Family Community Workshop

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Family / Community Workshop

• Connectedness in Youth Seminar
• 4th of October
• Carla Crespo
• Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families -
  Victoria University of Wellington

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Families
exist in rich diversity
are groups of people who care for and nurture
each other
(Jan Pryor)
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Families
exist in rich diversity Acknowledge and
respect the differences
are groups of people who care for and nurture
each other Remember the similarities
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Family structure what matters
Extended families
Lone parent families
Intact families
Step families
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Focusing our lenses

• 1. Breaking from the deficit approach
• Looking beyond outcomes mean differences

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Focusing our lenses

• 2. Looking at family processes
• What works, under which conditions, for which
  families

Young peoples outcomes
Family dimensions
Family structure
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3. Think, act, changeInformation as a
difference that makes the difference (Gregory
Bateson)
Focusing our lenses
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Workshop discussion groups

• Ingredients
• 1 Hot potato
• Young people participants/consultants
• Pieces of research/information
• Preparation
• Brainstorming
• Multi-layered discussion
• Interpretation of findings
• Synthesise information

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Wrapping up
Family

• YCP s findings
• Links between family dimensions (Identity, Mutual
  activities, Conflict, Monitoring
• and Supervision) and health outcomes are
  different for different families.
• Family dimensions Health outcomes
• Identity Smoking
• Mutual activities Drinking
• Conflict Self-harm
• Monitoring and supervision
• Family Structure
• Our thoughts today

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Wrapping up
Family

• YCP s findings
• In relation to (less) youth smoking, the
  following family dimensions (in comparison with
• intact families) are especially important
• Lone families
• (more) Mutual activities
• Step families
• (more) Mutual activities
• Extended
• (more) Monitoring and supervision
• Our thoughts today

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Wrapping up
Family

• YCP s findings
• In relation to (less) youth drinking, the
  following family dimensions are especially
• important
• Lone families
• (less) Conflict
• Step families
• (more) Mutual activities
  (less) Conflict
• Our thoughts today

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Wrapping up
Family

• YCP s findings
• In relation to (less) youth self-harm, the
  following family dimensions are especially
• important
• Lone families
• (less) Conflict
• 
  Step families
• (more) Identity
• (less) Conflict
• Our thoughts today

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Wrapping up
Community

• YCP s findings
• Young peoples perceptions of community
• Efforts and Youth Voice
• In general, there seems to be a lack of
  awareness about community attempts to address
  needs and engage young people. This unawareness
  is more pronounced for girls than boys.
• As they grow older, participants tend to be
  have a more formed opinion, although more
  negative about communitys efforts and youth
  voice.
• Comparatively, young people recognise more that
  community is trying to address their needs than
  that they have a say in what happens in this life
  context.

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Wrapping up
Community

• YCP s findings
• Belonging to groups outside school is linked to
• v Higher well-being
• v Life satisfaction
• v Stronger ethnic identity (NZ European and
  Maori)
• v More positive body image
• Although the majority of the sample (60.1)
  belongs to groups outside school,
• there is a important percentage that does not
  (39.9). These participants are not
• exposed to the benefits of belonging to a
  community group.
• Our thoughts today

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Wrapping up
Community

• YCP s findings
• As they grow older, youth desires progressively
• More
• Money, community places to hang out, better and
  cheaper transports and freedom from caregivers
• Less
• School and after school activities, time and
  attention from caregivers
• Our thoughts today

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Community
Wrapping up

• YCP s findings
• Sense of neighbourhood and Adult attitudes
  towards young people

Sense of neighbourhood Links with overall
well-being and happiness with body image
Negative adult attitudes towards young people
Links with higher cigarette and alcohol
consumption and lower strength of self
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Wrapping up
Family and community Bridges

• Our thoughts today

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Thank you!

• For more information on the Youth Connectedness
  Project,
• please visit us at
• http//www.vuw.ac.nz/youthconnectedness/index.aspx