Extant research on nonprofit marketing and specifically donor behaviour have been quantitative and focused on profiling donors or examining motivations for giving. Prior research in these areas has also focused on adult populations, neglecting children and young people in general and those under 16 in particular. This dearth of research on children and young people in the nonprofit sector is even more surprising in light of the wealth of research on this group in the commercial domain. Furthermore, current understandings of the socialisation of children into donors are largely fragmented. It is important to give children and young people a voice in the literature, and one which reflects their contribution to society. There is also a need to examine how children and young people learn about charities and how they currently behave as donors. This interpretive study sought to explore how children and young people understand, donate and relate to charities. It aimed to provide a thick description of children and young people’s donor behaviour and their socialisation as donors, and to understand their charity consumption experiences through their eyes. Research was guided by child-centred, participatory research principles, with the multi-method research design involving thirty-three individual/paired interviews and focus groups with 91 children and young people and three surveys completed by a total of 606 9-24 year-olds in Scotland. The main findings are that children and young people engage in a variety of charitable activities and have a generally positive image of charities. Their knowledge, awareness and understanding in relation to charities become increasingly complex as they age, reflecting their cognitive and emotional development and greater life experience. Their donor behaviour also changes with age, and this is related to a range of personal and social influences, including the charity consumption arenas in which giving takes place. The process of donor socialisation extends into young adulthood, offering evidence of lifelong socialisation processes in the nonprofit context. The thesis concludes by considering the implications of the study for charity marketers, educators and public policy makers, and by outlining several fruitful avenues of future research.

This research explores experiences and perceptions of mothers of adolescents and young adults (13-22yrs) with Additional Support Needs (ASN) in relation to stress, service provision and family and individual Quality of Life (QoL). A particular focus is the effect of having a family member with ASN who also has a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or where the young person with ASN may have an ASD which has not been diagnosed. Mothers of young people from 4 groups were recruited: i) those with ASN and no ASD (n=41), ii) those with ASN and a diagnosis of ASD (n=18), iii) those with ASN, no diagnosis of ASD but with a positive score on an ASD screening measure (n=17) and iv) typically developing controls (n=17). The mothers of young people with ASN (n=76) completed standardised questionnaires about family and individual QoL, stress, service provision, child behaviour and presence and severity of ASD traits. Twenty two of these mothers also took part in a semi-structured interview about coping with issues identified as most stressful by them in the stress questionnaire. The mothers of typically developing young people (n=17) completed standardised questionnaires on individual and family quality of life and on the behaviour of their similarly aged son or daughter. Data collected via these questionnaires showed that increased severity of ASD was associated with increased maternal stress, which in turn was associated with decreased family and maternal QoL. Mothers of typically developing young people had significantly higher individual and family QoL scores than each of the three other groups. The findings from the interviews supported the questionnaire results and gave further insight into mothers’ life experiences. Mothers identified many perceived barriers to their child’s progress including: lack of support and lack of co-ordinated service provision. The results suggest that mothers of young people with ASN experience lower individual and family quality of life than mothers of typically developing young people. Parenting an adolescent or young adult with ASN is perceived as stressful and that the presence of behaviour associated with ASD is additionally stressful. Possible reasons for differences in quality of life outcomes amongst the study groups are discussed. Implications for adequate services and recommendations for future research are suggested.

The processes of educational decision making and formations of identity lie at the heart of the present thesis that explores the narratives of twenty-three young people with migrant and nonmigrant background. The thesis analyzes the cases of eleven Greek and twelve migrant participants, of Albanian, Georgian, Armenian and Palestinian ethnicities attending two upper secondary Lyceums in Greece, one sub-urban Vocational and one inner-city Comprehensive located in the city of Thessaloniki. The narratives of young people are analyzed as performative acts and as social practices constructed locally and intersubjectively, rather than as expressions of their essentialist realities. The narrative analysis aims more specifically at demonstrating empirically the social conditionings of school choice and the intricate ways that decision-making is cross-cut by and implicated in the processes of identity formation and negotiation. The educational choices these young people are called to make are situated within the broader socioeconomic and discursive milieu and within the structural arrangements of the post-16 institutional landscape of Greece. The issue of youth agency as grappling against the structural limitations of a given milieu, with its cultural particularities is at the backdrop of the present qualitative study. Young people’s identities are conceptualized as being produced, negotiated and contested in a shifting context through the interactions with significant others, namely their peers, teachers and families and through the interplay of identifications, social positions, capitals, transforming individual habituses and the institutional contexts of the two schools. In more detail, the subjectively felt classed, ethnic and gendered positions are analyzed as perceived, invested and discoursively performed by the young participants. Central role is attributed to the notion of habitus as embodying the complex interweaving of dispositions, discourses, collective and individual histories. It is argued that the processes of activation and re-conversion of capitals (economic, social, cultural) in which young people engage, along with the dynamic change of habitus in the face of evolving conditions in the host country, can be a potentially useful conceptual schema for understanding the ways migrant and non-migrant young people experience and make sense of their positioning in social space. The processes of drawing distinctions between perceived others and themselves mediate the ways young people engage in the weaving of their identities through a more or less ascribed, constrained and perpetually negotiated sense of belonging. In addition analytical attention is paid to the parental engagement and in particular the resources and dispositions that young people’s families invest and transmit in relation to their schooling and their academic and occupational future. In this frame the narrated educational choices are embedded in young people’s learner identities and familial histories and are closely linked with their projections and envisioning of the future. To conclude, the decision-making dynamics emerge through a matrix weaved by differing resources, positions and dispositions that grant young people with unequal opportunities for constructing selfnarratives and engaging with school choice.

