LGBTI + national youth strategy. Report of the consultations with young people in Ireland.

The consultations reached a total of n=3,882 young people from across Ireland (n=3,710 young people completed the SpunOut.ie survey and n=172 young people attended one of seven consultation events) representing a cross-section of young people, including those who identified as a member of the LGBTI+ community, and those who did not. More than two-thirds (69%) of the survey respondents identified as LGBTI+, 29% did not, and one in 10 was unsure. Nearly all (93%) of the young people who attended the consultation events identified as LGBTI+. While the young people represented nearly every county in Ireland, most spent much of their time in urban areas. The consultations focused on three questions: 1. What is positive about being a young LGBTI+ person in Ireland today? (Positives) 2. What issues are faced by young LGBTI+ people in Ireland today? (Issues) 3. What changes would improve the lives of young LGBTI+ people? (Changes) Poor health and well-being, particularly mental health and a culture of drug and alcohol misuse culture within the LGBTI+ community, was identified as an issue in both the survey and during the consultation events. Other health issues raised included: The need for improved access to health services for transgender people, including access to counselling, hormones and surgery

Inventing adulthoods: a biographical approach to youth transitions

'Inventing Adulthoods' offers a groundbreaking new perspective on young people's experiences of growing up at the turn of the 21st century, arguing that a biographical approach is vital to understanding the holistic and dynamic character of their lives. Based on a study of a diverse group of young people over a 10 year period, the book explores high profile policy issues - education, employment, drugs, violence and well-being. It also considers the significance of things that mean the most to young people themselves: mobility, home, belonging, intimacy and social life

Inventing adulthoods: a biographical approach to understanding youth citizenship

Traditionally adulthood and citizenship have been synonymous. Yet adulthood is changing. In this paper we explore the ways in which young people’s evolving understandings of adulthood may contribute towards an understanding of citizenship in the context of increasingly extended and fragmented transitions. The paper draws on a unique qualitative longitudinal data set in which 100 young people, from contrasting social backgrounds within the United Kingdom, have been followed over a five year period. We first present the themes that emerged from a cross-cut analysis of the first of three rounds of interviews distinguishing between relational and individualised understandings of adulthood. We then present a model we developed to capture the ways in which young people sought out opportunities for competence and recognition in different fields of their lives. This is followed by a case study that follows a young woman through her three interviews, illustrating the way that these themes can appear in an individual trajectory. We offer this model and case study as a way of exploring a more subjective approach to citizenship in which participation is not deferred to some distant future in which economic independence is achieved, but is understood as existing in the present

Archiving consent form and cover letter

Covering letter and Consent form for Archiving personal data from the Inventing Adulthoods study: Phase 1. Consent for inclusion in the 'mini' archiv