At a time when many young Americans have reduced their civic engagement, and public schools have de-emphasized their civic mission, some youth are taking initiative at the community level, and some community-based organizations are establishing educational programs to promote their participation. These programs originate in economically…

The article discusses a research instrument developed and utilized by the Pittsburgh Girls Study that asked young girls (ages 7 and 8) and their caretakers to report on the girls' involvement in a variety of problem behaviors. In this article, the authors evaluate whether comprehension, prevalence, and caretaker-child concordance of problem…

This article builds on a sociological account of working-class minority youth development and differential access to social capital--defined in terms of key resources and support provided by institutional agents (Stanton-Salazar, 1997, 2001, 2004). The article elaborates on the concept of "institutional agents"--specifically, high-status, non-kin,…

This article extends our conceptual understanding of social capital and school achievement through a comparative race and ethnic approach. Using the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) 1988-1990 panel, this article develops a more comprehensive understanding of school achievement by exploring circumstances, which the authors call…

An extensive international literature has been developed regarding the risk trajectories of sex trade-involved children and youth. This literature has not, however, substantially incorporated the narratives of youths regarding their experiences. In this article, the contemporary literature on child and youth sex trade-involvement is reviewed and…

Through a comprehensive review of existing literature, this article documents young people's experiences of policing during the period of political transition and extensive reform of the structures of policing in Northern Ireland since the publication of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland (The Patten Report) in 1999. The…

Media is now central to how youth form their identities. Media also shapes the cultural background of much of young people's action and decision making and the institutional framework of social interaction. This article explores this mediated "lifeworld" of young people by examining rates of current media use and the infiltration of media into…

This article discusses violent male youth culture in Northern Ireland within the context of a society emerging from a prolonged period of political violence toward peacebuilding. Specifically, the article focuses on the findings from a qualitative study carried out by the Centre for Young Men's Studies with 130 marginalized young men aged 13 to 16…

Despite a general decline, early-age motherhood continues to manifest disproportionately among young women living in rural/remote Canada. Although public health interventions exist to ameliorate the negative impacts, key determinants of young mothers' well-being exist in sectors outside of health. Moreover, there is no clear understanding of how…

This article draws from the experiences and narratives of teenage activists throughout the Americas in order to add a needed dimension, that of peer political socialization, to the larger political and civic socialization literature. The authors argue that although the existing literature emphasizes the roles and responsibilities of adults in…

The article examines the associations between political ideology and level of psychological symptoms in youth exposed to terror attacks. The study included 2,999 7th to 10th graders from various parts of Israel. Political ideology was examined in two ways: (a) as a content dimension: "political stand"--holding right, centrist, or left…

Although developing "teamwork" is commonly discussed as a goal for youth work, the meaning of teamwork is rarely articulated. Drawing from field research with programs for children and youth in a Chicago public housing community and with a community of Angolan refugee camps, this article demonstrates that teamwork has multiple potential…

This article makes a case for the inclusion of subcultural capital as an indicator of social capital networks in the lives of teenagers. It does so by critiquing approaches that assume that adult measures of social capital can be non-problematically extended to account for stocks of social capital held by younger generations. To illustrate the…

This article examines whether the motive behind community service performed during high school--either voluntary or required--influences engagement in volunteer work during the young adult years. Using a sample of students from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (N = 9,966), service work in high school is linked with community…

A survey was conducted among 692 Australian 13-to 16-year-olds to examine aspects of their Internet use and, in particular, their exposure to inappropriate material and behaviors online and their online safety practices. Significant differences were found in the amount of exposure to inappropriate material or behaviors online according to sex and…