All posts tagged: Youth

Parenthood goals in youth linked to later life happiness

Parenthood goals in youth linked to later life happiness

For many, parenthood is considered a key component of a fulfilling life. However, with an increasing number of adults remaining childfree, concerns have emerged regarding their long-term well-being. Laura Buchinger and colleagues investigated how life goals in early adulthood predict midlife well-being among those who become parents and those who do not. This research was published in Psychology & Aging. Life goals play a crucial role in shaping individuals’ emotions, thoughts, and behaviors across the lifespan. According to lifespan development theories, people adjust their aspirations based on societal expectations and personal circumstances. Prior research suggests that failing to achieve significant life goals, such as parenthood, can negatively affect well-being. This study sought to determine whether prioritizing the goal of having children in one’s 20s is associated with different well-being trajectories in midlife, particularly for those who never become parents. Buchinger and colleagues utilized data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), a large, nationally representative dataset that tracks individuals over time. The study followed 562 participants from their early adulthood (ages 18 to 30) into midlife …

Thank god TikTok is banning beauty filters for teens – they ruined my youth

Thank god TikTok is banning beauty filters for teens – they ruined my youth

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Aged 13, I became obsessed with taking selfies. I would pout and post and watch the likes roll in. Rinse and repeat. Except what I was capturing on my phone’s camera wasn’t actually me – it was a beautified version of my face that wasn’t real. The person on my screen bore a resemblance to me, but everything was polished to perfection. She had a narrower face, a smaller nose, smoother skin, plump lips and enlarged Pixar princess-style eyes. I was enamoured with the results. Every picture I posted would be that unattainable version of my face. I had become hooked on using beauty filters: an AI-powered digital tool that can enhance a person’s appearance in real time. Apply one of these filters and …

Diocese of Portsmouth advertises for youth worker to ‘launch new worshipping community’ in non-religious secondary school

Diocese of Portsmouth advertises for youth worker to ‘launch new worshipping community’ in non-religious secondary school

The Church of England has announced a scheme to try and recruit new children into the religion at a non-religious school in Havant, near Chichester. The Anglican Diocese of Portsmouth is advertising for a ‘Pioneer Youth Worker’ to work at Park Community School, a school of no-religious character in Havant. Humanists UK, which campaigns for an end to faith-based discrimination in the school system, has criticised the plans as an attempt to use the school environment to evangelise young people. The ‘Pioneer Youth Worker’ will, according to the job advert, seek to ‘establish a new worshipping community with discipleship opportunities for adults and children’ within the school. Within the first year the post holder is expected to ‘launch a new worshipping community’, ‘provide a faith element to the summer holiday scheme’, and establish an ‘in-school prayer space’.  In recent years, the Church of England has been increasingly explicit about its intent to recruit children from non-religious families as worshipping Anglicans. The new job is linked to the Diocese’s Vision and Strategy which seeks to to …

Youth club closures affected GCSE results, warns IfS report

Youth club closures affected GCSE results, warns IfS report

Youth club closures in the 2010s resulted in lower GCSE results and increased offending among young people, a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests. The report estimated that for every £1 saved from closing youth clubs, “there are societal costs of nearly £3”. The austerity programme enacted by the coalition government in 2010 resulted in huge cuts to council budgets, which resulted in swathes of youth club closures. Research earlier this year by Unison found 1,243 council-run youth centres closed between 2010 and 2023. The new Labour government has pledged to spend £95 million on a new network of “youth future” hubs, in which schools are expected to play a pivotal role. Closures affected GCSE grades The IfS compared exam results and offending rates among teenagers living in areas where all youth clubs within a 40-minute walk closed with those teenagers whose nearest youth club stayed open. It found teenagers whose nearest youth club closed did worse in school. The impact was “roughly equivalent to a decline of half a grade in one …

Silent wounds of a generation: The toll of gun violence on youth mental health and a call for change

Silent wounds of a generation: The toll of gun violence on youth mental health and a call for change

After every school shooting, a painful and familiar cycle repeats itself. Just last month, it was Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. The month before, Irondequoit, New York. In the aftermath, students and staff go back to school and try to reestablish some semblance of normalcy — attending classes, focusing on their studies, and hanging out with their friends. But beneath the surface, the reality is that life will never be “normal” again. Grief, survivor’s guilt, PTSD, anxiety and depression will follow them from their classrooms to their homes and everywhere in between. Gun violence significantly affects the mental health of survivors, while also affecting the nation as a whole. We grieve with the devastated neighbors and people of our community whenever we learn of another gun-related tragedy, but too often, we fail to acknowledge the trauma that comes with it. In ways we do not yet fully comprehend, this public health crisis is affecting a whole generation of students who are growing up in the wake of lockdown drills and school shootings. Since Columbine, over 383,000 students have experienced …