The aim of this study is twofold. First, the study aims to investigate how employment agency officers, in both public and private agencies, perceive how they help young people with immigrant background to access the labour market. Secondly, the study aims to investigate these professionals’ perspectives on the possibilities and barriers faced by young people with immigrant background in their process of labour integration. A qualitative study, with face to face semi - structured interviews was conducted with five professionals from both the public and private sector of the Swedish work agency in one municipality in mid Sweden. A social constructivist perspective and empowerment and advocacy theory were used. The results show the importance of the Swedish language and its importance to establish social contacts in the process of finding jobs and integrate. The results also show other difficulties immigrants may face in the labor market such as regulations laid by employers or recruiters as requirements such as being fluent in Swedish language. According to the professionals, the youth immigrants with educational background have an easier access to integration. With "Nystartsjobb" (new start job) the youth immigrants can build networks, increase their language knowledge, get references and experience and job benefits in case of job loss.

Background. Much research suggests that physical activity has important health benefits, yet many young people are disengaged with various forms of exercise. In light of this claim, various policies and interventions have been implemented to promote physical activity but, to date, have been largely unsuccessful and the target of some criticism. Reasons why many young people are relatively physically inactive are not well understood and current explanations rarely attend to sociological issues. Aims. The aims of this study were twofold; (1) to investigate the social processes which influence physical activity and health for young people, (2) to investigate ways to better promote physical activity and therefore reduce health inequalities. Methods. Twenty-nine participants aged 13-14 from 4 different schools in England took part in the study. Purposeful recruitment ensured sufficient diversity across gender, ethnicity, social class, ability, body shape, and self-reported physical activity. Over a seven-month period, various qualitative methods were used including focus groups, ethnomethodology and visual methods. Salient social theories were used to interpret the data. Findings. The interpretation of data resulted in four main findings; (1) health is a socially constructed concept that young people understand through particular structures of language, visual imagery and knowledge; (2) physical activity is sometimes seen as a purposeful practice aimed at increasing physical capital through burning calories and turning fat into muscle; (3) engagement in physical activity is often contingent on whether specific activities are directly endorsed/rejected by peers as socially acceptable/unacceptable activities; (4) physical activities and sedentary activities can be seen as social practices that young people take part in as part of a system of habitual dispositions. Implications. In order to reduce health inequalities, physical activity promoters might better account for these social processes. Suggestions for policy and practice include (1) using intervention strategies that move beyond individualistic conceptions of behaviour, (2) introducing a new vocabulary and imagery to the understanding of health, (3) reducing physical capital disparities in spaces where physical activity takes place, (4) encouraging and accommodating friendship groups in intervention designs, and (5) providing activities and spaces where young people s habituses can be enacted. Conclusions. Various social processes affect the extent and type of physical activity that young people engage in. Strategies to promote physical activity ought to account for these social processes. Sociologically informed qualitative research methods can contribute to knowledge in the field of physical activity and health.

No description available.

Gambling constitutes an inherent part of British cultural landscape but due to its potential to cause significant detriments it remains controversial. The Gambling Act 2005 liberalised the UK gambling industry and created an environment where commercial gambling, although regulated, can be offered within a relatively free market setting and its consumption can be stimulated by advertising. The task of the law is to provide a framework where the need for customer choice, a flourishing market, and the respect for private liberties can be adequately balanced with the duty to protect vulnerable individuals such as minors. The Gambling Act has been positioned as containing sufficient protective measures to prevent minors from being harmed by gambling but there is still a relative paucity of research that focuses specifically on how this regime affects this age group. This thesis fills some of the gaps by analysing whether the existing legal and regulatory framework reconciled the conflicting priorities adequately. It uniquely combines legal doctrinal analysis with empirical evidence collected from a sample of British pupils to expose that the liberalisation of gambling has brought severe limitations on protecting minors that are not sufficiently counterbalanced by existing measures. This thesis demonstrates that the legal definition of prohibited gambling does not incorporate all activities that may lead to gambling-related harm. While the age verification measures adopted by online gambling providers appear to be successful, young people continue to have easy access to gambling in land-based venues and are exposed to significant volumes of gambling advertising that appeals to them but these factors are not sufficiently compensated by any holistic regulatory strategy. However, the thesis indicates that the correlation between fun and real gambling games should not be attributed to overlaps in minor's motivations for engaging in either form or to minors' lack of accurate differentiation between them.

