Adolescent development research and theory have tremendous potential to inform the work of high school teachers, counselors, and administrators. Understanding Youth bridges the gap between adolescent development theory and practice. Nakkula and Toshalis explore how factors such as social class, peer and adult relationships, gender norms, and the media help to shape adolescents’ sense of themselves and their future expectations and aspirations.

Presents a comprehensive guide for parents, teachers, and youth workers to help them understand and address the issues that influence the behaviors, values, and attitudes of young people in their care.

Understanding Youth: Perspectives, Identities and Practices addresses the changing context and nature of youth, encouraging readers to understand different conceptualizations of youth, issues of identity and the key social practices that give shape to young people's lives in the contemporary period.

BETTER INFORMED, BETTER EQUIPPED TO MINISTER to today’s blurred youth culture Mobile. Connected. Wired in. This is a generation that skips over perceived cultural boundaries and resists definition. They are a mash-up of identity, a blur of old categories and classes. Creators and consumers of a rapidly changing culture. But how does one reach a demographic that is so difficult to pin down? Many of the most popular approaches to youth ministry today begin by portraying youth as collections of fixed snapshots, “profiles” based on sociological research studies. Yet according to Dr. Jeff Keuss, today’s teens cannot be adequately characterized by these simplistic and static descriptions. Keuss argues that what is needed, instead, is a qualitative approach to describing young people, one that recognizes the “blurred” nature of today’s mobile youth culture. Jeff Keuss presents an optimistic new way of thinking about youth, one that sees them more holistically and less clinically. As we learn to see youth culture through this new lens, we will become better informed and better equipped to minister to the teens of today’s rapidly changing world.

This book aims to provide an understanding of youth offending and policy and practice responses, particularly the risk-focused approaches that have underpinned much recent academic research, youth justice policy and interventions designed to reduce and prevent problem behaviour. There has been growing concern, however, on the part of critical criminologists and others, about the theoretical, epistemological, methodological and ethical bases of risk-focused research with young people. They have pointed particularly to the overly-deterministic and prescriptive nature of the risk factor paradigm. This book aims to meet the need for an exploration of youth justice and youth offending which takes account of the origins and contemporary manifestations of risk-focused work with young people. It analyses the influence of concepts of risk upon policy development in both England and Wales as well as internationally, highlighting tensions between the proponents of risk factor research and methodological and ethical criticisms of the risk factor paradigm. It will be essential reading for anybody wishing to understand risk factor explanation of crime, contemporary youth justice policy and responses to offending behaviour.

How do adults understand youth? How do their conceptions inform interventions into young lives or involve young people’s experiences? This volume tackles these questions by exploring adults’ ideas about youth. Specifically, Youth, Technology, Governance, Experience examines the four titular concepts and their implications for a range of relationships between youth and adults. Utilising interdisciplinary methods, the contributing authors deliver a broad range of analyses of young people differentiated by gender, class, race, and geography across an array of contexts, including within the home, in media representations, through government bureaucracies, and in everyday life. Youth, Technology, Governance, Experience also interrogates the meaning of technology and governance for youth studies, considering a range of ways they interact, including through social media, technologies of regulation, and educational tools. It will appeal to students and academic researchers interested in fields such as youth studies, cultural studies, sociology, and education.

Today’s youth struggle with difficult questions of sexual identity. How can a youth worker offer wise care and counsel on such a controversial and confusing subject? Mark Yarhouse, Director of the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity, writes to equip youth ministers so they can faithfully navigate the topic of sexual identity in a way that is honest, compassionate, and accessible. Reframing the focus away from the culture wars, Yarhouse introduces readers to the conversation beginning with the developmental considerations in the formation of sexual identity—all of which occurs in the teen years. He offers practical and helpful ways to think about people who experience same-sex attraction. Sections of the book are also dedicated to helping parents respond to their children and teens who struggle with questions of sexual idenity, as well as how youth ministry can become more relevant in the lives of youth who are navigating these issues.

This edited volume presents findings from a major cross-European research project mapping the civic and political engagement of young Europeans in the context of both shared and diverse political heritages. Drawing on new survey, interview and ethnographic data, the authors discuss substantive issues relating to young people’s attitudes and activism including: attitudes to the European Union and to history; understanding of political ideologies; how attitudes to democracy are shaped by political heritage; activism in radical right wing groups and religion-based organisations; and digital activism. These contributions make the book’s case that transnational and multi-method projects can enrich our understanding of how young people envisage their place and role in Europe’s political and civic space. The book challenges methodological assumptions that survey research shows the big picture but at the cost of local nuance or that qualitative research cannot speak beyond the individual case, and demonstrates the added explanatory value of triangulating different kinds of data. Understanding Youth Participation Across Europe will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including Sociology, Political Sociology, Youth Studies and Political and Civic Participation.

Research and theory in the field of adolescent development have tremendous potential to inform the work of high school teachers, counselors, and administrators. Understanding Youth bridges the gap between adolescent development theory and practice. Nakkula and Toshalis explore how factors such as social class, peer and adult relationships, gender norms, and the media help to shape adolescents' sense of themselves and their future expectations and aspirations. "Understanding Youth really does understand youth! It is essential reading, especially for those who work with adolescents in challenging circumstances." -- Nancy Hoffman, Director, Early College High School, Initiative, Jobs for the Future "An excellent resource for educators, parents, and any adult who seeks to understand adolescents and the turbulence and confusion that often affects young people during this period of their lives. A poignant, insightful, and practical analysis." -- Pedro Noguera, Professor, New York University "As a new teacher, I especially appreciate the clarity with which the authors outline the research [on adolescent development] and its implications for my teaching." -- Manuel Rustin, Social Science Teacher, John F. Kennedy High School, Sacramento, CA "Nakkula and Toshalis's compelling analysis highlights the reciprocally transformative nature of relationships between adolescents and adults. Understanding Youth paints a fresh and nuanced picture of what's going on in the lives of adolescents and how educators can promote their healthy development." -- Janice Victoria Ward, Associate Professor, Simmons College, and Author, The Skin We're In: Teaching our Children to Be Emotionally Strong, Socially Smart, and Spiritually Connected "After almost twenty years in the counseling field, Understanding Youth challenged me to think anew." -- Maureen McColdrick, Student Support Coordinator, Edwards Middle School, Boston "Nakkula and Toshalis organize what we have learned about the development of young people--some of whom are presented in a series of individual portraits--and chart ways that we can best serve them." -- Theodore R. Sizer, Founder, Coalition of Essential Schools Michael J. Nakkula is a research associate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he has taught courses on counseling, urban education, and adolescent development over the past fourteen years. Eric Toshalis is an instructor in education and an advanced doctoral candidate in Learning and Teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Education