Youth

During tertiary education, students embark on a journey of role exploration and decision-making about their future, to define who they want to be in their adult lives. Psychological services for students may be needed to help students gain better awareness of their mental health. The purpose of this systematic literature review is to analyze psychological interventions for university students in Europe. The review was conducted per the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Studies were identified using the Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, ProQuest Psychology Journals, PsycINFO, and PsycARTICLES databases. The results were classified into seven categories: counseling and group counseling (eight papers); psychodynamic interventions (six papers); cognitive–behavioral interventions (fifteen papers); other psychological interventions (eighteen papers); mindfulness (nine papers); online interventions (seventeen papers); and app and mobile interventions (ten papers). Student psychological services are becoming one of the most important sources of support for students, and the number of approaches offered is expanding. Our results suggest the need to further investigate and promote the provision of psychological care for university students, explore long-term treatment options, and invest in professionally trained staff. Full article

The current study explored how young females who compete in aesthetic sports adopt self-presentation strategies on social media. Data from semi-structured interviews with 10 collegiate female trampolinists (aged 19–24 years) were analyzed through reflective thematic analysis, and six themes were generated; self-analysis, the best you, emotional consequences, judgment, social media perceptions, and acceptance. Framed around these themes, creative nonfiction techniques were employed to present the results as an ethnodrama. Findings illustrated how participants demonstrated a high need to present their “best self”, as failure to do so results in fear of judgment, extreme self-criticism, and, subsequently, post-prevention. Moreover, participants used upward social comparisons, and when they felt they did not match the ‘thin ideal’, often made negative associations between weight gain and attractiveness. This study contributes to body image literature by demonstrating a more detailed understanding of how social media influences one’s need to alter their self-presentation to fit in with highly pressured societal ideals. In addition, the ethnodrama provides an educational tool to stimulate reflection about the extremity of this issue in today’s modern world. Full article

Young people encounter and experience both risks and opportunities when participating as actors and interactors in online spaces. Digital skills and resilience are considered important parts of a “rights-based” approach to keeping young people “safe” online in ways that enable them to avoid harm while benefiting from the opportunities. The present paper discusses findings from focus group research conducted in England with 60 young people aged 13 to 21. The research explored their perspectives on responding to different online harms, including online hate, unwanted sexual content, and unrealistic body- and appearance-related content. The findings are discussed in terms of scholarship on digital citizenship, specifically regarding the social, affective, and technical dimensions of online life and the skills required for resilience. The analysis suggests that there was a tension between young people’s individualistic responsibilisation of themselves and one another for responding to risk online and the socio-emotional aspects of online life as perceived and recounted by them in the focus groups. It is concluded that a youth-centred approach to resilience is required that encapsulates the multidimensional nature of encountering, experiencing, and responding to risk online. Full article

The concept of career adaptability has been widely applied across cultural and educational settings in the hope of finding working solutions to facilitate school-to-work transition. In Hong Kong, China, there are signs showing that career adaptability scores are increasingly being used as the dominant benchmark to measure the effectiveness of career interventions designed for student populations. However, this concept is developed primarily based on western values. For it to fulfill its theoretical promises, the concept needs to be reinterpreted in the local context. This means that issues concerning the measurement and interpretation of career adaptability need to be clarified due to cultural differences. This paper attempts to address this issue by reviewing published studies on adaptability across other disciplines of psychology. Results showed that most published studies in Hong Kong on career adaptability did not use data and methodological triangulation research methodologies. Overall, this review shows that a reductionist approach has been applied to the study of career adaptability in Hong Kong. The current understanding of career adaptability remains largely at the psychological level only. Cognitive and behavioral changes are seldom studied or reported despite their importance. Implications on how future research could be enhanced are discussed. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with an ‘infodemic’, and young people have reported difficulties dealing with COVID-19-related information. The present cross-sectional study aimed to explore health knowledge related to COVID-19 and accessing relevant information as aspects of health literacy in a cohort of adolescents and young adults residing in Ireland. It also aimed to explore COVID-19-related concerns and levels of compliance with precautionary measures. Data were collected from young people (n = 1009) aged 12–25 years old through an online anonymous survey. Our findings highlight that young people possessed sufficient knowledge about COVID-19 transmission routes and adhered to most precautionary measures. Young people believed that they were moderately likely to contract COVID-19 and highly likely to survive COVID-19 should they get infected. However, these patterns seemed to differ between adolescents and young adults as well as between participants living with and without a chronic health condition (CHC). These findings have implications that can inform knowledge on youth health literacy and health-related attitudes that go beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Contextual factors such as country context, age group, gender, and the absence or presence of a CHC are important characteristics to consider when designing public health awareness campaigns targeting a global health crisis. Full article

