Young Adults with Type 1 Diabetes

Young adults experience multiple developmental transitions across social, educational, vocational, residential, and financial life domains. These transitions are potential competing priorities to managing a chronic condition such as type 1 diabetes and can contribute to poor psychosocial and medical outcomes. In this narrative review, we describe population outcomes of young adult populations and the unique considerations associated with managing type 1 diabetes in young adulthood. We provide an overview of the current evidence-based strategies to improve care for young adults with type 1 diabetes and recommendations for future directions in the field.

What was a gap is now a chasm: Remote schooling, the digital divide, and educational inequities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 resulted in the unexpected transition to remote learning for K-12 schools, exacerbating the existing digital divide and impacting the educational outcomes of marginalized youth. This article reviews the literature on the impacts of the pandemic on the educational outcomes of marginalized youth due to remote learning and the digital divide. Here, we provide an overview of the pandemic and remote schooling from an intersectional lens, discuss the impacts of the digital divide on learning for students during the pandemic, and then consider impacts on the delivery of special education supports. Additionally, we review the literature on the widening achievement gap in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Future directions for research and practice are discussed.

Forging help relationships with commercially sexually exploited youth: Perspectives of Israeli help providers

BACKGROUND

Previous research points to the many challenges that help providers who support commercially sexually exploited youth encounter in their professional work-yet little is known about how they overcome these challenges, particularly with regard to youth of diverse social backgrounds.

OBJECTIVE

The present study applied the conceptual frameworks of help-seeking and intersectionality to explore the professional practices that help providers employ when forging a help relationship with commercially sexually exploited youth.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Israeli help providers who work with commercially sexually exploited youth at various social services.

METHOD

In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted, and analyzed using constructivist grounded theory approach.

FINDINGS

We identified six major guiding principles that support the participants' processes of forging a help relationship with commercially sexually exploited youth: Do not assume that the youth view their involvement in commercial sexual exploitation as problematic; Continuously attempt to gain the youth's trust; Start from the point where the youth are; Be available at all times, and maintain a steady long-term relationship; Treat commercially sexually exploited youth as agentic individuals and encourage them to lead the process of establishing a help relationship; Similarity in social backgrounds of help providers and commercially sexually exploited youth promotes youth's engagement in the help relationship.

CONCLUSIONS

Assuming the co-existence of benefit and harm in commercial sexual exploitation is essential to forging a help relationship with the youth. Applying the intersectional lens to practice in this field can help preserve the delicate balance between victimhood and agency, thereby enhancing help processes.

The Need for Community-Responsive and Flexible Sex Ed for Historically Marginalized Youth

INTRODUCTION

When it is offered, sexuality education in the USA is far from standardized. While studies have explored differences in delivery and type of sexuality education across the USA, sexual and reproductive health inequities persist among historically marginalized groups (Latino/a/x, Black, African American, LGBTQ +). There is a critical need to better understand the systemic barriers to receiving effective sexuality education in these communities.

METHODS

Participatory research methods were used in working with a community advisory board (CAB)-consisting of emerging adults and service providers from community-based organizations (CBOs) serving youth-to examine how structural barriers contribute to adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) inequities in Massachusetts. CAB meetings and semi-structured interviews were conducted in the cities of Springfield (n = 14) and Lynn (n = 9) between December 2020 and May 2021.

RESULTS

Inflexible funding guidelines, a related evidence-based curricular mandate, and a lack of community-responsive sexuality education fail to meet the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs of these youth.

CONCLUSIONS

Current evidence-based mandates must be revisited to improve young people's access to quality sexuality information in public schools. To guarantee sexuality education curricula is centered in the context of the community and population in which it is implemented, collaboration between youth-serving CBOs and school districts could improve students' overall experience and social-emotional growth by providing comprehensive, positive, and community-responsive curricula.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Funders and programming should prioritize community responsiveness by financially supporting and developing and/or adapting evidence-based curricula to better match the community's needs, which can be completed through culture-centered training and community-based partnership.

Service, Activism, and Friendships in High School: A Longitudinal Social Network Analysis of Peer Influence and Critical Beliefs

Scholars acknowledge that friends shape youth civic engagement, but the relative contribution of peer influence and critical beliefs to civic behaviors has yet to be disaggregated. Informed by sociopolitical development and critical consciousness theories, the present study used longitudinal social network analysis to examine peer socialization and adolescents' awareness of systemic inequities in relation to participation in service and activist activities at a high school serving primarily low-income Latinx youth. Students were surveyed in May 2019 and May 2020 (N = 354; 51% female; in 2019, Mage = 15.9, age range 14.4 to 18.5). The results yielded evidence of peer influence on service activities, but not activism or perceptions of inequities. In contrast, adolescents' perception of inequities predicted their activist behavior, but not service, after controlling for network effects and individual covariates. The school provided scaffolding for service activities, but not activist activities, potentially explaining the salience of service participation in youth friendship networks.

