Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Field Notes Of An Rpcv: Reflecting On Development And Adolescence, Marissa Kelly

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

They say the Peace Corps is the toughest job you’ll ever love. In July of 2017, I began my service as a Peace Corps Youth Development Volunteer in Costa Rica. Nearly six years later, as I prepare to graduate with my master’s degree in International Development at Clark University, I reflect upon those Peace Corps years of service and the many lessons learned while living in community, implementing youth projects, and, specifically, working with adolescent girls. My interest in studying international development and, particularly, deepening my knowledge of gender and development is directly connected to the Peace Corps. Therefore, …

Analyzing Youth Engagement And Gender Roles In The Groundnut Value Chain In Uganda Using The Photovoice Research Methodology, Annie Faye Carter

Masters Theses

In regions of East Africa, groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is cultivated as a common cash crop in areas of food insecurity and agricultural-dependent communities. Groundnut, also known as peanut, is a legume with a variety of important uses. This crop is especially popular with small-scale farmers and youth, who seek to harvest a crop which is affordable. As an expected 440 million young people enter the global labor market by 2030, those living in rural areas are at a disadvantage when searching for job opportunities. In Africa, this rural-urban divide has impacted the economic sector and the activities …

From Ideological Resource To Financial Asset: The Evolving Relationship Between Youth And The State In Putin's Russia, Eleanor Schmid

Honors Theses

This thesis identifies four periods of Russian youth policy, and discusses how President Vladimir Putin's approach to youth and youth issues is markedly different than that of previous heads of state, and that it has evolved even within his tenure. My content coding analysis of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs' 2013-2025 Strategy identifies the main values the Russian government seeks to impart upon youth, and my analysis of public opinion surveys of youth provides evidence that there is a connection between the 2013 Strategiia and youth attitudes and values.

What Will You Do Here? Dignified Work And The Politics Of Mobility In Serbia, Dana N. Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations

Serbia is said to have one of the highest rates of brain drain in the world. For the generation glossed as the “children of the 1990s,” stances toward mobility and migration have shifted along with geopolitics. Following nearly two decades of wartime entrapment, in 2009 the conditions of possibility for mobility fundamentally changed for Serbian citizens. Of both symbolic and material consequence, the country’s return to respectable geopolitical standing also marked a shift toward more nuanced stancetaking in relation to mobility and migration. Namely, by the time of my research, the expectations of youth—not only of “normal mobility” but of …

Punks In The Church: The Relationship Between The Punk Subculture And Church In East Germany, Ruth A. Aardsma Benton

Masters Theses

A punk subculture emerged in East Germany during the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was an expression of their disillusionment with life, their frustrations with the government, and their pessimistic view of a future that seemed pre-planned. The subculture refused to conform, disengaged from the established system, and expressed their views through song lyrics and other acts of defiance. In the eyes of the state, punks were a threat. The subculture turned to the East German Protestant churches for shelter. The churches occupied a unique place within East German society because the government had granted the churches limited free …

Media Analysis Of City-Wide Local News Portrayals Of Youth Criminality: Worcester, Massachusetts, Andrea Boffice

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This study consists of a comprehensive media analysis of local news in Worcester, Massachusetts that explores portrayals of youth criminality of an entire city’s local media landscape. It examines how local media portrayal of youth is primarily dominated by coverage of youth crime and youth victimization. As our nation is questioning our trust and reliability in ever-changing news, this study asks whether our local news, with the new platforms that are emerging, have been compromised in providing a fair portrayal of youth. Particularly, whether it fairly portrays Black and Latinx youth in representations of criminality proportional to crime occurring. During …

Engaging In Effective Behavioral Health Treatment Methods: The Importance Of Building Trust And Relationships With High And Proven Risk Men With A History Of Childhood Trauma(S), Tracie Sullivan

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Nearly 60% of youth involved in the juvenile justice system in the United States have a diagnosable mental illness (Buffington, 2010; SAMHSA, 2012). These high and proven risk youth have fallen through the cracks in the behavioral health system, with a lack of prevention, intervention, and effective treatment methods being provided to them prior to incarceration. This paper presents connections between childhood trauma, undiagnosed and untreated mental illnesses, and delinquency in adulthood for high and proven-risk young men. It also investigates barriers to engaging high and proven risk young men in treatment with the concepts of stigma, and hyper-masculinity introduced. …

Youth…Power…Egypt: The Development Of Youth As A Sociopolitical Concept And Force In Egypt, 1805-1923, Matthew Blair Parnell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on youth as a symbol, metaphor, and subject involved in processes related to Egypt’s modernization, colonization, and liberation from the beginning of the nineteenth century through the 1919 Egyptian Revolution. It demonstrates that youth was not simply an unchanging stage of development between childhood and adulthood, but a construct reflecting the political, Social, and cultural interests of specific eras and perspectives. I critically analyze the local and global discourses on Egypt’s modernization, colonialism, and nationalist movement to understand how changing power relations within and outside the country affected conceptions of youth and youthfulness. Additionally, I suggest by …

The Ethics Of Care And Refugee Education: Promoting Caring Envrionments In U.S. Urban Schools To Address The Needs Of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors, Tina Meetran

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The United States has resettled more than 2 million refugees since 1975 and approximately one third of them are children. Some of the children who arrive in the U.S. are unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs), meaning they arrive without a parent nor guardian. The absence of a parent figure heightens the adversities of escape and acculturation for URMs. However, due to the lack of available information on URM experiences, their physical, emotional and psychosocial needs in the U.S. are continually unmet. This paper considers the role that schools and teachers have as agents of care to foster positive growth and acculturation …

Can We Do It? : The Feasibility Of Youth Restorative Justice Implementation In Worcester, April M. Hooper

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This paper addresses the feasibility of implementing a restorative justice process in the juvenile justice system in Worcester, Massachusetts from a community stakeholder perspective. Strengths, barriers, process, and collective will in Worcester were explored. Findings of this research include that while Worcester has many strengths, the barriers and lack of collective will may interfere with any immediate attempts to implement restorative justice processes within the local juvenile justice system. It concludes that while restorative justice approaches may be feasible in the longer term, current implementation is unlikely.