Youth studies represent a research field with visible potential, and its emergence has seen a substantial increase in the last decade. A longitudinal bibliometric analysis of sociological articles on youth was conducted using Web of Science (WoS) entries, with the analysis divided into three distinct decades, 1990–2019. From 41 sociological articles containing the keyword “youth” in 1990 to 704 in 2019, this evolution is reflected in the increasing interconnectedness of keyword co-occurrences. Thus, after 2000, keywords such as gender, adolescence, education, and race became increasingly popular, while keywords such as children and family structure, which were popular between 1990 and 1999, subsequently lost their relevance. The thematic cluster analysis reveals the emergence of new clusters, such as those centered around social media, LGBTQ, or mental health. The growth of occurrences for many keywords demonstrates the complex and heterogeneous development of the youth studies field in the sociological literature, so many future trends in this field remain unpredictable but promising at this time. Full article

Despite the significant economic and social transformation, students from rural China continue to remain at significant risk of early school leaving. Little research has addressed the jointly protective roles of family and school resources as well as children’s sense of capability that may increase the likelihood of remaining in school. Data are drawn from the first two waves of a national probability sample of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) collected in 2010 and 2012, including households with youth aged 10–15 in 2010 living in rural areas (n = 1503). The results of logistic regression models predicting the likelihood of remaining in school during transition phases of secondary schooling highlight the importance of academic self-efficacy and social capital generated through youth peer networks. Given the severe negative consequences of not finishing secondary school for young people, especially during the later stage of economic transition unfolding in China, findings from this study contribute to an enhanced understanding of the “pull” factors that avert early school leaving. The study offers insight into the design of future low-cost targeted intervention strategies in rural China which could be applied to other middle-income countries. Full article

There is strong evidence that dropping out of school has short-term and long-term effects for the individual, the family, the community, and other strata in society. In South Africa, learners dropping out of school has increased. The link between intention, motivation, and self-efficacy to drop out of school is an understudied area of research. The study aimed to determine the relationship between learners’ intention, motivation, and self-efficacy to drop out of low and high socio-economic schools. A quantitative methodological approach with a cross-sectional design was utilised. Participant’s selection included high school learners in Grades 9 and 11, at both high and low socio-economic public schools in the Western Cape, in South Africa. Most participants were female (51.2%), with a mean age of 16 years, attending schools in resource-constrained communities (50.1). Data was analysed using an independent t-test to assess a significant difference between learners in low and high socio-economic communities. Findings showed that many learners in high socio-economic schools hardly considered dropping out of school, whereas the opposite was true for learners in resource-constrained schools. Family challenges were often cited as a major reason for dropping out of school. The differences between the two groups of learners were significant. Full article

There is increasing interest in the possibility of delivering violence prevention interventions online. This interest has been intensified by the ‘stay at home’ mandates brought about by COVID-19, which has pushed violence prevention practitioners to find innovative ways to deliver violence prevention interventions during the pandemic. Our study sought to understand the ways in which social contexts may enhance or impede participatory interventions for youth online. We conducted 20 in-depth interviews with researchers and practitioners based in various parts of the world. Data were analysed using thematic network analysis. Results indicated that online participatory violence prevention interventions may on the one hand be undermined by material factors such as access to devices, familiarity with technology, Internet infrastructure, and recruitment strategies. On the other hand, young people’s preference for online engagement, the ability to reach those less inclined to take part in in-person interventions, and the potential for continued engagement in cases of participants on the move were raised. Online group-based participatory violence interventions are crucial for situations when in-person meeting may not be possible. We present initial thoughts on how social contexts might impact the occurrence of these interventions online. More evidence is needed to help us understand how the social contexts can shape the outcomes of online participatory violence prevention interventions. Full article

