scholarly journals Young Adults’ Experience of Loneliness in London’s Most Deprived Areas

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Fardghassemi ◽  
Helene Joffe

Young adults (16–24 years old) are currently the loneliest group in Western countries. In particular, young adults of lower socio-economic status (SES) living in the most deprived areas are loneliest in the United Kingdom. This mixed-methods study explored the experience of loneliness among this under-explored demographic in London. Using a novel free association technique, the experience of loneliness was found to be characterized by: a sense of isolation, negative emotions and thoughts, coping and a positive orientation to aloneness. An exploration of these themes revealed that: one can feel isolated or excluded even when surrounded by people; the experience of loneliness is accompanied by a set of interrelated feelings and thoughts like rumination; and technological and/or non-technological outlets can be used to cope. Social media play both a positive and negative role in loneliness, and loneliness is not always experienced negatively. The quantitative data indicated that this sample was lonely. By providing insight into young adults’ loneliness, the findings indicate what types of interventions are likely to diminish it.

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 843-860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucille Desbouys ◽  
Caroline Méjean ◽  
Stefaan De Henauw ◽  
Katia Castetbon

AbstractObjective:To explore dietary differences according to socio-economic and sociocultural characteristics of adolescents and young adults.Design:A systematic review was conducted.Setting:The main search source was MEDLINE, consulted between January 2012 and March 2017. Quality of selected studies was assessed based on dietary measurement method, sample selection, socio-economic indicator choice and statistical modelling.Participants:Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, assessing relationships between socio-economic status and dietary intake (patterns, scores and food groups) in the 10- to 40-year-old general population of high-income countries, were selected.Results:Among the 7250 reports identified, forty were selected, seventeen of which were of high quality; their conclusions, related only to adolescents, were combined and presented. The most favourable dietary patterns, higher dietary scores, greater consumption of fruits, vegetables and dairy products, and lower consumption of sugary sweetened beverages and energy-dense foods, were associated with better parental socio-economic status, particularly in terms of higher education. Migrant status was associated with plant-based patterns, greater consumption of fruits and vegetables and of sugary sweetened beverages and energy-dense foods. For the other food groups, and for young adults, very few high-quality studies were found.Conclusions:The socio-economic gradient in adolescent diets requires confirmation by higher-grade studies of a wider set of food groups and must be extended to young adult populations. Future nutritional interventions should involve the most vulnerable adolescent populations, taking account of socio-economic status and migration.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (260) ◽  
pp. 155-175
Author(s):  
Aseel Zibin ◽  
Khawlah M. AL-Tkhayneh

Abstract This study aims to examine the use of English loanwords inflected with Arabic morphemes by young people in Amman, Jordan. It adopts a quantitative corpus-based approach supported by qualitative data. We collected data from young Facebook male and female users who come from families with different socio-economic status, and we conducted semi-structured interviews with 60 students at the University of Jordan to get more insight into the attitudes of young individuals in Jordan who use these English loanwords, and to account for the reasons that drive these individuals to use them. Data analysis shows that the participants’ gender and socioeconomic status are major factors that affect the use of these loanwords. Data analysis also reveals that these English loanwords could be used as a form of slang by a certain group of young individuals in Amman to claim a specific social identity and an in-group membership that distinguishes them from another group of young individuals who do not use these words. We argued that a number of symbolic values could be attached to the use of English loanwords inflected with Arabic morphemes by that group and analysed the reasons behind such linguistic behaviour.


2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Utter ◽  
Simon Denny ◽  
Sue Crengle ◽  
Shanthi Ameratunga ◽  
Terryann Clark ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectiveThe aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between area-level socio-economic status and healthy and less healthy eating behaviours among adolescents and to determine whether the relationship between area-level socio-economic status and dietary behaviours was related to the relevant attitudes and environments.DesignData were collected as part of Youth’07, a nationally representative survey of the health and well-being of New Zealand youth.SettingNew Zealand secondary schools, 2007.SubjectsA total of 9107 secondary-school students in New Zealand.ResultsStudents from more deprived areas perceived more supportive school environments and cared as much about healthy eating as students in more affluent areas. However, these students were significantly more likely to report consuming fast food, soft drinks and chocolates.ConclusionsAddressing area-level socio-economic disparities in healthy eating requires addressing the availability, affordability and marketing of unhealthy snack foods, particularly in economically deprived areas.