Supporting Mentor Competency At African Community Education, Kelsey Renner

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This practitioner paper focuses on the African Community Education (ACE) Mentoring for Empowerment and Exchange (MEE) in Worcester, Massachusetts and its ability to develop mentor competency in their volunteer mentors. In order to be effective mentors to their mentees, mentors need to be given tools to develop their own personal sense of competency via programmatic support like check-ins and trainings. Using interviews with mentors, literature in the field of mentoring, and program data, recommendations are made for ways ACE MEE program staff can enhance their programmatic structures to promote mentor competency and therefore develop high quality matches that support the …

Culturally Relevant Career Development Programs For Native American Youth, Annie N. Crippen

MA IDS Thesis Projects

Native American society today is plagued by a host of social and economic disparities, largely the result of historical trauma experienced by generations of the Native American population stemming from the European colonization of the Americas. This paper seeks to identify some of the key elements needed to create culturally relevant solutions to career development challenges facing Native youth by understanding the historical legacy of Native American people in the U.S. and how this history has shaped contemporary Native American society. After identifying historical lessons and contemporary challenges, potential culturally relevant solutions to the systemic cycle of poverty, unemployment, and …

Encouraging Latino Students Through Relational Teaching: A Case Study In Lawrence, Massachusetts, Ohilda Difo

MA IDS Thesis Projects

Within the next 10 years, the majority-minority ratio in the United States will shift, and people of color will outnumber white Americans. In 2014, for the first time in history, a majority of students in K-12 were children of color. Although the student demographic of public schools has changed, the demographic of teachers and the style of teaching remain archaic and catered to white students. This qualitative study focuses on the lowest educated population in the U.S. – Latino youth. The project is a case study on a highly concentrated Latino community in the city of Lawrence, Massachusetts, where 71% …

From The Forefront To The Sidelines: Youth In Post-Revolution Egypt, Khadiga Omar

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the reasons for the declining role of youth as effective political players since the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. Particularly looking at the “Revolutionary Youth”, this study investigates why their activism over the course of the past four years could not translate into political power that would lead to the realization of the goals of the revolution. Resource Mobilization Theory, Political Opportunity Structure and Framing constitute a tri-lens through which the political experience of the youth is analyzed in this research. This thesis argues that a) the youth’s organizational dilemma; b) their reliance on protest as the exclusive …

Hip-Hop, Medellín And Social Change, Veronica Henao Posada

Master's Theses

This study explores the ways in which the Hip-hop movement is producing social change in Medellín, Colombia. Looking specifically at a Hip-hop school called Cuatro Elementos Skuela, which exists autonomously and with very little state support in the Medellín neighborhood of Aranjuez, I argue that young people are contributing to the reconstruction of the city’s social, cultural and economic fabric. I start by explaining the historical context of Medellín, describing the different sets of conflicts that unleashed high levels of violence and caused the fragmentation of the social, cultural and economic fabric. Moreover, I review the role of the …

The Role Of Connectedness And Religious Factors On Bullying Participation Among Preadolescents In Puerto Rico, Melissa C. Mercado-Crespo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Relationships or connections with caring pro-social others (e.g., parents, teachers, school, friends, neighborhood, religion) serve as pro-resilience assets that may enhance children's abilities to cope with bullying. The purpose of this research study was to explore the roles of connectedness and religiosity as potential factors that could enhance resiliency against bullying among preadolescents in Puerto Rico (PR). This doctoral dissertation also addressed several gaps in the children's bullying, resilience and religiosity research literature.

A sample of 426 community-based afterschool program preadolescents (ages 10-12 years old) participated in this exploratory, cross-sectional study, by completing a quantitative questionnaire in paper and pencil …

Democratic Orientations Among Adolescents In Aspiring And Established Democracies, Natallia Sianko

All Dissertations

Democratic citizen orientation - support for democratic principles and values - appears an important ingredient in making democracies work. However, there is no agreement as to what attitudes and behaviors make up a democratic citizen orientation. The main goals of this dissertation are to: (1) identify and describe factors that characterize adolescents' democratic orientation, (2) explore cross-cultural variation in democratic orientations among adolescents in established and aspiring democracies, (3) investigate the relationship between adolescents' democratic orientations and historical legacies of their countries, (4) investigate the relationship between adolescents' democratic orientations and the current quality of democratic institutions, and (5) analyze …

Risk And Protective Factors Associated With Academic Achievement Among Ghanaian Youth, Ziblim Abukari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Young people in Ghana who grow up in poverty and to families with little or no education endure limited early learning opportunities, underfunded educational systems, and more health and mental health problems compared to their peers from more privileged backgrounds. A significant body of literature addressing the relationship among risk, protection, resilience and academic achievement is based on youth populations in North America and Western Europe. Relatively little is known about the applicability of ecological and risk and resilience frameworks in non-Western countries. Consequently, educational outcomes of young people in Ghana are often characterized by similarities in low achievement, lack …