The social justice agenda is currently at the foreground of political consciousness and the idea of 'social justice' has penetrated the discipline of psychology, specifically counselling and community psychology. However, there is a wealth of literature which has debated the role of social justice in psychology, and what it can and should look like. A systematic literature review was undertaken to find and synthesise empirical research relevant to the question: 'what is the significance of social justice in educational psychology practice?' It was structured using the PRISMA framework and studies were examined and screened to ensure that they met the inclusion criteria. A Weight of Evidence framework was used to enhance the judgement of the quality and relevance of the identified studies, with regards to the review's research question. Qualitative research studies were assessed for quality using a pre-existing investigative framework, whilst quantitative investigation studies were evaluated using a tailor-made framework, which referenced quantitative research guidelines. The research base was found to give positive support to the significance of the concept of social justice in US school psychology practice. An exploratory piece of qualitative research using semi-structured interviews with qualified UK educational psychologists was conducted to explore their views of social justice. The interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis applied. Results of the research gave definition to the concept of social justice under an educational psychology lens, reasons for its importance to educational psychology practice, examples of what it looked like within educational psychology practice, and thoughts around the role of educational psychology in promoting social justice. The concepts of evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence, and the effective dissemination of research in relation to outcomes and impact were discussed. Policy, practice and research development implications were considered, before a strategy for promoting and evaluating the dissemination and impact of the research findings, was considered. A multi-strand strategy of journal publication, presentations, and workshops will be utilised to encourage further discussion around the topic. The creation of a UK educational psychology special interest group around social justice may be of value, in order to advance interest in social justice, into action.

This thesis explores the alcohol consumption practices and experiences of 40 young people, aged 15-24, living in the suburban case study locations of Wythenshawe and Chorlton, Manchester, UK. By paying attention to how young people's drinking practices and experiences are bound up with relationships with friends, family, and diverse spaces, this research enhances understandings of the relational nature of young people's alcohol-related transitions to adulthood. Theoretically, I work at the intersection of multiple more-than-representational conceptual apparatus: 'doing' friendship; mobilities; and atmospheres. I conducted this research with young people, using a flexible suite of methods, which they could 'opt into', including: interviews; peer interviews; drawing elicitation interviews; diaries; mobile phone methods; and participant observation. Young people detail how alcohol assists with the formation of friendships, tensions between friends and strangers, and the development of 'more-than-friendships'. I thus contribute to the children's geographies literature by affording the role of friendship to many young people's everynight lives greater prominence. Second, by engaging with young people's emotional and embodied walking and vehicular mobilities, I show that young people consume alcohol on the move because it is both economically beneficial, and emotionally important. In doing so, I move beyond the typical academic and policy treatment of drinking spaces as bounded terrains. Third, I engage with young people's atmospheric experiences of darkness and lightness. I argue that atmospheres have the ability to shape drinking practices and experiences; young people are not passive to these atmospheres, they actively co-construct them. Whilst traditional harm-reduction messages focus on the individual drinker, I urge policymakers to turn their attention to intra and intergenerational relationships. For instance, by encouraging the practice of being a 'good friend' on nights in/out involving alcohol; and by providing families with advice on how to construct positive affective drinking atmospheres.

This thesis explores the two year transition period leading towards the end of compulsory schooling. It asks how young people who live in disadvantaged locations make career related choices, and is concerned with why such people often do not choose in ways that are advantageous to them. In order to provide a comprehensive understanding of how young people's career related decision-making is shaped, this study uses an approach that is both theoretically engaged and young person focused. Thirteen young people took part in the research over two years; interviews utilised visual research and analysis methods to engage with the experiences of these young people towards the end of their time studying at a secondary school in the North West of England. Data is analysed using a conceptual framework that incorporates selected 'thinking tools' from Bourdieu (1977) to explore the structural influences shaping career ideas that are typical for this group (i.e. 'field', 'habitus', 'social capital' and 'cultural capital'). The concept of reflexivity is also used to consider the presence of and potential for these young people to exercise agency within the structurally embedded context in which they are situated. The study demonstrates the ways in which the career ideas of these young people are heavily shaped by the environment they inhabit and, therefore, typically reproduce the existing, limited range of occupations already prevalent within the community. The social networks participants engage with when contemplating their ideas are critical in this process of reproduction since they mediate transference of cultural capital to the habitus. Such networks tend to be insular and made up of close family and friends. However, there is also evidence that reflexivity within this context is possible, and this can be vital in promoting social mobility - but this requires the creation of spaces where young people can reflect and discuss their experiences and options with actors who are genuinely seen as trustworthy (I argue that this occurred for some participants through this research process). Finally, the study concludes that although reflexivity is atypical for students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, in certain circumstances it shows the potential to be transformative.