Ja Abbott-Chapman

Intergenerational educational mobility is associated with cardiovascular disease risk behaviours in a cohort of young Australian adults: The Childhood Determinants of Adult Health (CDAH) Study

BackgroundAlthough educational disparity has been linked to single risk behaviours, it has not previously been studied as a predictor of overall lifestyle. We examined if current education, parental education or educational mobility between generations was associated with healthy lifestyles in young Australian adults.MethodsIn 2004-06, participant and parental education (high [bachelor degree or higher], intermediate [vocational training], low [secondary school only]) were assessed. Educational mobility was defined as: stable high (participant and parent in high group), stable intermediate (participant and parent in intermediate group), stable low (participant and parent in low group), downwardly (lower group than parent) and upwardly (higher group than parent) mobile. We derived a lifestyle score from 10 healthy behaviours (BMI, non-smoking, alcohol consumption, leisure time physical activity and six components of diet). Scores >4 indicated a high healthy lifestyle score. We estimated the likelihood of having a high healthy lifestyle score by education (participant and parent) and educational mobility.ResultsComplete data were available for 1973 participants (53% female, age range 26 to 36 years). Those with lower education were less likely to have healthy lifestyles. Parental education was not associated with having a high healthy lifestyle score after adjustment for participants education. Those who moved upward or downward were as likely to have a high healthy lifestyle score as those in the group they attained.ConclusionsWe found clear disparities in health behaviour by participant education and intergenerational educational mobility. People attaining a higher level of education than their parents appeared protected from developing an unhealthy lifestyle suggesting that population-wide improvements in education may be important for health.

Rural young people’s work/study priorities and aspirations: The influence of family social capital

The transition from school to secure work has become more difficult as young people bear the brunt of the restructuring of the Australian labour market. Young people raised in a rural community are over-represented in the most disadvantaged labour market group- those who have not participated in post-school training and who have experienced long periods of unemployment. Rural labour markets feature lower paid, less secure jobs than their urban counterparts. Education is a proven way of accessing the ‘better’ jobs offered by national labour markets. Why then do young people from disadvantaged rural areas not take up education and training opportunities to the same extent as their urban counterparts? The research discussed in this paper investigated ways in which family and school/community social capital influence young people’s work/study values and priorities with regard to post-school pathways. Family networks and information that are limited and concentrated in rural areas tend to be associated with a desire to find a job before completing school, preferably located near to home. Incomplete understanding and lack of trust of educational institutions and labour markets in urban centres based on local experience may be transmitted through advice of family and friends and influence young people toward current work rather than the longer term goal of post-compulsory education. The implications for regional and national programs of educational and community development are discussed.

Moving from technical and further education to university: an Australian study of mature students

Longitudinal research, conducted between 1999 and 2002, tracked the academic progress of a small sample of mature students entering the University of Tasmania, Australia, from a disadvantaged region of Tasmania to pursue degrees in accounting and education. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to examine the impact of alternative selection methods, attendance at the Unistart induction program and continuing study support, on students’ academic progress and satisfaction with university. The progress of mature technical and further education (TAFE)‐background students compared with those who held school‐leaver qualifications is the particular focus of this paper. Findings reveal that TAFE‐background students overall perform academically on a par with other members of the cohort, but that they experience more study problems and less satisfaction during the first year. Induction programs and study support assist the first‐year transition and are associated with later academic success. Implications for wider policy are discussed.

Youth, leisure and home: space, place and identity.

Abstract This qualitative and quantitative research investigates the leisure activities of 265 young adolescents in Tasmania, Australia, in relation to their social constructs of home and neighbourhood as private and public spaces, and in the practical contexts of their day to day lives. As these young people search for meaning and identity in a fast changing world dominated by economic and technological globalisation, the symbolic materials available to them both socially and spatially are examined using innovative research methods which involve visual as well as verbal triggers. Findings show that their chosen activities, while reflecting global trends in the use of information and communication technology, focus mainly on friendship network building in the immediate locale and take place predominantly in home and neighbourhood. Favourite places for leisure pursuits also emphasise the importance and idealisation of the ‘traditional’ home and of the natural environment in the search for private places in which to withdraw and reflect. Findings also suggest that the adolescents seek private spaces for safe seclusion or group activities with close friends as part of the process of construction of self as a reflexive and symbolic project. The inherently ‘conservative’ and highly gendered responses of the sample are discussed in the context of current sociocultural theories linking space, place and identity.

Adolescents’ Favourite Places: Redefining the Boundaries between Private and Public Space

This article examines favourite places of samples of adolescents living in the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Results from four separate but related studies are presented which relate the discursive geographies of youth to their leisure pursuits.Young people’s reasons for choosing places which make them feel good, and the sorts of leisure activities which they enjoy there, are examined in relation to theories of space as a cultural construct and international studies of place attachment and place experience. The analysis combines ethnographic and quantitative methods to explore the meanings of private and public space for youth. Goffman’s concepts of frontstage and backstage regions are used to explain the relationship between adolescents’ use of inside and outside space. Findings suggest that adolescent preferences for home, own bedroom, and places in the natural environment express ways of redefining the boundaries of private space as the practical embodiment of intergenerational power relationships.

