Youth Monitor Flanders (JOP-monitor)

Nicole Vettenburg

UGent, Youth Research Platform

Belgium

– Indicators of Child and Youth Well-being –

13 – 15 dec. 2009, Amsterdam

Youth Research Platform (JOP)

An interdisciplinary cooperation between three research groups from different universities in Flanders

- Tempus Omnia Revelat (VUB) (sociology)- Department of Social Welfare Studies (Ghent

University) (educational sciences) - Research Group of Youth Criminology

(K.U.Leuven) (criminology)

Part of the Policy Research Centre of Culture, Youth and Sports

- started in 2003: Youth Research Platform => Flemish Minister of Home affairs, Culture, Youth

and the Civil service

- Since 2007: Youth Research Platform as ‘the Youth Policy Research line’ of the Policy Research Centre of Culture, Youth and Sports => Flemish Minister of Economy, Science and Innovation

Objectives

1. To make an inventory of youth research

2. To set up a youth monitor

3. International dimension

Inventory of youth research

1. to collect existing Flemish Youth research (since 2000)

2. Pdf-file of each study with: abstract, summary of the methodology, an overview of the results, etc.

Online www.jeugdonderzoeksplatform.be Publication ‘Jongeren van nu en straks’ (2006)

Youth monitor

JOP-monitor 1 (2005-2006)

- Postal survey – light version- N=2503 – respons = 48% bij 18-25j; 59% bij 14-

18-jarigen- Content questionnaire: several themes into 3C’s

(see further) - conditions - convictions - conduct

=> Publication: ‘Jongeren in cijfers en letters’ (2007) (abstract in English: www;jeugdonderzoeksplatform.be)

Secondary analyses on existing databases publication ‘Young people insite out (2009) (‘Jongeren binnenstebuiten’)

Themes:- Democratic citizenship and gender differences - Significant others and well-being- Well-being at school- Feelings of insecurity and young people- Young people and Internet - Democratic citizenship and education types- Youth in transition

=> Abstract (english): www.jeugdonderzoeksplatform.be

JOP-monitor 2 (2008)

• Fieldwork JOP-monitor 2 (12-30y)• Postal survey (N= 3710) • 4 memory letters

• Questionnaire: – 2 versions: 12-13y and 14-30y.

– Content: 3C’s

Content of the monitor

• Three C’s, nl. ‘Conditions’, ‘Convictions’ and ‘Conduct’. • Conditons: the objective component. It covers the

conditions in which two other aspects evolves. – Topics: social background, education, possession of media

equipment, etc.• Convictions: the social world of young people, their

subjective perception and experience of their life-conditions and environment – Topics: school wellbeing, self-esteem, perception of relation with

parents, media preferences, political preference, etc. • Conduct: covers young people’s conduct and assesses

reported behavior – Topics: political action, criminal behavior, media use, etc.

• Questionnaire: – Closed questions. – Using scales, based on a five point-Likert scale ( have

been used in previous studies)

• Examples:– Conviction

• School wellbeing• Self-esteem• Political interest• Fear of crime• Negative picture of the future

– Conduct• Leisure• Political action

• Self-esteem:– Brutsaert (1986) developed the self-esteem scale

based on the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (1965) and the Revised Janis Field scale (Eagly, 1967).

• I am proud on who I am

• I think I am pretty ok

• I think I have some good qualities

• All in all, I feel like I am a looser

• Negative picture of the future– The scale of the negative picture of the future is

based previous research of Elchardus, Enhus et al (1984) and Winnubst (1975).

• I often see the future very cheerles

• It seems that I don’t have any goal in my life

• The future appears to me in hopeless sense

• I am sure I have a bright future in front of me

• I am excited for the future

• Political interest:– The political interest-scale is designed to measure young

people’s social participation (Smits, 2004). This scale is constructed because more traditional scales give a small internal consistency for political cynicism (Elchardus, 1999).

• I know more of politics comparing most people of my age.

• I am not interested in politics

• I have barely a clue of most political topics

• I have mostly an opinion when talking about political topics or problems.

• Political action– This is based on the German Youth monitor (Deutsches

Jugendinstitut, 1997), research on moral consuming of young people (Stolle, Hooghe & Micheletti, 2005) and a study organized by Freie Universität Berlin (2004) on political action on the internet.

During the last year did you…• Financed a good goal• Signed a (internet) petition • Bought a product because it is made in an environmental or

animal friendly manner or because it is guaranteed it is made in good labor circumstances

• Maintain compulsering voting• Talked about politics with friends, family, colleagues,… • Boycotted a product because you have problems with that

particular company, country, or the way the product is being fabricated

Reflections

• Definition of well-being: – Well-being convers various domains => results in

different findings

• Further analyses to explore the descibed results in greater depth: f.e– small group who are not doing well on all the domains– Interaction affect: f.e. the less safe pupils in vocational

and technical school feel themselves, the better they feel at school (in general education we find the inverse correlation (see figure)

• Relation school well-being & feelings of unsafety: interaction-effect by type of education (secundary schools)

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