Addressing the interpersonal challenges that students with Emotional Disturbance (ED) classifications experience is critical to their success in and outside the school setting. Improving their self- and social awareness will strengthen their ability to navigate social relationships in and outside school. The planning and evaluation of interventions targeting the development of self- and social awareness requires psychometrically sound assessment instruments. Using the Graded Response Item Response Theory (GRM) approach, this study provides evidence of the reliability of the self- and social awareness subscale of the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA) among students with an ED classification. The study participants were a sample of 449 youth attending schools serving students classified as emotionally disturbed in self-contained and inclusion settings. The examination of GRM item parameters (i.e., item discrimination and difficulty) and the information curves (i.e., test and item information curves) provides evidence of the reliability of DESSA’s self- and social awareness subscales across a broad range of students’ levels of self- and social awareness. Full article

Adolescents’ time use during COVID-19 offers insight into their lived experiences in unprecedented times. Using a person-centered approach, we describe profiles of time use and examine demographics, parent support, and friend support as predictors of time use. Among 555 U.S. adolescents, we identified three latent profiles across 14 daily activities. Education-Focused youth were more likely to be gender non-binary, Latinx, or Asian, and had higher parental education, higher parent support, and lower friend support. High Media Users were more likely to be female or gender non-binary, LGBQ-identifying, Latinx, or Asian, and had lower parent and higher friend support. Work-Focused youth were more likely to be older and spent in-person time with friends. Implications include strengthening relational supports, and reconsidering the risks and benefits of different types of time use during this historical moment. Full article

The study examines the influence of the ethnic background on the parents’ role in the ethnic socialization of youths in Malaysia. A survey of 894 youths, who were aged 18–40 years, and who were from Malay, Chinese, Indigenous, and Indian ethnic backgrounds, was conducted. The questionnaire results show moderate levels of ethnic affiliation and parental socialization. The influence of other people in the ethnic socialization, namely, relatives other than the parents, as well as friends and other adults (teachers, neighbors, and people of the same religion), was limited. The parents of the youths were engaged in more positive ethnic socialization than negative ethnic socialization. The participants’ parents talked to them about cultural pluralism and cultural pride from once to several times a year, but the Indian participants reported frequencies of more than once per month. Conversations that prepared the participants for bias and that promoted mistrust occurred one to two times a year, but they occurred up to several times a year for the Indian participants. The parents of the Indigenous, Malay, and Chinese participants engaged in less frequent ethnic socialization. As a majority group, the Malay parents may have felt secure in their privileged status; however, the groups with immigrant backgrounds responded to their marginalized status in divergent ways with respect to the activeness of the parental ethnic socialization. Full article

Widely across the globe, COVID-19 has placed massive strain on various parameters of life, including child protection, health, education and economic systems. Apart from these visible threats, this situation is having an ongoing devastating impact on the mental health and psychological wellbeing of people. Most young people leaving child care institutions (CCIs) on turning 18 are generally not prepared to leave care, but the transition has become even more difficult and worrisome during the pandemic. During the lockdown, most of these young people were stuck in their CCIs, and their rehabilitation plans—if they were made—could not be implemented, even though there were several mandates around Aftercare, as prescribed in The Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. The Care Leavers faced difficulties in various life domains, including a lack of access to higher education, the loss of jobs, economic disruptions, and social isolation, along with an overall impact on their mental health and physical health as an aftermath of COVID-19. Based on these issues and years of experience as practitioners, Udayan Care—an NGO in India—started a programme named the Aftercare Outreach Program (AOP), supporting Aftercare youth (Care Leavers) in their transition process in order to make them job-ready. This is an exploratory study designed to collect and analyse the data collected from the Care Leavers supported by the Aftercare Outreach Program (AOP), which included 54 Care Leavers from two places enrolled in it, i.e., 42 Care Leavers from Delhi and 12 from Vadodara. The findings of the study clearly indicate that planned and supported transition like AOP intervention can make a difference in the lives of Care Leavers, and can help them towards independent living, even more so in unprecedented times like COVID-19. Full article

