds from urban, rural and remote communities were invited to participate in a collaborative method involving scenario-based body mapping. In these activities, young people discussed the range and complexity of their relationships and how constructions and interpretations of relationships contribute to both positive and negative experiences. These rich understandings provide important insights into adolescent sexuality as ‘multidimensional, socially constructed and negotiated'. However, they also point to the continued gendered power inequalities that subordinate young women's lives to the desires and control of young men.

Research undertaken by outsiders into issues of concern to Aboriginal communities frequently ignores community culture and the knowledge embedded within Aboriginal communities. Methodologies are adopted which perpetuate the colonialist mindset of non-indigenous Australians leading to failed solutions to Aboriginal problems. This paper describes an Aboriginal-led community-based research project, exploring the role of Aboriginal Australians in caring for, and transforming, their own communities. It focuses on the roles that Information Systems can play when providing an accessible platform for Aboriginal voices. The authors conducted an in-depth case study of one Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO), the Illawarra Koori Men’s Support Group (IKMSG). The research consisted of a social network analysis (SNA) of the inter-organisational links of the IKMSG; interviews and focus groups with members of the IKMSG and the co-design of their first website. The prominence of the IKMSG in the SNA maps suggests that its work in the community is highly respected and that the model produced by this research can act as a guide for success in other ACCOs. The findings have been used to develop a theoretical model of Aboriginal community engagement and intervention. This model can enable authentic outcomes to projects which address Aboriginal concerns and support the conduct of community-led research in Aboriginal communities.

Despite a magnitude of quantitative data demonstrating the influence of parents and friends on youth drinking, few qualitative studies have explored these relationships in non-Western settings, inc...

Although previous quantitative studies have documented the association between exposure to alcohol portrayals and drinking attitudes in Western countries, few qualitative studies have explored this matter in Thailand. A better understanding of the association in young Thais is required for a more efficient alcohol policy development. This study aims to explore the information young Thais have learnt from exposure to alcohol portrayals in society and the media, examine how this exposure shapes their drinking attitudes, and investigate the alignment of policy-makers’ views on drinking with those of young people. Two qualitative research methods were employed. Seventy-two university students (38 men, 34 women) aged 20–24 participated in focus groups conducted on campus. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with academia, civil society and representatives from government who were involved in alcohol policy. Recorded data were transcribed verbatim, systematically coded and analysed using content analysis. Young Thais were regularly exposed to alcohol portrayals, particularly on social media and in their social environment. Being increasingly exposed to alcohol portrayals, particularly on social media, and the role of the alcohol industry emerged as concerning matters to the academia and civil society sectors. In response to the concerns, the government social media monitoring and alcohol censorship had become more challenging. This study reflects the growing concerns from academia and civil society sectors of the impacts of increased alcohol exposure and the role that the industry may have on young people’s drinking attitudes. It highlights the need for response to significant policy challenges to reduce these impacts.

