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Background Suicide among young people is a global public health problem, but information on determinants and understanding of suicidal expressions are lacking in low and middle income countries (LMIC). Though school-based interventions are common in many parts of the world, evidence for efficacy is less reported, particularly from post-conflict countries. Aim To explore suicidal expressions and their determinants with psychosocial and gender perspective in Cambodia and Nicaragua and to evaluate a school based intervention to promote mental health and prevent suicidal behavior among young people in Cambodia. Method School students between the age of 15-19 from Cambodia and Nicaragua responded to Attitude Towards Suicide (ATTS) and Youth Self-Report (YSR) questionnaires. In addition, Life Skill Dimension Scale Adolescent Form (LSDS-AF) was used in schools in Cambodia, one experimental and the other control, to measure the impact of intervention. Six focus group discussions (FGDs), both gender-specific and mixed groups, were held to understand young people’s perception of gender, culture, religion and media and their impact on suicide among them. Results Paper I. Revealed few gender differences in suicidal expressions, except girls reporting more attempts than boys. Girls exposed to suicide among friends and partners were likely to report own suicidal expressions and girls with internalizing syndrome were at risk for suicidal expressions.    Paper II. Cambodian teenagers reported more mental health problems but fewer suicidal expressions as compared to Nicaragua. The determinants varied between countries.   Paper III. Participants of FGDs mentioned “Plue Plun” male and “Kath Klei” female to describe gender difference in suicidal behavior among young people in Cambodia who found it a challenge to negotiate between traditional and modern values. Paper IV. Suicide ambiguity in Buddhism, stigmatizing culture and double edged media were seen as suicide-provoking by the young people in Cambodia, who recommended peer-focused, school based program. Paper V. School based Life Skills Intervention overall benefited girls. Boys with high risk behavior had shown improvement on many Life Skills dimensions, as well as in their mental health profile. Conclusion The gender and cultural differences in suicidal expressions and their determinants among teenagers emphasize the importance of culturally sensitive and gender-specific suicide prevention programs. The influence of religion and media ought to be considered while planning intervention programs. School-based program may be a window of opportunity to promote mental health and prevent suicide among young people in Cambodia.

The aim of this study is to investigate the reasons why young people in Mexico useabbreviations, how abbreviations are used and what kind of abbreviations they use amongtheir group of friends. The study is conducted among a small sample of persons between 18 to30 years old and from one sociocultural group.We studied a group of 20 informants. In this group we included young people working as acashiers, warehouse workers, employees in stores, etc. These informants answered a writtenquestionnaire and we also analyzed 40 of their Facebook messages.In summary, it was noticed that the abbreviations were used because it is a fast way to writebecause they save time. According to the informants “It is fun and is easy to use them whenwriting their messages”. We could see that a few informants use them because it is a new wayof writing as well as considering it to be entertaining to write their messages. When analyzingtheir messages, we saw that these informants do not seem to have rules when writing theirabbrevations, they shorten the words in all forms and place them in any part of theirmessages. They often adapt their way of writing to the pronunciation of the words, similar tothe spoken language. Some words had influences from the caliche jargot (a variety ofcolloquial language used among young people in Mexico). The informants in this study areusing all kinds of abbreviations such as abbreviated words, acronyms and shortenings

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Career guidance is a core element of labour market and education policy. Young people’s transitions from education to employment need support through active career guidance. This body of research examines aspects of place and partnership working as it applies to career policy and practice for young people with a particular focus on the role of schools. The engagement of diverse partners from different sectors and interests has become an essential element of public policy and its implementation. To understand partnership working it is critical to pay attention to the relationship between the selection of partners, their combined remit, the scale of their activities and the diverse places in which they emerge. Many of the issues that policy attempts to address are also shaped by, and in, the places in which they are experienced. The research informing these papers has been undertaken as either academic research projects or as funded research over more than two decades. Many have used place-based case studies. The overall finding of this is that deliberative multi-partner engagement has become essential to the provision of pathways to the labour market that would otherwise be blocked for some young people. The centre of gravity in these discussions is the school. As organisations with a geographic footprint, the active engagement of schools in partnerships builds infrastructures, pathways and new spaces of engagement that help their pupils understand the work place. Through the twin policy paths of territorial economic development policy and a progressive socio-political approach to career guidance, policy makers have endowed schools with this responsibility. Schools are spaces of engagement with a wider world and simultaneously they are places that reflect their economic, social and cultural context. Their role as partner and place-maker needs acknowledgement within any national careers strategy that hopes to connect a spatially sensitive industrial policy with a locally enacted careers and labour market policy.

