Gender differences in teenage alcohol consumption and spatial practices

In recent years teenagers have reported a decline in under-age drinking at the same time as their access to public space has been increasingly curtailed. In this paper we explore the spatial practices and drinking behaviours of a group of teenage girls and boys aged 13–14 years in Liverpool, UK. Our analysis considers how their use of space was bound up with experimentation with alcohol and how this varied by gender. We find in support of previous research that both boys and girls report nuanced experiences of public space, with some enjoying greater freedom while others have moved into more domestic and supervised leisure spaces in response to fears about their safety in public spaces. The boys also reported less alcohol consumption than the girls. These gendered experiences were mediated by social relationships and encounters with other young people, their parents and carers and also other adults in positions of authority

A grammar for non-teleological geographies: Differentiating the divergence of intention and outcomes in the everyday

Teleology shapes the design of much geographical research through the requirement to identify outcomes. In contrast, the theoretical orientation of geographical research on the everyday promotes a relational and visceral approach to resist the teleological logic of the primacy of outcomes. With this paper, we address this tension between different orientations to the practice of geographical research. Drawing on three case studies of empirical research we propose a grammar for non-teleology to capture the divergence of intentions and outcomes. Giving rise to non-teleological narratives, we suggest, signifies a forward orientation for doing geographical research to unpick the messiness of everyday life

Young entrepreneurs and non-teleological temporality in Portugal and the UK

The promotion of young enterprise is central to European Union youth policy, particularly since the financial crisis of 2007/2008. Expectations that young people need to be enterprising and eschew dependency on formal structures of salaried employment are a key narrative in European and national youth policies. These policy initiatives correspond with recent theoretical development of the entrepreneurial self as a managerial version of the governable individual. Endorsements of entrepreneurship implicitly promote a normative expectation that young people’s future orientations need to be innovative, flexible and creative. There is, therefore, an implicit temporality to youth entrepreneurship. This paper’s contribution to scholarship on how young lives are promoted and produced as entrepreneurial selves is to document how young people’s engagement with entrepreneurship fosters orientations to present and future. Conventionally entrepreneurs are assumed to be goal-orientated. In our qualitative study of young entrepreneurs in two European countries (n?=?28), we find that this assumption of goal-orientation needs qualification. Young entrepreneurs in our study engage with the idea that being an entrepreneur is about being creative rather than seeking to maximise financial profit. Their focus on creativity, innovation and problem-solving is realised through a non-teleological commitment to what they are doing in the here and now, rather than calibrating their activities in relation to predetermined goals and worrying about the possibility of future failure

Volunteering, choice and control: a case study of higher education student volunteering

There has been a step change around youth volunteering in the UK in recent years as this once unheralded and taken for granted activity has moved more centre stage, particularly as a key strand of recent Government initiatives directed towards welfare reform, employment and education policies. This article uses the case studies of student volunteering to explore the paradox inherent in articulations of volunteering in policy discourses that emphasise self-responsibility for employability and community cohesion. We review the tensions inherent in escalating the expectation that young people should volunteer through situating volunteering as a conduit of control society, and consider how the promotion of participation destabilises the capacity for sovereign action and choice. Drawing on qualitative research with both HE stakeholders and students, we map out the external policy drivers that universities are reacting to in promoting volunteering, and students' response to these initiatives. Our analysis demonstrates that students resist the expectation that they should volunteer if this is interpreted as devaluing their engagement. Both students and stakeholders recognise that the promotion of volunteering should seek to align institutional practices to promote and support volunteering with young people's own expectations and aspirations

Sexual behaviours and sexual health outcomes among young adults with limiting disabilities: findings from third British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3).