Pushing the envelope: The who, what, when, and why of critical consciousness

Deep-seated structural racism in the U.S. has been thrown into bold relief by the racially disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 and a series of highly visible police murders of Black Americans. Longstanding and intergenerational economic inequalities have been laid bare by the ensuing economic recession. This special issue's focus on how people critique, challenge, negotiate and change inequities is therefore particularly (and, unfortunately) relevant and timely. These three papers approach critical consciousness from three distinct angles. In this commentary, I will offer several points of praise for these three papers, along with a few suggestions on ways that the authors' lines of thinking could be extended or more nuanced. I will identify a few themes that cut across these three papers: (1) the importance of focusing on critical action, (2) how these papers advance our thinking on how, when, and for whom CC develops, with specific attention paid to the social identities, life phases, and events that impact CC, and (3) a deepening of our understanding of the antecedents and consequences of CC. In reviewing these three papers, I consider how each of them adds to the collective conversation about the ways that we might recognize, challenge, and work to change marginalizing systems and transform inequity to create a more just world.

Social Support, Exposure to Parental Intimate Partner Violence, and Relationship Abuse Among Marginalized Youth

PURPOSE

We examined associations between parental IPV exposure, perceived social support, and adolescent relationship abuse (ARA) victimization, specifically in a group of marginalized youth.

METHODS

Data were drawn from surveys administered to marginalized youth as part of the Healthy Allegheny Teen Survey. Logistic regression examined (1) the association between IPV exposure and social support and (2) how social support influences the association between IPV exposure and ARA victimization.

RESULTS

IPV-exposed youth reported lower perceived social support (adjusted odds ratio: .54, confidence interval [CI]: .31-.96). There was a significant association between IPV exposure and ARA victimization (odds ratio: 3.5, CI: 1.5-8.1). However, among youth with higher social support, the association between IPV exposure and ARA victimization attenuated and lost significance (odds ratio: 1.9, CI: .57-6.5).

CONCLUSIONS

IPV-exposed youth reported less social support; however, social support may buffer the association between IPV exposure and ARA. Interventions may consider bolstering social support for IPV-exposed youth.

How Marginalized Young People Access, Engage With, and Navigate Health-Care Systems in the Digital Age: Systematic Review

PURPOSE

This systematic review examines how marginalized young people access and engage with health services and navigate health-care systems in high-income countries.

METHODS

Medline, CINAHL, PsychInfo, The University of Sydney Library database, and Google Scholar were searched to identify qualitative and quantitative original research, published from 2006 to 2017, that focused on selected definitions of marginalized young people (12 to 24 years), their parents/carers, and/or health professionals working with these populations. A thematic synthesis was undertaken identifying themes across and between groups on barriers and/or facilitators to access, engagement, and/or navigation of health-care systems.

RESULTS

Of 1,796 articles identified, 68 studies in the final selection focused on marginalized young people who were homeless (n = 20), living in rural areas (n = 14), of refugee background (n = 11), gender and/or sexuality diverse (n = 11), indigenous (n = 4), low income (n = 4), young offenders (n = 2), or living with a disability (n = 2). Studies were from the United States, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Portugal, including 44 qualitative, 16 quantitative, and 8 mixed-method study types. Sample sizes ranged from 3 to 1,388. Eight themes were identified relating to ability to recognize and understand health issues; service knowledge and attitudes toward help seeking; structural barriers; professionals' knowledge, skills, attitudes; service environments and structures; ability to navigate the health system; youth participation; and technology opportunities.

CONCLUSIONS

Marginalized young people experience barriers in addition to those common to all young people. Future studies should consider the role of technology in access, engagement, and health system navigation, and the impact of intersectionality between marginalized groups.

Cyberbullying Experiences Among Marginalized Youth: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go Next?

Cyberbullying experiences are a social and health concern that many children and adolescents are facing in their day-to-day lives. One limitation of cyberbullying research is that studies have predominately focused on the experiences of youth from majority groups (i.e., European-American youth living in the U.S.). This limitation is addressed by focusing on cyberbullying involvement, both as victims and perpetrators, among marginalized groups. Specifically, studies examining cyberbullying among youth with disabilities and from ethnic, cultural and sexual minority backgrounds are presented. Furthermore, suggestions for future research on cyberbullying experiences among youth are outlined, namely taking into consideration the intersectionality of various identities and the identification of factors that may protect vulnerable children and adolescents from the pain of being victimized online.