This article explores young people’s consumption of credit and the role of credit and debt in the distinction between youth and adulthood. The article engages with recent shifts in the nature of credit that have turned credit into an object of consumption in itself, as well as broader arguments about the financialisation of daily life, in order to understand the temporalities and moral distinctions enacted in different forms of credit and debt among youth. While it is well recognised that financialised capitalism operates and creates value from differences including gender, racialisation and class, the formation of youth subjectivities through credit and debt technologies remains unexplored in the literature despite an emerging crisis of consumer credit among young people. With this in mind, this article draws on a qualitative study of youth, credit and debt, to show that young people experience debt within contradictory temporalities and calculative logics, including the long-term ‘investments’ required to become an adult, and the logic of consumption attached to consumer credit which positions credit as a failure of self-responsible adulthood because it places future creditworthiness in jeopardy. In this way, the article suggests a future research agenda on the way that biographical distinctions are enacted through credit and debt, and how notions of youth and adulthood contribute to the qualification and consumption of credit. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS The recognition of the association between the use of alcohol and negative health outcomes have led to the endorsement of the World Health Organization's global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. Given the capacities, capabilities and sociocultural contexts of Thailand, this study aims to examine the Thai alcohol policy against the global strategy's recommended policy measures for marketing control and identify areas for further policy development. DESIGN AND METHODS Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the stakeholders from three sectors: the government, academia and civil society. Their perceptions of the Thai alcohol policy in regulating alcohol industry's commercial strategies and activities were discussed. Audio data were transcribed verbatim, systematically coded and thematically analysed. RESULTS Although the Thai Alcohol Control Act meticulously regulates the content of direct alcohol marketing, the volume of marketing and indirect alcohol marketing have become problematic and difficult for the government to address. The industry has worked to normalise the consumption of alcohol through repetitive brand exposure and their suggestion that drinking was integral for socialisation. The control of alcohol sponsorship was politically sensitive and legally ambiguous because alcohol sponsorship seemed to provide economic and social benefits and further reinforced the industry's positive image. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Despite the strict alcohol policy, gaps in the marketing regulations exist. Future policy development should place greater emphasis on alcohol sponsorship and branding through evidenced-based interventions. The interactions between the government and the industry should be monitored and restricted. Rigorous regulations, as seen for tobacco, are encouraged for alcohol marketing.

This paper will explain the concept of double perspective and the impact that this cultural understanding may have on the health of the Indigenous peoples of Scandinavia. In inter-cultural communication, one set of meanings may be discernible to the outsider while a whole extra set of restricted or underlying meanings are only accessible for those people who have the cultural knowledge to discern them. These different sets of meanings embody a double perspective. It is not dual perspectives on the same reality but rather seeing two separate but overlapping realities. We will discuss the layers of meaning which are involved in the interactions between public healthcare institutions, clinicians and staff, and Indigenous people including the Sámi. These interactions are influenced by the impact of colonization and the ongoing epistemicide of Indigenous thought. By realising the improved resilience that a double perspective brings to Indigenous peoples, an awareness of the inclusion and exclusion of Indigenous persons, cultures and histories should become established in public institutions and in everyday life. A double perspective carries Sámi resilience, and should be understood as a key to support individual health, and also the collective wellbeing of a people living on their traditional yet colonized land.

This chapter draws on a conversational style in which we reflect on a series of questions about our respective use of body mapping in research with marginalised and vulnerable populations. They included young people experiencing psychosis, with individuals impacted by intellectual/cognitive disability, and with Aboriginal young people about their sexuality and sexual risk. We ask ourselves why we selected body mapping for research with the groups we were working with, why partnerships were so integral to the work, the ways in which body mapping processes contributed to the explanations of complexity and intersectionality, and its effectiveness in revealing ‘hidden stories’. We conclude with the identification of our greatest challenges in using body mapping.

This chapter attempts to tackle a sweeping assumption that globalisation and technology has created an equal playing field and homogenised users of the Internet and social media. Health services and its online interventions have perceived technology to be culturally blank and therefore may act as an intermediary between the Western biomedical discourse and the assumed ‘hard-to-reach’ Indigenous users. We argue that this is problematic because there is no evidence of the integration of a Western concept of health and wellbeing with Indigenous knowledges. The deficit model continues to frame poor health outcomes in remote Indigenous communities lacking in education and health information despite an acknowledgement of the forces playing in the background—the social determinants of health. We propose a small step forward in this complex problem from a co-design departure, arguing that the digital landscape is constructed by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous users and their perceptions of what it means to be healthy and live well. We bring together an interdisciplinary approach, marrying the public health efforts on the Internet with a grounded abductive approach embracing Indigenous subjectivities through a co-design framework that blurs the boundaries between the intended behaviour change intervention, community consultation, participatory research and design.