Social media have afforded many young gay men the opportunity to explore their identities and practice coming out. The ease of use and the anonymity that can be assumed online has enabled young gay men to come up with different strategies of self-disclosure in social media. The present study seeks to examine these strategies among young gay men in Malaysia, given the limited data on the social media experiences of gay men in the country. In-depth interviews were conducted with six young, gay-identified men to find out the strategies they employed in disclosing their sexual identity online. The analysis of the interview data revealed that the coming-out strategies among the participants mostly resembled those employed by gay men in Western societies, including being out and proud, being out and discreet, and being closeted on social media. The analysis also revealed that the participants held different views regarding the role of social media in the coming out process for gay men in Malaysia. These findings have implications that are relevant to the issues of identity formation among gay men in contexts where homosexuality is still subject to social, legal, and religious condemnation. Full article

Smartphone use has become increasingly popular and almost all age cohorts engage in smartphone usage for a wide variety of activities. This study aims to investigate the relationship between high smartphone use and mental health among youth and in two urban centres in Canada. This study is part of the Smart Platform, a digital epidemiological and citizen science initiative. Citizen scientists provided all data via their own smartphones using a custom-built smartphone application. The baseline questionnaire included measures of smartphone screen time behaviours (internet use, gaming, and texting), demographic characteristics, and health outcomes including anxiety, suicide ideation, feelings of depression, and self-rated health. Binary regression models determined the relationship between smartphone use and mental health measures. Among the 437 participants (13–21 years old), 71.2% reported high total smartphones use during a typical week (5 weekdays and 2 weekend days). High weekday and high weekly total smartphone use were associated with an almost two times higher risk of screening positive for anxiety, while high weekend gaming and high total smartphone use were associated with an almost three times higher risk of suicide ideation. Moreover, high weekend total smartphone use was also associated with an almost three times higher risk of poor self-rated mental health. Our findings suggest that high smartphone use’s association with mental health varies by type of activity as well as type of day (weekday/weekend day). Smartphone usage among youth has become near universal and it is important to factor in variations in smartphone usage’s impact on mental health in developing smartphone-specific screen time guidelines by taking into context both type of activities, as well as type of day (weekday/weekend day). Full article

Purpose in life is linked with numerous positive outcomes among adolescents and emerging adults. Peer relationships may play an important role in the cultivation of purpose, especially among first-generation college (FGC) students. The present study examined the association between the quality of peer relationships and commitment to purpose among students from three universities (N = 195). Analyses also examined whether FGC student status moderated this association. The results indicated that the quality of peer relationships significantly predicted commitment to purpose. FGC status moderated this association; high-quality relationships with peers helped close the gap in purpose commitment between FGC students and their counterparts. Full article

An increasing body of research suggests that young people living in Western societies are becoming increasingly individualistic in the way they orientate themselves socially, with further findings suggestive that such orientations may be associated with reduced wellbeing outcomes. Through a systematic review of past research, this paper examines the findings on individualism and the wellbeing of young people living within Western contexts. Findings from our review indicate that whilst individualistic cultures may be associated with higher wellbeing outcomes when compared with collectivistic cultures, such associations tend to disappear when explored at the personal level. Additionally, we find that distinguishing how individualism is measured provides important insight into specific traits associated with individualism that can lead to poorer wellbeing outcomes. Based on the studies reviewed, we propose that whilst the freedom and autonomy embedded within individualistic social orientations can have positive associations, there is an emerging understanding of some of the darker traits that can be associated with these values. These synthesized findings increase our understanding of the connection between individualism, its associated behaviours, and the mental health of young people. Full article

Research on transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth demonstrates the negative outcomes associated with trauma and oppression based on gender identity and expression. Related research illustrates how TGD youth are resilient in the face of oppression through individual (e.g., navigating difficult relationships, seeking mental health support) and community (e.g., access to community resources) factors. However, this research is limited by an understanding of resilience as overcoming challenges rather than exploring the possibly unique ways that TGD youth resist oppression as a form of resilience. This qualitative study utilized in-depth interviews with 19 TGD youth living in two Midwestern states, a region of the U.S. characterized by high levels of hostility and victimization toward TGD young people. Thematic analyses revealed the ways in which TGD youth engage in resistance strategies in the face of oppression. At an intrapersonal level, strategies included resisting oppressive narratives, affirming one’s own gender, maintaining authenticity, and finding hope. At an interpersonal level, strategies were standing up for self and others, educating others, and avoiding hostility. Finally, at a community-level, TGD youth were engaging in activism and organizing and enhancing visibility and representation. Findings are discussed and implications are identified. Full article