Research on adult personal-social networks has contributed greatly to an understanding of mental health, illness, and responses to stress. Fueled by this successful research and a growing concern for today's youth, the contributors to this volume have conducted investigations into the functioning and structures of the social networks of toddlers, school-age children, adolescents, and college students. The editors of this volume move beyond vague generalizations about characteristic and behavior acquisition through socialization in childhood by applying a longitudinal perspective to the sampling of child, adolescent, and young-adult network research. Social Networks of Children, Adolescents, and College Students unites several major empirical studies of children's social networks, investigating the acquisition of specific behaviors from particular groups of individuals under certain conditions. Topics covered include: * the effects of social networks on child development and disorder * the relationship between social networks and coping with stress the role of friends or groups in positive socialization * Of special interest to practitioners, researchers, and advanced students are: * comparative data on children from other cultural groups and non-mainstream American youths descriptions and evaluations of methodologies * introductory materials by the editors commenting on the field and the research extensive bibliographies

‘Young People and Social Media: Contemporary Children’s Digital Culture’ explores the practices, relationships, consequences, benefits, and outcomes of children’s experiences with, on, and through social media by bringing together a vast array of different ideas about childhood, youth, and young people’s lives. These ideas are drawn from scholars working in a variety of disciplines, and rather than just describing the social construction of childhood or an understanding of children’s lives, this collection seeks to encapsulate not only how young people exist on social media but also how their physical lives are impacted by their presence on social media. One of the aims of this volume in exploring youth interaction with social media is to unpack the structuring of digital technologies in terms of how young people access the technology to use it as a means of communication, a platform for identification, and a tool for participation in their larger social world. During longstanding and continued experience in the broad field of youth and digital culture, we have come to realize that not only is the subject matter increasing in importance at an immeasurable rate, but the amount of textbooks and/or edited collections has lagged behind considerably. There is a lack of sources that fully encapsulate the canon of texts for the discipline or the rich diversity and complexity of overlapping subject areas that create the fertile ground for studying young people’s lives and culture. The editors hope that this text will occupy some of that void and act as a catalyst for future interdisciplinary collections. ‘Young People and Social Media: Contemporary Children’s Digital Culture’ will appeal to undergraduate students studying Child and Youth Studies and—given the interdisciplinary nature of the collection— scholars, researchers and students at all levels working in anthropology, psychology, sociology, communication studies, cultural studies, media studies, education, and human rights, among others. Practitioners in these fields will also find this collection of particular interest.

This book explores the socially and individually determined nature of media literacy, addressing the central question of how individuals’ media activity can be explained and evaluated. It examines people's media activity through the relationship between their competence to act and actual actions. Further, the book discusses the social factors that foster self-determined media activity, including people's abilities and skills and the associated knowledge that facilitates such skills, from the perspectives of various social science disciplines. Lastly, it applies these theoretical reflections to two empirical studies. Overall, this book provides a fundamental introduction to theories of media socialization, media literacy and media competence, and to the relation between media and socialization. It analyses international discourses on children, media, media literacy, and digital literacy. This book is of interest to scholars and researchers in the field of media studies, including media sociology and media education, communication, and cultural studies.

A clear and compelling text written by teachers, psychologists, and educationalists, Relational Practice: New Approaches to Mental Health and Wellbeing in Schools proposes a dynamic and relational approach to supporting the mental health needs of children and young people within education. Contributing authors advocate a movement away from the deficit, medicalised model of mental health and instead encourage readers to embrace a relational approach, considering philosophical and spiritual dimensions, as well as the wider everyday contexts that shape the mental health of individuals, groups, and school communities. Filled with case studies, intervention strategies, and CPD activities, this essential guide bridges the gap between theory, research, and practice to offer evidence-based resources for practical application within schools. Areas covered include, but are not limited to: Supporting neurodivergent and LGBT+ students to thrive Creating and actioning an anti-racist approach Multi-agency interventions Relationships in SEND settings Creating a supportive culture to enhance staff wellbeing Appreciative inquiry Staff perceptions of Building Relational Schools (BRS) The role of intersubjective processes and the impact they have on relationships in educational settings Providing a comprehensive introduction to relational practice within education, this is an indispensable resource for anyone working in education who wishes to support the mental health and wellbeing of their school community.

This multidisciplinary handbook pulls together in one volume the research on children's and young adult literature which is currently scattered across three intersecting disciplines: education, English, and library and information science.

In this book the authors describe their strategies for critically reading global and multicultural literature and the range of procedures they use for critical analyses. They also reflect on how these research strategies can inform classrooms and children as readers. Critical content analysis offers researchers a methodology for examining representations of power and position in global and multicultural children’s and adolescent literature. This methodology highlights the critical as locating power in social practices by understanding, uncovering, and transforming conditions of inequity. Importantly, it also provides insights into specific global and multicultural books significant within classrooms as well as strategies that teachers can use to engage students in critical literacy.

This book uses data collected from in-depth interviews with young people over the course of a year to explore the complex role of social media in their lives, and the part it plays in shaping how they understand and present their identity to a broad public on a wide array of platforms. Using this data, the book proposes and develops a new theoretical framework for understanding identity performances. Comic Theory, detailed in this book, centres on a consideration of the role of social media design in shaping identity, and explores the ways in which socio-culturally grounded users engage in acts of compromise, novelty, and negotiation with social media designs and digital technologies to produce unique identity performances. Positioned within the field of educational research, this book overtly challenges assumptions and myths about the internet as a neutral source of knowledge, instead exploring the way in which designs and technologies shape who we interact with and how we understand what it is to be social. Moving beyond the over-used ‘digital natives’ paradigm, this book makes a clear case that educators and education researchers need to move beyond a focus on coding and digital skills alone, highlighting the pressing need to take explicit account of the overlaps between digital technology, culture, and education.