Cabinet Minister Warns Of “Lifelong Cost” To Taxpayers If Youth Employment Isn’t Addressed

Cabinet Minister Warns Of “Lifelong Cost” To Taxpayers If Youth Employment Isn’t Addressed

(Alamy) 3 min read26 September A cabinet minister has said failing to get young people into work could result in a “lifelong cost” for “them and for the taxpayer”, as the Government announced its plans for a new youth guarantee. Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, spoke to PoliticsHome on a visit to Anfield prior to her speech at Labour Party conference.  On Wednesday she was part of an event for young people in Liverpool’s stadum, where she gave more details about how the Government will implement its youth guarantee alongside business and charities to improve youth employment and education. Government data has found that more than one in eight young people are not in education, employment or training. Statistics from the House of Commons found the unemployment rate for those between 16-24 years old rose from 13 per cent in 2023 to 14.2 per cent in 2024. In an interview with PoliticsHome, Kendall warned of the cost to the British state and taxpayer if the government could not improve youth employment, …

The Zimbabwean musician bringing the marimba and mbira to township youth | Music

The Zimbabwean musician bringing the marimba and mbira to township youth | Music

Harare, Zimbabwe – Dzivarasekwa, a nondescript township on the southwestern rims of Zimbabwe’s capital, copies the 1907 template of the first ghetto, Harari (now Mbare): grim, monotonous, matchbox houses laid out on grids. Driving on its streets, one often sees skeletal silhouettes of young men – sometimes women – in a drug-induced haze who look at you with a tortured grin as they trudge along in a slow, vaguely meditative gait as if their next step is the last. Sometimes it is. Their circumstances are the result of the drug plague that has haunted Harare for more than a decade. Easily available on the township’s streets are cheap moonshine and the dregs of narcotics that find their way into Zimbabwe. Even diazepam, known in local slang as Blue, a drug prescribed for anxiety and seizures, is consumed. Yet it is also in Dzivarasekwa where one finds the Tsoro Arts and Social Centre, an initiative run by the Zimbabwean musician Jacob Mafuleni, 46, from the front yard of his house. Jacob Mafuleni plays a mbira [Percy …

teachers are on the front line against youth violence

teachers are on the front line against youth violence

Gang violence and knife crime threaten the lives and future of young people. Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that in London, knife crime increased by 22% in the year up to September 2023. County line gangs have capitalised on reductions in youth services, such as cuts to funding for after school clubs, to recruit an increasing number of vulnerable young people to traffic drugs from cities into smaller towns and rural areas. Knife carrying is seen as a required form of protection against rival gangs. In 2015, the British school inspectorate Ofsted published guidance for schools, making clear they have a role to play in addressing gang violence. Secondary schools have “a duty and a responsibility to protect their pupils”. My recent research in an east London secondary school gives insight into the challenges that teachers are facing in addressing gang violence. I worked with six teachers, holding individual interviews and a focus group discussion to discuss their experiences of dealing with gang membership. All of the teachers’ names have been anonymised. …

Youth transgender care policies should be driven by science

Youth transgender care policies should be driven by science

In the U.S., 23 states have passed legislation to ban medicalized care for minors with gender dysphoria, or the experience of distress that can occur when a person’s gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. On the other hand, 12 state legislatures have introduced laws to protect access to youth transgender care. Such care can include puberty blockers, which are medications that suppress the body’s production of sex hormones, and cross-sex hormones like testosterone or estrogen that alter secondary sex characteristics. It also may include sexual reassignment surgery in rare instances. U.S. policies on both ends of the spectrum are not science-driven but rather emanate from polar-opposite ideologies. Unlike in Europe, there doesn’t appear to be room for a non-ideological process for determining what the best care is that weighs the emerging clinical evidence and adjusts policies accordingly. As reported in Axios, state efforts to restrict various forms of transgender medicine are being fueled by religious groups that aim to shape policy based on their strongly held beliefs around the …

Rising knife crime in London is linked to austerity cuts to youth services – here’s the evidence

Rising knife crime in London is linked to austerity cuts to youth services – here’s the evidence

New data released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows knife and gun crime in London rose sharply in the 12 months before December 2023. The Metropolitan Police Service saw a 21% increase in knife or sharp instrument incidents across the capital between 2022 and 2023. Between January 2023 and January 2024, the rate of increase stood at 16%. In January 2024, these alarming figures prompted actor Idris Elba to launch the Don’t Stop Your Future campaign. The aim was to raise public awareness and amplify the voices of those marginalised communities most affected in the capital. Elba called for a ban on zombie knives and machetes and, crucially, for better funding for youth services. Across England and Wales, knife crime and violence has worsened over the past decade. The ONS has shown that the number of violent and sexual offences involving knives and sharp instruments (as recorded by police forces, excluding Greater Manchester Police) rose from 642 (in the 12 months between April 2010 and March 2011) to 891 (in the 12 months …