OBJECTIVE: To explore whether the sexual behaviours and sexual health outcomes of young adults with self-reported disabilities that they perceive limit their activities ('limiting disability') differ from those without disability. DESIGN: Complex survey analyses of cross-sectional probability sample survey data collected between September 2010 and August 2012 using computer-assisted personal interviewing and computer-assisted self-interview. SETTING: British general population. PARTICIPANTS: 7435 women and men aged 17-34 years, resident in private households in Britain, interviewed for the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reported sexual behaviour and sexual health outcomes. RESULTS: Approximately 1 in 10 participants reported having a limiting disability. Sexual behaviours were similar between those with limiting disability and those without, with a few exceptions. Women and men with limiting disability were less likely to report having sexual partner(s) (past year, adjusted ORs (AORs) for age and social class: AORs: 0.71, 0.75, respectively). Women with limiting disability were more likely to report having same-sex partner(s) in the past 5 years (AOR: 2.39). Differences were seen in sexual health outcomes, especially among women; those with limiting disability were more likely to report having experienced non-volitional sex (ever, AOR: 3.08), STI diagnoses (ever, AOR: 1.43) and sought help/advice regarding their sex life (past year, AOR: 1.56). Women with limiting disability were also more likely to feel distressed/worried about their sex life than those without limiting disability (AORs: 1.61). None of these associations were seen in men. CONCLUSIONS: Young adults with limiting disability, especially women, are more likely to report adverse sexual health outcomes than those without, despite comparatively few behavioural differences. It is important to ensure that people with disabilities are included in sexual health promotion and service planning, and targeted policy and programme interventions are needed to address negative sexual health outcomes disproportionally experienced by people with disabilities

Lessons learned from 11 countries on programs promoting intergenerational solidarity

Objective: The goal of this project was to develop a systematic framework through which interventions promoting intergenerational solidarity in 11 countries could be assessed. Background: Although intergenerational solidarity—the exchange of material, social, and emotional support and care between family generations—benefits both the country's economic well-being (macro-level) and the individual's physical, mental, and social well-being (micro-level), decreasing intergenerational solidarity is evident in many industrialized countries. Interventions promoting intergenerational solidarity are increasingly being developed, but few are described in the literature. Moreover, no unifying framework describing them exists. Method: Representatives from 11 countries convened to identify interventions promoting intergenerational solidarity. After several meetings, a unifying framework was created. Representatives selected a convenience sample of programs and abstracted information based on the framework. Results: The outcome of social well-being was virtually ubiquitous in most programs. Countries appeared to take a broad view of intergenerational solidarity, focusing on interactions among generations, rather than interactions within families. Discussion and Implications: The framework enabled the systematic abstraction and assessment of programs. Most programs had no standard method of evaluating their outcomes. Longitudinal evaluations would be optimal if we want to identify the best practices in intergenerational solidarity programs

Deprivation, clubs and drugs: results of a UK regional population-based cross-sectional study of weight management strategies

Background Despite rising levels of obesity in England, little is known about slimming club and weight loss drug (medication) use or users. In order to inform future commissioning, we report the prevalence of various weight management strategies and examine the associations between slimming club and medication use and age, gender, deprivation and body mass index. Methods A population based cross-sectional survey of 26,113 adults was conducted in South Yorkshire using a self-completed health questionnaire. Participants were asked whether they had ever used the following interventions to manage their weight: increasing exercise, healthy eating, controlling portion size, slimming club, over the counter weight loss medication, or meal replacements. Factors associated with slimming club and weight-loss medication use were explored using logistic regression. Results Over half of the sample was either overweight (36.6%) or obese (19.6%). Obesity was more common in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived (26.3% vs. 12.0%). Healthy eating (49.0%), controlling portion size (43.4%), and increasing exercise (43.0%) were the most commonly reported weight management strategies. Less common strategies were attending a slimming club (17.2%), meal replacements (3.4%) and weight-loss medication (3.2%). Adjusting for BMI, age, deprivation and long standing health conditions, women were significantly more likely to report ever using a slimming club (adjusted OR = 18.63, 95% CI = 16.52–21.00) and more likely to report ever using over the counter weight-loss medications (AOR = 3.73, 95% CI = 3.10-4.48), while respondents from the most deprived areas were less likely to report using slimming clubs (AOR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.53-0.68), and more likely to reporting using weight loss medications (AOR =1.38, 95% CI = 1.05-1.82). Conclusion A large proportion of individuals report having used weight management strategies. Slimming clubs and over-the-counter weight loss medication account for a smaller proportion of the overall uptake. Those from less deprived areas were more likely to use slimming clubs while those from more deprived areas were more likely to use weight-loss medications. Future NHS and Local Authority commissioning of weight management services must be aware of this varying social gradient in weight management strategies

Imagining Gendered Adulthood

In this article, the authors draw on two qualitative, longitudinal studies of young people’s transitions to adulthood and how they construct these transitions over time in social, cultural and material terms. The authors focus on the hopes, anxieties and imagined futures of young women. They discuss the individualization thesis, and the contradiction for female individualization between expectations of equality and the reality of inequality between the genders. The debate is moved beyond ‘pitiful girls’ and ‘can-do girls’ by exploring how young women in the UK and Finland anticipate and try to avoid being locked into the lives of adult women