Citizenship education has been a statutory part of the National Curriculum in English Secondary Schools since 2002. The majority of research papers that have examined citizenship education, plus a key report from Ofsted (2010), have examined it from the perspective of teachers, policy makers or academics. The empirical research seeks to address this imbalance by accessing the views of the pupils themselves, views that I would argue were crucial to the shaping of future educational policy pertaining to citizenship education, in the context of a case study in one particular school. This research, therefore, presents a critical analysis of one interpretation of citizenship education in an 'outstanding school'. It aims to explore young people's views on citizenship education and 'good citizenship' and, further, illustrate why their perceptions can, and indeed should, influence future debate and direction on education policy in this statutory subject.

The mental health of children and young people is a significant concern and recent research points to the key role that schools can play in supporting this area. There is a growing interest in school based mental health interventions and at the time of embarking on this study the Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) project was a new three year pilot project which aimed to assist Local Authorities (LAs) to develop their own innovative models of mental health support in schools for pupils at risk of, or experiencing mental health problems. The LA in which the study took place was one of 25 wave one 'pathfinders'. The key aim of the TaMHS project in this LA was to improve emotional well-being in nine project schools. The local model sought to achieve this through building capacity at school level via both the provision of a universal/whole school approach and by incorporating targeted interventions for young people who were at risk of, or experiencing mental health problems. The importance of involving young people in the evaluation of mental health services is an increasingly accepted phenomenon and there are a number of benefits of including children in shaping their own mental health provision. This thesis is an evaluative study of practice in the real world which explores young peoples' perceptions of TaMHS after one year of the project being operational within one LA. The study obtains the views of targeted young people in order to investigate some of the perceived successful and unsuccessful factors associated with the project's implementation and to appraise the initial impact of the project. It also examines targeted young people's perspectives with regard to the future development of the project and reviews the utility of pupil voice in helping to improve school based mental health provision. Qualitative data was obtained from 45 targeted young people who had some involvement with TaMHS using nine focus groups which took place in each project school. Thematic analysis was used to enable the predominant key themes to be reported. The findings serve to highlight that the voice of the child can be used to increase understanding of the initial impact of the TaMHS project in one LA, as well as illustrating positive and negative aspects which in turn can lead to suggestions for improvements to school based mental health provision. Predominant areas that young people felt that the project had impacted on included social skills; interpersonal skills; relationships; behaviour; emotional well-being; and access to activities. Key themes which highlight factors that young people viewed as good about TaMHS incorporated learning; behaviour; interpersonal skills; emotional well-being; enjoyment; and activities. Examples of key themes which reflect how young people felt the project could be improved included environment; extending the project; more of the same; and activities. In light of the findings, recommendations for the development of TaMHS and for school based mental health provision in general are offered.

