Suchergebnisse

This systematic review identified 10 process evaluation studies of positive youth development (PYD) programmes for disadvantaged young people, and aimed to assess the quality of reporting, methods used, and barriers and enablers to delivering programmes as intended. Four databases were searched: Web of Science, Psych INFO, Scopus, and Embase. Results indicated the methods used and quality of the process evaluations were highly varied. Numerous barriers (sessions feeling too much like school, lack of behaviour management skills, lack of funding, and logistical challenges) and enablers (collaboration with the local community, meeting young people's needs, and communication) to delivering programmes as intended were identified. There is a clear need for improvement in design and reporting of process evaluations (e.g., more mixed method design of process evaluations, information on staff training, authors' philosophical standpoint) in studies of PYD programmes for disadvantaged young people alongside a greater awareness of barriers and enablers to programme delivery. Doing so will enable programme outcomes to be appropriately attributed to what is actually delivered and generate more holistic understanding of the extent and reasons that programmes are delivered as intended. This will support more effective programme design, implementation, and sustainability of future PYD programmes for disadvantaged young people.

Outdoors-based youth development programs demonstrate the efficacy to improve indicators of personal growth and mental health in a range of disadvantaged young people. However, the most marginalized young people in society, who stand to benefit the most from such initiatives, remain underrepresented in the research. My Strengths Training for Life (MST4Life) is a positive youth development (PYD) intervention for young people experiencing homelessness that incorporates a life skills program and an outdoor adventure education (OAE) course. The current study presents a qualitative investigation of the OAE course to understand its role in promoting positive changes for participants. Reflexive thematic analysis led to the development of inductively driven themes which were conceptualized based on relevant theories (e.g., relational developmental systems) and models (e.g., 5 Cs of PYD). Findings highlight the benefits of a preceding life skills program to psychologically prepare participants to thrive in the unfamiliar setting of the outdoors and related challenges. During the course, adaptive developmental regulations supported participants' basic psychological needs and fostered personal growth. Improvements in social competence was a common theme across participants and played a pivotal role in facilitating balanced development across the 5 Cs. In addition, experiences during the course promoted indicators of mental health and intentions to make positive lifestyle changes. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to making outdoors-based youth development courses more accessible for marginalized young people, as well as how OAE and PYD programs can add value to the youth homeless sector.

In the United Kingdom, Bangladeshi women have the lowest self-reported levels of physical activity and some of the highest levels of metabolic disease of all ethnic groups. To better understand these risks for poor health we employed life course and intergenerational hypotheses to predict lower body physical function in a sample of 121 Bangladeshi mothers (40–70 years old) and one of their adult daughters (17–36 years old) living in Bangladesh or in the UK. For the mothers, older age and shorter knee height predicted reduced lower body physical function. Knee height is a biomarker of nutrition and health status between birth and puberty. Age at first birth did not have a significant effect. For daughters, older age and migration to the UK predicted reduced lower body physical function. We controlled for total stature and fatness in all analyses. UK-born daughters were taller than BD-born daughters living in the UK, mostly due to differences in knee height. These new findings support previous research indicating that early life health and adequate nutritional status, along with appropriate adult physical activity and diet, may decrease risks for poor physical function, morbidity, and premature mortality.

This volume and its companion, The new dynamics of ageing volume 1, provide comprehensive multi-disciplinary overviews of the very latest research on ageing. Together they report the outcomes of the most concerted investigation ever undertaken into both the influence shaping the changing nature of ageing and its consequences for individuals and society. This book concentrates on four major themes: autonomy and independence in later life, biology and ageing, food and nutrition and representation of old age. Each chapter provides a state of the art topic summary as well as reporting the essential research findings from New Dynamics of Ageing research projects. There is a strong emphasis on the practical implications of ageing and how evidence-based policies, practices and new products can produce individual and societal benefits