Improving Post-School Outcomes for Rural School Leavers

A study of Year 10 leavers from rural high schools in Tasmania has found that school pressures to remain in Years 11 and 12 have not necessarily solved the post-school career dilemmas of rural youth. Indeed, despite growing numbers of VET options in schools, these are not being taken up significantly by younger students despite student and family aspirations for a ‘steady job” and job related training, within an increasingly depressed and casualised regional labour market. Implications of family support and community “social capital” in negotiating a way through the trials and errors of the work/study mosaic are discussed in relation to national policy frameworks.

Older people’s perceived health and wellbeing: The contribution of peer-run community-based organisations

Abstract Qualitative research discussed shows that older people’s peer-run community organisations can play an important role in promoting social engagement, which assists members to cope with the transitions and losses common to growing old. Findings revealed that perceptions of health and wellbeing appeared to be unrelated to living with various medical conditions. The study explored members’ reasons for joining, their experiences in the organisation and whether what they experienced met their expectations. Companionship, mutual support, a choice of enjoyable activities, and the opportunity to contribute life-time knowledge and skills to the running of the group helped to foster feelings of wellbeing, resilience and coping. At a time when neo-liberal discourses in health policy are shifting the responsibility for ‘positive ageing’ on to the consumer/citizen, community-based organisations, particularly those run by older people for their peers, may have an important role to play in promoting community health, and deserve greater government support.

Combining measures of risk perceptions and risk activities: The development of the RAPRA and PRISC indices

The influence of risk perceptions on risk activities of teenagers is well known, but the development of indices, which combine measures of perception as well as behavioral outcomes, has proved problematical. This article discusses the ways in which this methodological problem was tackled within a five-year, multiphase, multimethod study of factors affecting adolescent risk-taking in Tasmania, Australia, which included an intergenerational comparison of adolescents and parents. The development of the Risk Activity by Personal Risk Assessment (RAPRA) Index combines measures of perceived riskiness of 26 activities identified by young people as involving varying degrees of risk, with the degree of participation by each respondent, through a rectangular model of weights. The Personal Risk Score Category (PRISC) Index summarizes and categorizes an individuals risk-taking profile relative to the groups risk values and risk hierarchy established by the RAPRA Index. The article discusses ways in which technical problems involved in combining measures of risk perceptions and risk activities were addressed during index construction, compared with examples in the literature. Some key findings from analysis of two student and parent samples are presented as exemplars of the methods used and the results produced. Findings demonstrate the widespread nature of risk-taking among teenagers, and the similarity of levels of risk-taking between teenager and parental generations. The indices allow for detailed comparison of particular risk-taking activities and reveal differences among teenagers now compared with parents when they were teenagers, and illustrate the dynamic cultural context of risk-taking perceptions and values.

Rural belonging, place attachment and youth educational mobility: Rural parents' views

Abstract Strong feelings of place attachment were revealed by mixed methods research conducted among parents living in rural and remote areas of Tasmania. The main aim of the small-scale study was to investigate the relationship between rural parents’ place attachment and sense of belonging and their reactions to their children’s need to move out of the area for education at the post-compulsory level. In their analysis of ‘belonging,’ as an expression of the bonds between the individual and community, the authors draw upon Durkheim’s concepts of ‘mechanical’ and ‘organic’ solidarity and Bourdieu’s concept of ‘social capital.’ The meaning of belonging, its emotional, social and functional dimensions, and its contribution to resilience in times of economic hardship and environmental disaster were explored through parents’ views on the benefits and disadvantages of rural living, especially for young people. The strength of belonging was found not to be associated with parents’ reactions to their children having to move away from the local area for education and/or employment, even amongst the longest settled families. Instead, youth mobility was seen as an accepted, and sometimes welcomed, cultural norm in pursuit of education and employment opportunities only available in towns, despite the loss to rural families and communities that youth out-migration represents. The engagement in ‘self-reliance’ discourses that prioritise education as preparation of rural young people for the hybridities of place identities in a globalising world overrode differences in parental education levels, geographical and historical context and types of livelihood, and challenged some negative rural stereotypes.

Is the debate on quantitative versus qualitative research really necessary

Recent writings suggest that educators have become locked in contentious arguments about types of research and about research methods when they might more productively concentrate upon the development of research confidence and a research culture in education. From this the rigorous and appropriate application of differing methodologies to achievement of research and policy goals and intentions will naturally follow. We need to look more closely at why the debate on qualitative versus quantitative research is seen to be meaningful, let alone necessary, and this takes us into the realms of wider social and political values and understandings. The article argues that the debate about methodologies reflects a confusion about intentions and purposes in educational research, especially with regard to policy needs and applications, and that what is needed now is a complete ‘upfront’ review of research goals and values in education, and in relation to other subject disciplines.