Framing the Future for Children and Youth in the Risk Society

• NCJ Number: 220140
• Journal: Child and Youth Services Volume: 29 Issue: 1/2 Dated: 2007 Pages: 249-268
• Author(s): Niall McElwee
• Date Published: 2007
• Length: 20 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Special issue on At-Risk Children and Youth: Resiliency Explored, for related articles see NCJ-220132-139 and NCJ-220141.

Annotation

This article sets out to explore the findings from the study on risk and at-risk and resiliency in youth by relating the interview content to the sociological risk literature.

Abstract

A strengths-based approach to research and policy is based on the recognition that there is substantial variation in the adjustment of individuals, families, and communities experiencing adverse circumstances. Four themes have emerged in the study of risk and coping over the past decade: interrelatedness of risk and problems, individual variability in resilience and susceptibility to stress, processes and mechanisms linking multiple stressors to multiple outcomes, and interventions and prevention. All of these have been a part of the study. It is clear from the analysis that the research participants feel keenly that their backgrounds militate against them in a number of spheres of their lives. The interviewees realize that they are simply not in a position to avail themselves of the educational opportunities many of their middle-class peers take for granted and feel alienated from the system which favors those youth with the right address, the right accent, two parents, a history of employment, and good standing in the community. On the other hand, the interviewees had a very strong sense of loyalty to the school and realized that the teachers, support staff, and Director daily attempted to reduce risks and promote resiliency in their lives. The staff at the project accepts and embraces the social and cultural backgrounds of the pupils and this is uniformly recognized by the youth. In this regard, the project may be said to be resiliency focused. The children and young people examined in this study have been termed high-risk in government literature and may be said to invoke symbolic meanings of otherness. It has been suggested that this high-risk tag frequently denotes moral failure, weakness, and a lack of control over the self that detracts from a resiliency approach to understanding risk behavior. Notes, references