adolescence 2 - the other adolescent Pavis and Cunningham - male youth and street culture

Question 1

Why was this study done?

Answer 1

because there was growing concern about youth, especially young men and how they spend their leisure time
ie. drinking, smoking, illicit drugs, alcohol, hanging out, nuisance

Question 2

what is moral panic?

Answer 2

• refers to blowing a situation out of proportion and creating an anxiety around it
• creating the elevated idea of danger and risk
• there is a shift away from seeing those behaviors as isolates, they are contextualized to see how many people believe this
  “the media attention and piecemeal policy reflect the moral panic that surrounds these young people and their behavior”

Question 3

What does much of the literature focus on?

Answer 3

high-risk behaviours vs. a more contextualized understanding of the complexities of this specific youth culture and the place of their health-relevant behaviours within the matrix of their activites and associated meanings

Question 4

something different

Answer 4

• they wanted to understand the meanings and motivations of the people on the streets
• allows them to gain insight into the diverse shifting, and value-laden contexts in which touths health related behaviours occurs
• they demonstrate important links between their street culture and their health
  ie. includes tole of immediate and broader socio-economic and psychological factors

Question 5

How did they conduct this study?

Answer 5

methodology

Question 6

methodology

Answer 6

• part of a larger mix of methods (qualitative and quantitative)
• surveys and interviews
• looked at participant observation
• researcher tried to be a part of the local context

Question 7

why did they narrow the focus to leisure time

Answer 7

it is where they were most likely to smoke, drink, and experiment with drugs

Question 8

Methods:

Answer 8

ethnography and participant observation

Question 9

ethnography

Answer 9

• means a description of people or an ethnic group - the descriptions written of people are called ethnography
• fieldwork is also referred to as ethnography

Question 10

participant observation

Answer 10

• researcher joins the group and spends a significant amount of time observing their interactions and participating in as many domains of social life as possible
• first hand observational data
• semi-constructed interviews with youth and community workers
• 70 hrs of field work
• 7pm - 3am
• usually fri-sat

Question 11

Cold approaching

Answer 11

• during the initial phase the fieldworker spent his time walking around and observing and recording where the you people normally gathered
• made himself seen

Question 12

the intrigue factor

Answer 12

• because he was unfamiliar to the people who hung around that area, they were curious
• they approached him
• different ways the participants perceived the researcher, would they give him the time of day

Question 13

Why is the intrigue factor effective

Answer 13

accessing participants like this is effective because it is

• naturalistic
• secures trust

Question 14

why did he have to be careful during the intrigue phase

Answer 14

• was always careful to explain his intentions
• most astonished they were interested in their lives
• as project progressed, contact, trust and quality of interaction grew

Question 15

dilemmas about field work

Answer 15

1. there are never clear-cut ways to gain access to the field site and relevant population
2. the role of intimidation, allegations, feeling uncomfortable, sticking out
3. ethical concerns

Question 16

ethical concerns of field work

Answer 16

• need to be revised visited and addressed daily

Question 17

Developing rapport

Answer 17

• more than being nice, it is also about being aware of how you are being perceived and how you are being compared to other foreigners and researchers (ie. mythic qualities of white women up north or india)

Question 18

additional components of a good rapport

Answer 18

• aligning yourself with well-respected community member
• not appearing to be withdrawn or snobby
• being careful about gift distribution patterns (sharing cigarettes)
• being curious but not too nosy
• finding ways to ensure that you are not a threat to anyone or a particular group of people in the research setting
• make sure you dont come off as a social worker - most street kids do not get along with them

Question 19

Findings: Place

Answer 19

• Seaview
• 7000 people
• majority white

Question 20

Leisure and excitement

Answer 20

• seaview is shit, boring and dull
• they didnt know what would directly improve their lives and liesure time
• but they derived significant excitement from their leisure time - adult free space

Question 21

Researchers could understand how their lives were boring and exciting

Answer 21

• often stood around doing nothing
• convo repetitive and predictable
• unpredictable, something could happen at any time
• prospects of violence
• drinking smoking drugs
• humour

Question 22

Alcohol

Answer 22

• very common
• beer, vodka - in pop
• closely related to their desire to have fun , excitement and laugh
• did it in order to aid social interaction within friendship groups
• more confident and boisterous
• aggressive behaviour, violence and disorderly conduct

Question 23

drug-use

Answer 23

• pot was main drug
• weed was interwoven into the young men`s desire to create excitement and elevate social status within culture
• highlight importance in understanding the multiple roles played by behaviours/substances that are too often labelled as danger, deviant and unhealthy

Question 24

Smoking cigarettes

Answer 24

2 important and distinct aspects of youths’ use of cigarettes

• as a prop to engage in conversation or interaction
• the sharing of cigarettes bound them together in a cohesive social identity (literally shared them), and was linked with lack of money

Question 25

Product of their street activity

Answer 25

their involvement with these activities and their street scene (which is a product of their marginalization) engengered even further isolation from the rest of the community

Question 26

Implications for health promotion

Answer 26

• young mens potential health-dammaging behaviours were integral to their street-based youth culture
• to ignore this in favour of the traditional “health belief” model or indv/”high-risk” based approaches is dangerous
• youth based practices and ideologies being devalued