The goal of this article is to explain the concept of double perspective and the impact this may be having on the health of Indigenous people. In inter-cultural communication, there are sets of meanings that are discernible to anyone, and an extra set of underlying meanings that are only accessible for people who have the cultural knowledge to discern them. These different sets of meanings embody a double perspective. We will discuss the double perspective involved in the interactions between public healthcare institutions, the clinicians and staff of these institutions, and Indigenous people. By realising the potential for improved resilience that a double perspective brings to Indigenous people, an awareness of the inclusion and exclusion of Indigenous persons, cultures and histories should become established in healthcare institutions and health research. A double perspective carries resilience, and as such it should be understood as a key to support individual health and the collective well-being of Indigenous people.

This paper examines the contribution that a community newspaper made to a remote aboriginal community in northern Australia. Instigated by the researchers as a way to engage young people in the project, the community newspaper became an important focus of activity and learning, providing young people with skills and education around the collection, management, and dissemination of news and supporting youth to gain empowerment in the community. At the time, the researchers did not acknowledge this impact. This article discusses the development of the community newspaper, and the authors (two academics and one community member) reflect on the importance of supporting community development activities in the research process.

This article uses walking ethnography to approach the memoryscape of Stockton, a peninsula settlement opposite the city of Newcastle, Australia. As new residents of the city, we walked the memoryscape of Stockton together and with friends and family seeking encounters with the material objects of local memory as an entry into place. Stockton's memoryscape is full of objects gravid with deeply localised meanings. In some cases, our encounters have stimulated inquiry into documented histories and stories behind the objects, however we remain primarily concerned with the prospects, and limitations, of encountering the memoryscape ‘fresh’. From these experiences we adopt a three-part argument. First, Stockton's memoryscape exhibits a shared local identity based on defiance evident in three groups of memorial objects: (i) unintentional memorials created by the unstable landscape (ii) DIY memorials made by local residents, and (iii) monuments sanctioned by local authorities. Second, Stockton's memoryscape remains powerfully rooted in place. It is vibrant, defying digitisation, defying displacement and re-placement. Stockton's memorials and monuments need to be found, encountered, shared in situ on the unstable ground of ballast and sinking sand. Third, walking ethnography restricted to a bounded area, mode of mobility (walking), theme (memorials), and epistemology (encounter with objects) generates rich ethnographic material on place, even without expert knowledge of the past. These experiments in walking and encountering objects in the vernacular memoryscape animated our imagination even with only limited detail on what to remember and how to feel about it. This offers a contribution to interdisciplinary research on the affective power of found material objects in ethnographic analysis.

Rates of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) in remote central Australian Aboriginal communities have been persistently high for over two decades, yet risk factors for STIs in these communities are not well understood. This qualitative study explored behavioural and contextual risk factors for STIs in young Aboriginal people in central Australia. The study identified that casual relationships between young people are common and that there is a strong association between travel, alcohol and casual sex, highlighting the ongoing need for comprehensive sexual health programs that are tailored to the specific social, cultural and interpersonal circumstances of young people in this setting.

Objective: To explore the attitudes and opinions of public health experts in gambling and related unhealthy commodity industries towards the tactics used by the gambling industry to prevent reform and the advocacy responses to these tactics. Methods: In‐depth interviews (30–60 minutes) with a convenience sample of 15 public health experts and stakeholders with a public health approach to gambling (n=10), or other unhealthy commodity industries (food, alcohol, tobacco, n=5). Results: Participants described the influences of political lobbying and donations on public policy, and industry framing of problem gambling as an issue of personal responsibility. Industry funding of, and influence over, academic research was considered to be one of the most effective industry tactics to resist reform. Participants felt there was a need to build stronger coalitions and collaborations between independent academics, and to improve the utilisation of media to more effectively shift perceptions of gambling harm away from the individual and towards the product. Conclusions and implications: Gambling industry tactics are similar to the tactics of other unhealthy commodity industries. However, advocacy initiatives to counter these tactics in gambling are less developed than in other areas. The formation of national public health coalitions, as well as a strong evidence base regarding industry tactics, will help to strengthen advocacy initiatives.