The focus of the thesis is on how school leavers deal with the flood of information, advice and expectations that are directed towards them at a structurally induced turning point in their lives. With a departure point in Giddens’ claim that people select and interpret information on their own terms as a means of preserving coherent narratives of self-identity, stories of information seeking were examined as a means of gaining insight into how young people living in late modernity face its tensions and dilemmas in the ways in which they seek and use information. The theoretical framework of the study draws on Schutz’ ideas concerning the lifeworld and the social distribution of knowledge, on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus as well as on Giddens’ conceptualisation of the forming of self-identity in late modernity.The study is based on qualitative research interviews with twenty one school leavers during their last year at school and on a minor discourse oriented study of a selection of the information produced by major actors in the careers guidance system. Empirically, accounts of young people’s experiences of their information related activities in relation to study and occupational choice were examined using phenomenological narrative analysis. These accounts were set in relation to discourses in Swedish society concerning work and education.Four approaches to information seeking emerged from participants’ accounts: 1) They use information seeking as a tool in making connections between educational interests and the future labour market 2) They use information seeking both as a tool in finding pathways to occupations and as a means of orienting within an occupational domain 3) Study and career information seeking is put ‘on hold’, and information seeking is associated with planning extended transitions, and 4) Study and career information seeking is avoided as potentially threatening or as meaningless. By considering how approaches are related to the ‘new career’ discourse that comes to expression in study and career related information the study gives insights into the meaning of information for, and of its accessibility to, young people. A greater focus on the development of an information literacy is suggested as a means of better supporting young people in the process of making study and career decisions. / Akademisk avhandling som med tillstånd av samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten vid Göteborgs universitet för vinnande av doktorsexamen framläggs till offentlig granskning kl. 13.00 fredagen den 5 juni 2009 i sal M404, Högskolan i Borås.

This thesis explores how notions of ability are socially constructed, defined and experienced within physical education (PE). Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts are used to examine the processes through an acknowledgement and consideration of the culture where pupils’ and teachers’ notions of ability are configured, reconfigured, and experienced. The study covered one academic school year in a North London mixed comprehensive school. Fifteen pupils participated in focus groups and individual interviews. The pupils were a mixture of boys (11) and girls (4), a range of abilities and ages (11 – 16 years old), and experienced PE predominantly in ability groups. In addition, six PE teachers were interviewed and PE lesson observations were conducted throughout the study. The findings identify various processes and interactions between individuals and also between individuals and the field that contribute towards the social construction of ability in PE. The findings highlight the complex and dynamic nature of the PE experience where notions of ability and the related practices have a bearing. Hierarchical ability-based practices were apparent that served to reinforce dominant notions of ability but there were other practices that could potentially challenge ‘legitimate’ notions of ability. The study highlights some of the constraints that teachers face in their attempts to integrate broader notions of ability, especially within a performative culture. Variations across the individual experience highlight considerations for pupils in terms of becoming physically literate and reaching their potential. The study aims to raise key questions for stakeholders in considering how ability-based practices work in facilitating a learning environment that supports all levels of ability and preparing all young people for lifelong activity. In addition it stresses the need for greater agreement amongst stakeholders on the purpose of PE in the current climate and suggests that a review of the aims of PE is warranted.

During the 1990's the number of young people being permanently excluded from school increased from 2910 (1990-91) to a peak of 12700 (1996-1997). This increase coincided with the resurgence of the debate centring on lawless and delinquent youth. With the publication of Young People and Crime (Graham and Bowling, 1995) and Misspent Youth (Audit Commission, 1996) the role of school exclusion in delinquency causation appears to have become widely accepted within youth justice thinking. Indeed, and despite the limited research evidence available, the common sense assumption that school exclusion inexorably promotes crime received wide support, something which has resulted in the excluded pupil being portrayed as a latter day folk devil. This research seeks to question this taken-for-granted assumption. By drawing upon what can be broadly described as a refutationist approach, the research questions the causal priority of school exclusion in youth crime. Research interviews were conducted with 56 young people who had experience of being excluded from school. Self-report questions revealed that 40 young people had offended of whom 28 had been cautioned or prosecuted for an offence. Despite the high levels of offending present within the sample the research findings suggest that exclusion is not itself a causal factor with 90% (36) of those young people who had offended reporting onset that commenced prior to their first exclusion. Moreover, 50 (89%) of the total number of young people stated that they were no more likely to commit crime since being excluded. Indeed - and rather significantly, for 31 (55.4%) respondents it appeared that due to the imposition of parental sanction, offending was likely to reduce during their exclusion as they were" grounded" for the whole exclusion period. Moreover, interviews with the young people also revealed that in addition to school exclusion a number of other identified "risk" factors were present in the lives of most of the young people within the sample (see for example Farrington, 1996; Youth Justice Board, 2001). The research concludes that whilst the relationship between school exclusion and crime is highly complex it is certainly neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for a young person to commit crime.