| BACKGROUND |
St. Thomas University research projects that have
been supported through SSHRC grants
Building Bridges: Linking Youth and Community Through Education, Research, Involvement and Dialogue SSHRC Grant in Aid of Small Universites The following is an overview of the research projects that have been developed by a group of faculty at St. Thomas University who are interested in the area of Youth-at-Risk. This group of faculty have developed a proposal for the creation of research centre on youth-at-risk and wish to be considered for the SSHRC Aid to Small Universites Grant.
Breaking Down Barriers Between Youth and Older Adults: Intergenerational Programming As a project of the Third Age Centre there have been some programs developed to bridge the gap between seniors and youth in the school system. These intergenerational endeavours are seen as an effort to draw attention to the strengths and resources available in our communities to assist youth with difficult life choices. A project is being proposed to pair young adolescents with older adults through a mentoring programme during the school lunch hour in the downtown core of Fredericton. This project will attempt to dispel myths about young people and older adults as well as provide an information base on fear of youth crime among older adults. A series of structured interviews with both young people and older adults will capture the shared experiences of the program through dialogue and interaction. Further analysis will be done through observational techniques and narrative analysis of stories shared by program participants. Researchers:
Access to Services for Youth on the Streets of Fredericton Through interviews and dialogue with young people in the downtown core, a description of the issues facing street youth related to access to health care, social service networks, AIDS prevention and education, relationship difficulties and other issues will provide a base line analysis of the key factors that face young people who are without the support of family or home. This
analysis will focus on a profile of street youth with a view to consider
the development of a protocol for assessing the
Researchers:
Student Retention Factors Through Middle Adolescence and Early Adulthood A study related to factors that keep young people attending educational institutions is planned between the Fredericton High School and St. Thomas University. A survey will be distributed to 3500 high school students from grade 9 through 12 with respect to their decisions to stay in school. The participants will be asked to continue in the study over a five year period and will be tracked as they complete high school. Students who leave school early will be asked to participate in an exit interview. Some of the students will form a sub-group of students who will continue on to post-secondary institutions. Those students who choose to go to St. Thomas University will be followed for an additional five years. This data will provide base line data related to factors associated with student retention as youth make the transition from adolescence to early adulthood. Researchers:
Mentoring At-Risk Youth A community based project is being proposed to pair university students with targeted at-risk youth to provide literacy skills, cross age tutoring, and to provide a mentor. Literacy has been defined in a variety of ways which problematized the relationship between those with low level literacy skills and education, employment, and culture. The project is an attempt to bridge the gap between youth-at -risk at the local community level and ultimately the wider society. The level of literacy skills upon entry and completion of the programme will be assessed utilizing a variety of assessment tools encompassing both qualitative and quantitative measures (e.g. Reading Interest Inventory, Reading Interview, S.O.R.T. ). The university students will keep a comprehensive reflective journal of the experiences in mentorship. At the completion of the programme the university students will share their experience with their mentor and negotiate their perceptions of the outcome of the work done together. Researcher: Prof. Heather Richmond, Education
In Their Own Words: Development of Anorexic and Bulimic Teenage Girls’ Identities Anorexia nervosa and bulimia have increased in prevalence among teenage girls over the past 20 years. This increase has occurred along with a cultural shift toward viewing thinness as the ideal of feminine beauty. In trying to reach this ideal, affected girls become obsessed with food, intensely fearful of becoming obese, and develop a disturbed body image. The proposed study aims to examine the process by which girls with these eating disorders come to identify themselves as overweight and inadequate. A sample of teenage girls who have reported to an eating disorders clinic will be interviewed individually. Interview questions will be largely open-ended so as to allow participants to tell their own stories and to describe in their own way the factors that they believe influenced their negative self-image and illness. Grounded theory analytic methods will be applied to this rich qualitative data. Together, the narrative accounts and the analysis will provide a much needed view of the personal world of these illnesses. This project will thus contribute importantly to our understanding of teenage girls’ experiences of anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Researcher: Dr. Suzanne Prior, Psychology
Listening for a Change This project is designed to develop a community-based, multi-stakeholder partnership to address underlying social causes of crime in the Hartland to Nackawic region of Carleton and York. The community development process is aimed at addressing the needs of youth-at-risk for alternative learning, vocational and social support programs through the participation of youth, their families, advocates and local communities. The project aims at identifying and describing community strengths and problems through an analysis of the various “understandings” related to the experiences held by the key stakeholders in the community. Individuals who experience problems with the law, have vulnerable/fragile natural supports, have significant and persistent performance difficulties in school and who lack access to opportunities for a meaningful livelihood will form the target group of youth-at-risk. Researchers:
AIDS
Knowledge and Related Attitudes and Behaviors Among Youth in New Brunswick:
Ten years after the
The Canada Youth and AIDS study published in 1988 assessed knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to AIDS among Canada’s youth. The results of this and similar studies, along with the efforts of AIDS educators, have led to a number of educational programs and government initiatives to stem the epidemic of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. This research will attempt to determine whether these efforts and initiatives have had any noticeable impact. The study will examine AIDS knowledge, safer sex behaviours, and related attitudes among New Brunswick youth. Results will be compared with those obtained in the Canada Youth and AIDS study and other related studies conducted over the past 10 years. Targeted populations include: University students aged 19 years or younger, grade 9 and grade 11 high school students, Street Youth and Native Youth. Researcher: Dr. Tom Fish, Psychology
Staying Involved: What Sustains Volunteer Leaders For
the past 4 years in Fredericton, as part of an adventure based counseling
program developed by Partners for Youth Inc.(PFY), several teachers have
volunteered their time to be trained and to lead groups of youth in the
PFY program. These teacher leaders work with professional staff to
identify ‘youth at risk’ in their school, and to lead the weekly meetings
and monthly weekend outings (for example, hiking, repelling, canoeing,
etc). Groups are comprised of 12 youth (ages 12-15) who are assessed
to be at risk of dropping out of school or of engaging in delinquent behaviors.
The commitment is a substantial one on the part of the teacher leaders,
as this activity is in addition to their regular teaching responsibilities.
Some teachers have stopped being leaders after a year, while others have
remained actively leading groups in their schools. Research and anecdotal
comments have indicated that the program is having a very positive impact
on the youth who participate but the impact on the
Researcher: Dr. John Coates, Social Work
Impact of a Therapeutic Community on Substance Abusing Adolescents A project
has been developed to follow a sample of residents who have chosen to engage
in an alcohol and substance abuse program for youth in Cassidy Lake, New
Brunswick. The project will look at assessment data upon intake into
the program, the progress made in the areas of self-esteem, peer relationships,
family relationships and goal setting as the youth proceed through the
program. This project will include interviews, an analysis of the
youth’s programme components, interviews with youth workers and family
members. Qualitative analysis of the youth’s life story will assist
in coming to an understanding of the factors related to the life experience
of the young person before, during and after the experience of the therapeutic
community. Upon completion of the programme, the youth will be interviewed
at six months and one year follow up to consider the impact
Researcher: Dr. Susan Reid-MacNevin, Criminology
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