Drawn from a sample of 88 Indigenous young people in five locations in urban and remote Northern Australia, this research utilised a combination of qualitative approaches to encourage young people to discuss their ideas about sexual relationships and violence. Indigenous youth discussed highly public displays of violence, as well as violence within intimate settings and the interrelationships between these two arenas. A key finding of this research was that young people described violence as an accepted part of their sexual relationships and this normalisation led to significant tensions in their experiences and management of their everyday relationships. While violence around young people's relationships in remote communities was reported to some extent as being controlled through both the public and controlled form they take, we found that the increasing mobility of young people from remote to urban locations due to education opportunities and the impact of social media can lead to more serious ...

The recognition of the association between the use of alcohol and negative health outcomes have led to the endorsement of the World Health Organization's global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. Given the capacities, capabilities and sociocultural contexts of Thailand, this study aims to examine the Thai alcohol policy against the global strategy's recommended policy measures for marketing control and identify areas for further policy development.Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the stakeholders from three sectors: the government, academia and civil society. Their perceptions of the Thai alcohol policy in regulating alcohol industry's commercial strategies and activities were discussed. Audio data were transcribed verbatim, systematically coded and thematically analysed.Although the Thai Alcohol Control Act meticulously regulates the content of direct alcohol marketing, the volume of marketing and indirect alcohol marketing have become problematic and difficult for the government to address. The industry has worked to normalise the consumption of alcohol through repetitive brand exposure and their suggestion that drinking was integral for socialisation. The control of alcohol sponsorship was politically sensitive and legally ambiguous because alcohol sponsorship seemed to provide economic and social benefits and further reinforced the industry's positive image.Despite the strict alcohol policy, gaps in the marketing regulations exist. Future policy development should place greater emphasis on alcohol sponsorship and branding through evidenced-based interventions. The interactions between the government and the industry should be monitored and restricted. Rigorous regulations, as seen for tobacco, are encouraged for alcohol marketing.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS The dominant Thai alcohol companies have strategically employed brand advertising and brand sharing (using a very similar branding for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic products) to circumvent restrictive alcohol advertising regulations. As empirical evidence confirms that exposure to alcohol advertisements increases youth drinking, young Thais could be at risk of constant and incidental exposure to alcohol advertising, hence leading to increased alcohol consumption. This study aims to explore young people's perceptions of these alcohol branding strategies and to examine how exposure to such advertising strategies affect their attitudes towards alcohol use. DESIGN AND METHODS Seventy-two university students aged 20-24 years participated in 1.5-h semi-structured focus groups conducted in Bangkok and a peripheral province. Logos of two domestic alcohol brands were also used as part of projective techniques to elicit information. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse data. RESULTS Despite a range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic products under the same branding, participants associated the logos primarily with beer-the flagship product. Branding strategies seemed to successfully increase young people's brand familiarity and affected their brand recognition and brand awareness. Participants had a high awareness of the alcohol companies' commercial activities but regarded alcohol advertisements to be indifferent to advertisements of other ordinary products. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Brand advertising is a dynamic tool that affects young people's attitudes towards the advertised brands and alcohol use. Due to early exposure to the brands, brand sharing increases brand familiarity and, among other factors, potentially affects drinking attitudes and purchase intentions.

Background Despite abundant alcohol control regulations and measures in Thailand, prevalence of alcohol consumption has been relatively steady for the past decade and alcohol-related harm remains high. This study aims to explore, through the perspectives of key public health stakeholders, the current performance of regulations controlling alcohol availability and access, and the future directions for the implementation of Thai alcohol policy. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with public health stakeholders from three sectors; the government, academia and civil society. Their perceptions about the current alcohol situation, gaps in the current policies, and future directions of alcohol policy were discussed. Audio data were transcribed verbatim, systematically coded and analysed. Results The three key concerning issues were physical availability, economic availability and commercial access, which referred to outlet density, taxation and pricing, and compliance to stipulated regulations, respectively. First, Thailand failed to control the number of alcohol outlets. The availability problem was exacerbated by the increased numbers of liquor licences issued, without delineating the need for the outlets. Second, alcohol tax rates, albeit occasionally adjusted, are disproportionate to the economic dynamic, and there is yet a minimum pricing. Finally, compliance to age and time restrictions was challenging. Conclusions The lack of robustness of enforcement and disintegration of government agencies in regulating availability and access hampers effectiveness of alcohol policy. Comprehensive regulations for the control of availability of and access to alcohol are required to strengthen alcohol policy. Consistent monitoring and surveillance of the compliances are recommended to prevent significant effects of the regulations diminish over time.

