Anthony Glendinning

Young People's Leisure and Lifestyles

List of Illustrations. Acknowledgements. Adolescence and adolescent lifestyles. The young peoples leisure and lifestyles project. Young people and leisure. Young people and sport. School and work. Young people and families Young people, peers and friends. Young people and health. Developing lifestyles in adolescence. Some concluding thoughts. Appendix: Panel Study Areas - types of environment. Bibliography. Name Index. Subject Index.

Social class and adolescent smoking behaviour

The paper examines class based differences in smoking behaviour in middle and later adolescence. The analyses are based on questionnaire survey data drawn from a longitudinal study of adolescent socialisation, leisure and lifestyles in Scotland. Perhaps surprisingly, the social class of the family is found to have little relationship to smoking in middle and later adolescence. By contrast, marked variations in smoking are evident with respect to the current socio-economic position occupied by young people themselves in middle and later adolescence. The connections between smoking, social class background, and current social class position are examined through a consideration of inter-generational occupational mobility, and once more a clear pattern of differences is found. Thus, we conclude that there is an emergent pattern of class based differences in adolescent smoking behaviour, as young people make the transition towards adulthood. We consider the possible role that factors from the family, the peer group, and the school contexts may play in the production of these differences in smoking behaviour. We also highlight the importance that our findings may have for the health inequalities debate, and particularly for explanations which link the production of class based differences in health to processes of inter-generational mobility.

Rural communities and well‐being: a good place to grow up?

This study looks at young peoples accounts of life in communities in rural northern Scotland, and considers in what ways affective and social aspects of community are bound up with well-being, over and above young peoples concerns for the future, rural youth transitions, and out-migration. Interviews were held with 15–18 year-olds in four study areas (16 groups, N = 60+) and a parallel survey of 11–16 year-olds was conducted in eight study areas (N = 2400+). Themes to emerge from the interviews included: opportunities locally, the future and staying on, as well as local amenities and services; but older teenagers also spoke at length about their social lives, family and social networks, and their community, both as close-knit and caring and as intrusive and controlling. Rural communities were seen as good places in childhood, but not necessarily for young people. In parallel with that, the survey data paints a picture where feelings of support, control, autonomy, and attachment were all associated with emotional well-being. Importantly, links between emotional well-being and practical, material concerns were outweighed by positive identifications of community as close-knit and caring; and equally, by negative identifications as intrusive and constraining, where the latter was felt more strongly by young women. Certainly, beliefs about future employment and educational opportunities were also linked to well-being, but that was over and above, and independently of, affective and social aspects of community life. Additionally, migration intentions were also bound up with sense of self and well-being, and with feelings about community life; and links between thoughts about leaving and community life as controlling and constraining were, yet again, felt more strongly by young women. Thus, gender was a key dimension affecting young peoples feelings about their communities with significant implications for well-being, and out-migration. The study illustrates the importance of understanding the experiences young people have of growing up in rural areas, and how they evaluate those experiences: particularly, how life in rural communities matters for young peoples well-being; and especially, for young women.

Lifestyle, health and social class in adolescence

The paper considers mechanisms for indirect health selection in adolescence, as part of the explanation for health inequalities between social groups. Aspects of adolescent lifestyles are identified as potentially important factors for the production of class based differences in adult health status. Survey data from a Scottish longitudinal study of adolescent socialization and lifestyles are utilized in order to locate such health lifestyle factors within the wider contexts of the individuals personal and social environment at this stage of the life cycle. Relationships and attitudes to family, school and peers in middle adolescence at 15-16 years of age are first examined, and distinctive patterns of integration within these contexts are identified. The inter-connections between these broader aspects of lifestyle, social class and individual health behaviours are then examined. Mid-adolescent patterns of social integration are found to have a clear structural basis, and most importantly, they anticipate social position in later adolescence at 17-18 years of age. It is also found that such patterns of integration into the family, peer and school contexts are linked to subsequent health related behaviours and to self assessed health in later adolescence, and that these links are independent of the young persons social class background. Thus, we conclude that behavioural--cultural lifestyle factors, when these are located within a broader social context, provide a clear and plausible mechanism for indirect health selection in adolescence.

