Rural adolescents approach the transition out of high school with individual concerns about making an emotionally or financially expensive "mistake," family concerns about young people leaving home, and national and local concerns about declining rural economies and out-migration. The literature concerning this topic considers factors…

Purpose is a concept receiving increasing attention in the developmental sciences. Making sense of your place in the world and finding meaning--a process fundamental to purpose--support positive development in adolescence and beyond. Using traditional ethnographic strategies, this article examines the development of purpose among a small group of…

This article explores a hitherto neglected issue: the significance of nature in the learning lives of marginalised young people. Drawing on both post-human and sociocultural perspectives, it develops a theoretical analysis of this important subject. It uses research with 114 young people in jobs without training in rural South-west England to…

Objective: To evaluate 3-month tobacco quit rates of young adult tobacco users randomized to 2 intervention conditions. Methods: Overall 192 non-treatment-seeking 18-to-24-year-old tobacco users received educational information and advice to quit smoking. Participants were then block randomized to 2 brief intervention conditions: (1) a telephone…

Bootstraps is a 12-week program designed for rural youth, ages 18-21, who are not working and not in school. The program goal is for participants to develop skills and motivation to find meaningful work, which is accomplished through a combination of classroom learning and practical fieldwork. The environmental fieldwork on public lands, funded by…

Interviews with rural Norwegian youth about wolves and related environmental controversies found a range of viewpoints related to education and social class. The results reveal a conflict between dominant and subordinate forms of knowledge and between abstraction-oriented and production-oriented cultural forms. Modernization is removing many rural…

A study of youth out-migration from the Scottish Borders region was based on the 1989 Scottish Young People's Survey--a survey of students during their final compulsory school year (age 16-17)--plus followup interviews in 1995 with 23-year-olds from the rural Borders region. Among those in school in the Borders at age 16, only around one-third…

Analysis of georeferenced population data for Finland, 1970-2000, showed that rural youth, particularly rural young women, have been moving out of sparsely populated areas to growth centers and more densely populated areas in general. Interview data from young people included attitudes toward migration versus staying put, usually related to…

Interviews and focus groups with rural youth and local policy makers in remote northwest Connemara (Ireland) showed how various social practices and relations encountered in the arenas of education, employment, and housing problematized the choices and opportunities available to young people in transition to adulthood, especially rural youth…

Suggests that young women migrate from rural to urban areas in northern Scandinavia because the rural "periphery" is dominated by male economic and leisure activities. A study in northern Norway indicates that more young women than young men valued higher education and highly qualified careers, both of which were more attainable in urban…

This doctoral study examined the literacy practices of two rural adolescents as they crossed between the social contexts of their rural community, Winnona Hill, and higher education. Data collected primarily through semi-structured e-mail interviews over a 4-year period indicated that both informants used multiple literacies and a range of…