The Aboriginal people of North East Arnhem Land, Australia, are a diverse community speaking several languages, but united through a kinship system connecting individuals and clans between two moieties of the Yolngu nation: the Yirritja and Dhuwa (1,2). Every animate or inanimate object belongs to either Yirritja or Dhuwa moiety, and both moieties complement each other in the Yolngu structure. The history of this Indigenous nation has been one of survival and resilience, especially during the battle for control of their ancestral lands and maritime borders that culminated in the Land Rights Act of the Northern Territory 1977 (3). The Yolngu nation has a history of engaging and negotiating knowledge landscapes of the ‘Other’, ie, Macassan traders and Christian Missionaries (3-6), and their ability to combine traditional and contemporary methods of communication is embellished in the Yirrkala Bark Petition to the Australian Parliament to recognize the ownership of their land (3,6). Here the relatively new technology of the cold, heavy, steel typewriter was incorporated with the traditional bark painting to convey complex and intricate stories of creation, ceremony and law.

Ideas from evolutionary theory and a consideration of social and cultural factors are used to argue that teenage pregnancy in three remote Aboriginal communities represents a strategic response to current environments characterised by pervasive and sustained risk and uncertainty. Ethnographic studies of the communities find that these environments both provoke and enable the reproductive strategies of adolescent boys and girls but raise the question of the effects of father absent socialisation.

How well do young people understand their developing sexuality and what this means? This paper reports on findings from the Our Lives: Culture, Context and Risk project, which investigated sexual behaviour and decision-making in the context of the everyday life experience and aspirations of Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people (16–25 years) in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and in South Australia. Using qualitative data, this paper focuses on what participating young people thought was necessary to improve the quality of sexuality education. Participants suggest that current forms of sexuality education are too clinical, didactic and unengaging, and are missing in relevant content. Young people requested more information on relationships, first sexual experiences and negotiating condom use. These requests indicate that young people realise that they need more knowledge in order to have healthy relationships, which conflicts with the popular belief that providing young people with open, ho...

The small, decentralised communities, known as outstations which satellite larger Indigenous Australian remote communities have often been conceptualised as places that are beneficial to health and well-being. This paper provides an exploration of the meaning of an outstation for one family and the benefits that this connection brings to them, which are expressed in a deep connection to the land, continuing relationships with ancestors and a safe refuge from the stresses of the larger community. We argue that the outstation provides a place for people to be in control of their lives and form hopes and plans for the future. These benefits are positioned in a context where the future liveability and sustainability of the outstation is both fragile and vulnerable.

There is a lack of comprehensive data available to measure the wellbeing of young people in the Northern Territory which means that programs and policies are developed largely without an evidence base negatively impacting on the relevance and sustainability of these programs. This paper argues that there is a need for a comprehensive survey to be conducted which addresses current gaps in data collection particularly in relationship to the measurement of wellbeing of young people. The need to measure wellbeing is discussed. The types of wellbeing measures and measurement frameworks which could be used are described and recommendations made for the development of a survey.