Adolescence and health inequalities: Extensions to macintyre and west

The paper investigates class based health inequalities in mid to late adolescence. Health status is assessed by means of three subjective self-report measures; evaluation of general health, psychological well-being and disability/long-standing illness. Using six measures of social class (three occupationally and three non-occupationally based) which derive from parental characteristics, no evidence for consistent class based differentials in health amongst adolescents is found. However, it is not concluded that class based health inequalities are absent at this stage of the life cycle. Instead, it is argued that the above measures of social class differentiate between young people on the basis of the socio-economic status of their parents. As such they fail to allow for the possibility that variations in the current social position of young people themselves may have important consequences for their health. Current social position is assessed in terms of economic activity status, occupation and educational attainment. Using these measures, class based health inequalities are indeed found. Extending the analysis further, the relationship between social class of origin, current social circumstances and self-assessed health status is investigated by considering inter-generational occupational mobility. Again, evidence for class based health inequalities is found.

Family life, health and lifestyles in rural areas: the role of self‐esteem

Examines connections between family life, self‐esteem, health and lifestyles in a sample of around 1,700 young people aged 14 to 16 years old in eight rural locations in northern Scotland. Young people’s accounts of family life were characterised in terms of quality of relationships, support, family‐centredness, control and conflict. A minority of rural youth were highly negative about home life, and one in six reported low self‐esteem and poor mental health. Certain characteristics contained in young people’s accounts of family life were found to be associated with feelings of self‐esteem, subjective wellbeing and health behaviours. Additionally, self‐esteem was associated with self‐assessments of health, but not directly with health‐relevant behaviour, contrary to a prevalent assumption in health education. More detailed analysis shows that links between perceived family life and self‐esteem and health behaviour are felt quite separately from each other. However, the impact that young persons’ feelings about their home life have on self‐esteem does help to explain links between family practices and health, particularly mental health, in youth.

The Issue of ‘Land-lost’ Farmers in the People’s Republic of China: reasons for discontent, actions and claims to legitimacy

ABSTRACT Based on an empirical fieldwork study in a central-south municipal city in China, this article discusses the contestation between land-lost farmers and local government in the process of urbanization and land expropriation, focusing on the land-lost farmers’ responses to this process. After a discussion of land-lost farmers’ reasons for discontent and their actions, it is argued that such a contestation is an interaction where land-lost farmers tend to lay claim to their legitimate morality while local government lays claim to its legitimate authority, through the institutional approach of an appeal system provided by the state. The truth is that not only do both sides of the contestation have to rely on the power conferred by the central state, but also they constitute an interdependent local network.

The Effects of Early Years’ Childcare on Child Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties in Lone and Co-Parent Family Situations

With targeted childcare initiatives and welfare-to-work programmes policy-makers have sought to address employment activation of lone mothers and negative outcomes for children in lone parent households. The present study examines non-parental childcare use and maternal employment among children living in lone and co-parent family situations at ages three and four and emotional and behavioural difficulties at ages four and five. The results demonstrate that negative outcomes associated with lone motherhood are explained largely by mothers age, education, material circumstances and area deprivation; and that maternal employment does not relieve lone mothers’ disadvantages in a way that alleviates the risks of difficulties to their children. However, in any family constellation, mainly group-based formal pre-school childcare does have a positive impact on child difficulties compared to drawing on informal childcare arrangements as main provider. In addition, and specifically for the difficulties of children in lone mother family situations, any non-parental childcare – formal or informal − for at least twenty-five hours per week is beneficial. Study findings support policy agendas which tackle families’ material hardship beyond promoting mothers’ employment, and through investment in formal childcare provision, and also through arrangements allowing lone mothers to divide their weekly load of childcare with another main provider.