Youth And Adversity

This book offers the most current research and reviews, innovative programs and approaches, developments and directions, and future outlooks and trends from an international perspective by experts in the field on a variety of current topics related to youth facing adversity with implications for creating and maintaining child and adolescent resilience in a constantly changing world. In these chapters are themes and information that embody the stories of the lives of youth today. Topics include the following: parenting, coping, and motivation of Australian at-risk adolescents; religious rejection and resilience among Christian sexual minority youth; the influences from parents, police, and social work on at-risk youth in Hong Kong; resilience among Native American youth; the experience of Australian children who have been diagnosed and treated for pediatric hematology; the effect in adulthood with Serbian youth who grew up in political and economic turmoil; approaches for overcoming adversity among Arab American youth; EcoWellness as a way to connect with at-risk youth using nature as a basis for overcoming adversity; adolescents and gaming; poly-victimization and resilience among Spanish youth; a Liberation psychology approach to working with borderland Mexican children impacted by violence on the U.S.-Mexico border; substance use and resilience among adolescents; use of the Home Interaction Programme for Parents and Youngsters (HIPPY) as way for enhancing parenting practices to mitigate socioeconomic disadvantages faced by at-risk youth in New Zealand; use of rite of passage programs, specifically, the Louis Armstrong Manhood Development Program (LAMDP), as a way to address the overrepresentation of African American boys in special education; psychosocial factors involved in adolescent self-injury; and nurturing hope and resilience among at-risk middle school youth using a group rap therapy program called Wrapped in Resilience. All chapters provide a better understanding of various areas in which youth face adversity, and offer implications for ways of helping youth develop resilience and positive coping skills. Building upon the knowledge, awareness, and skills that are explored in this text, helping professionals, researchers, and educators who work with youth begin to better understand and more effectively intervene with the lived experience of youth who face adversity in many different forms today, and who survive these experiences in a way that makes them stronger and more resilient

In Staying Alive While Living the Life, Sue-Ann MacDonald and Benjamin Roebuck unpack the realities of living on the streets from the perspective of homeless youth. While much is written about at-risk youth, most literature on youth homelessness reduces their lives to flattened images with little room for the diverse, complex and individual nature of their experiences. Challenging the dominant youth-at-risk conversation by putting forward a framework of survival and resilience, MacDonald and Roebuck illustrate the ways that young people who experience homelessness demonstrate tremendous resilience when facing adversity, social exclusion and various forms of oppression. Drawing on conversations with homeless youth, this book focuses both on the external constraints imposed on their lives as well as the ways young people understand their circumstances and their approaches to problem solving. The result is a nuanced analysis that puts human agency at its centre, allowing readers to explore the challenges young people face and the internal and external resources they draw upon when making decisions about their lives.

A collection of personal stories told by young adults who as they faced difficult obstacles-- death of parent, life-threatening illness, sexual abuse, gang life, learning disability, and more-- found renewed hope through experiences grounded in nature.

Revisiting the young men interviewed in Deuchar's original fieldwork over a decade later, this book ascertains how early exposure to gang culture and weapon carrying acts as a path to wider types of offending. Through empirical insights and policy analysis, it considers the evolving nature of gangs, knife crime and street violence in Glasgow.

One man's incredible story of overcoming adversity to save the lives of at-risk youth

In Glasgow, street gangs have existed for decades, with knife crime becoming a defining feature. More than a decade on from Deuchar’s original fieldwork, this book explores the transitional experiences of some of the young men he worked with, as well as the experiences of today’s young people and the practitioners who work to support them. Through empirical data, policy analysis and contemporary insights, this dynamic book explores the evolving nature of gangs, and the contemporary challenges affecting young people including drug distribution, football-related bigotry and the mental health repercussions emerging from social media.

Youth are one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population. Although there has been much research on how youth become homeless and survive on the streets, we know very little about their pathways off the street and the many challenges that present during this process. This book relates the lived experiences of homeless youth as they negotiate the individual, sociocultural, and economic tensions of transitioning out of homeless and street contexts and cultures. Through interviews the authors gained privileged entry into the lives of youth in Toronto and Halifax over a year-long period. Through rich qualitative prose, quantitative elaboration, and comic-book narratives, participants spoke of courage, fortitude, strength, adversity, and at times, simple bad luck. Ultimately this became a story of fragility, complexity, living “on the edge,” and the (re)-building of identity.

Many young black men are born into poverty which breeds conditions where they can be exposed to crime, violence, and have limited potential for growth. If they don't have a positive role model or aren't shown a more constructive path they tend to fall victim to negative influences. The Black Youth Manual gives you a firsthand look at issues faced by young men, how to address them, to make sure their situation does not end up defining them The Black Youth Manual -Black boys guide to triumphing through adversity is a must-have book for black men, and also for mothers, partners, and educators who strive to understand the psyche of these promising young men. This book gives valuable advice on how to survive in today's social and political climate.