This paper examines young people's perceived vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and their efforts to create a sense of personal safety within an environment in which risks may be high and where STIs are highly stigmatised. The paper reports on findings from research involving both Indigenous and non-Indigenous 16- to 25-year-olds from remote, rural and regional Australia, including communities in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia. The study used qualitative methods, including body mapping and scenario based interviewing, to explore how young people made decisions about potential sexual partners and how STIs were understood within the context of young people's everyday social worlds. The paper has important implications for the design and implementation of sexual-health education programmes by documenting the stigmatisation of young people with STIs and the protective mechanisms peer groups employ to create perceptions of personal safety.

This article describes the application and adaptation of body mapping as a tool for exploring sexual health and sexual decision making among young people aged 16–25. It argues that while body mapping engaged youth to discuss general health issues, young people were reluctant to engage with issues related to sexual health, due to feelings of shame and fear of stigma. Sexual health case scenarios were developed and used in conjunction with body-mapping exercises. The use of scenarios was an effective way to explore sensitive information, while protecting young people from revealing any specific identifiable information about themselves. In this article, we suggest that utilizing a combination of methodological approaches (the visual body maps and written case scenarios) in sexual health research with young people has the potential to enhance and enrich the quality of the data, and allow for a safe and enabling environment. This is particularly important where long-term fieldwork might be difficult or constrained.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to improve current evaluation designs for Indigenous Australian residential alcohol and drug treatment centres, by understanding the context of treatment in this modified TC context. The aim of the research is to present an analysis of the key features of treatment associated with four Indigenous Australian alcohol and drug treatment centres, as expressed by staff working in these centres. Design/methodology/approach – Ethnographic observations were made at each site between 2008 and 2009 with the first author attending treatment groups, education sessions, staff meetings and other events. The first author conducted informal conversational discussions with all programme staff and board members. In addition, 23 staff and 15 board members participated in a semi-structured interview with an emphasis on gaining views on the essential elements of residential alcohol and drug treatment, potential barriers to effective treatment delivery and “what works” in residential treatment. Findings – A number of key themes emerged, including the importance of the flexibility of programmes to include a wide variety of treatment approaches, the importance of culture (although defined differently) in the delivery of appropriate service, provision of safe spaces that allow for clients and staff interaction, the potential for improvement in the provision of effective client case management, the need to reduce job-related stress through staff professional development and organisational culture change and the need to address the difficulties experienced in the provision of effective aftercare. Originality/value – Currently, there is very little evidence related to Indigenous Australian approaches to the treatment of alcohol and drug misuse. The paper contributes to the understanding of the key features of treatment delivery, as identified by staff employed in drug and alcohol residential treatment. This understanding is vital so that government agencies can provide appropriate funding to areas of need for treatment services.

Ethnographic approaches offer deep insights into the lives of people, and as anthropologists are our preferred approaches for our work with young people. Extended participant observation is, however, not possible in all research settings and other approaches are needed which still aim to capture the ideas and voices of young people. This chapter explores two youth-friendly methods for exploring sexuality, relationships and sexual health with young people. We document the development of a scenario-based body-mapping exercise and a participatory community-mapping exercise to form the basis of embodied story telling.

This paper explores the aspirations of a group of young women in a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory of Australia. It examines how their hopes and expectations are influenced by the reality of their everyday lives and the extent to which they are able to influence the course of their lives and become agents for change in their own communities. As with adolescents in lower socio-economic groups, the majority of young women in River Town have not developed life goals or clear strategies of how to achieve these goals. The choices that young women have are constrained by their narrow range of experience, which is characterized by early pregnancies and the potential threat of male violence. However, young women have articulated specific domains where they are able to control and structure their lives. This paper discusses the experiences of young women in this remote Aboriginal community.

This study investigated the quality of life (QoL) of clients in an Indigenous Australian residential alcohol and drug treatment center. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from a random sample of Indigenous clients utilizing the Self Evaluated Individual Quality of Life–Direct Weight tool. The findings from this study provide support for the inclusion of QoL as important in understanding the recovery process from substance misuse. A discrepancy was found between the self-reported aspirations of clients and the focus of the treatment provided, and recommendations were provided for inclusion of new areas in the education provided to the clients of this service.