Author(s):  
M. D. (Anne) Brons

AbstractThe main objective of this chapter is to understand the link between parental socio-economic status (SES) and union formation and dissolution processes from a cross-national comparative perspective. According to the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) theory, it can be expected that the impact of parental background on these union dynamics differs across societal contexts. Integrated results from prior studies using meta-analytical tools indicate that in many European countries, young adults from advantaged backgrounds delay their first co-residential union and have a higher risk to dissolve their union compared to young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds. The strength of this link between parental SES and union dynamics varies across countries. There is suggestive evidence that the link between parental SES and union dynamics is weakest in North-Western European countries that are most advanced in the SDT. However, next to these SDT-related indicators that focus more on cultural change, institutional country-level indicators, like the extent of educational expansion, and economic country-level indicators, such as the level of economic uncertainty, might also play a role.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-27
Author(s):  
Nicole Crawford ◽  
Sherridan Emery

This article shines a light on a little-known cohort of higher education participants, mature-aged students in, and from, regional and remote Australia – the focus of a National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education mixed-methods study. Notable patterns were found in the quantitative data; for instance, compared to their metropolitan counterparts, higher proportions of regional and remote students were older, female, from low socio-economic status areas, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and studied online and/or part-time. The presentation of four vignettes from the interviews uncovers the stories behind the numbers, revealing students’ diverse and complex circumstances; two of the students shared experiences of facing systemic obstacles, while the other two described receiving invaluable institutional support. The obstacles can be attributed to systems designed for “ideal”, “implied” and “traditional” students, and entrenched attitudes that privilege some “types” of students over others and limit the aim of full participation for all students.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 599-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco C Billari ◽  
Nicole Hiekel ◽  
Aart C Liefbroer

AbstractThe occurrence and timing of major demographic decisions in the transition to adulthood is strongly stratified, with young adults with a high socio-economic status (SES) background usually experiencing many of these events later than young adults with a low SES background. To explain this social stratification, we outline a theoretical framework in which social stratification affects choice in the transition to adulthood through three, potentially reinforcing, pathways: stratified socialization, stratified agency, and stratified opportunity. We test our framework against longitudinal data from two waves of the Generations and Gender Surveys for Austria, Bulgaria, and France. We find evidence for the importance of all three pathways. Furthermore, processes differ little by gender, age and country context.


Author(s):  
Harry O. Maier

This chapter continues a focus on the Christian Bible with examination of ‘The Entrepreneurial Widows of 1 Timothy’. It argues that the exhortations and admonitions to widows (i.e. unmarried women) voiced in 1 Timothy—identified as a highly rhetorical pseudonymous letter written in Paul’s name—attests to a concern with single women’s patronage of Christ assemblies, which the writer seeks to address by having them marry. The contributor seeks to move beyond a common explanation that the letter was occasioned by ascetical teachings in which women discovered in sexual continence a new freedom from traditional gender roles. The chapter aims to establish that the letter has a broader economic concern with widows, through an historical exploration of the socio-economic status of women who were artisans in the imperial urban economy. It identifies the means by which women gained skill in trades, the roles they played in the ‘adaptive family’ in which households of tradespeople plied their trade often at economic levels of subsistence. New Testament texts point to artisan women, some of them probably widows, who played important roles of patronage and leadership in assemblies of Christ followers. By attending to levels of poverty in the urban empire, traditional views of the widows of 1 Timothy as wealthier women assigned to gender roles are seen in a new light through consideration of spouses accustomed to working alongside their husbands and taking on the businesses after they died. While the lives of these women are largely invisible, attention to benefactions of wealthy women to synagogues and associations gives insight into the lives of women acting independently in various kinds of social gatherings.


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