Dr Julia Coffey

Most family-based physical activity interventions have been modestly successful and failed to engage fathers. Also, program impact on family functioning and psychosocial outcomes are rarely measured. We explored the impact of an innovative father¿daughter physical activity program on family functioning and psychosocial outcomes for girls using qualitative methods. Of the 115 fathers who participated in the ¿Dads And Daughters Exercising and Empowered¿ (DADEE) pilot study, a random sample (stratified by baseline physical activity status) of 23 fathers (mean (SD) age: 41.4 (4.8) years) participated in semi-structured telephone interviews. Audio recordings were transcribed and analyzed by an independent researcher using a mixed inductive and deductive thematic approach. Seven themes were identified highlighting improvements in: (i) daughters¿ social-emotional well-being, (ii) father involvement and engagement with their daughter, (iii) fathers¿ parenting skills, (iv) the father¿daughter relationship, (v) co-parenting, (vi) family relationship dynamics, and (vii) knowledge and understanding of gender stereotypes and gender bias. A number of strategies were also identified as to how the program improved these outcomes. Engaging fathers and daughters in physical activity programs may have substantive benefits for daughters¿ mental health as well as broader outcomes for fathers and families. Enhancing fathers¿ and daughters¿ knowledge and skills through evidence-based strategies may be a useful approach to optimize the well-being of families.

Poor mental health in youth has been consistently shown to be rising over the past 20 years. While it is well established that mental health status is associated with social conditions, population-level perspectives make it difficult to identify the complex ways social and structural conditions impact on mental health. Based on longitudinal (mixed method) data, this exploratory longitudinal study aims to study how the life circumstances of education, work and financial situation are related to mental health in young Australians (aged 20¿22). Findings show that the combination of study, work and financial hardship can be regarded as a stressor contributing to poor mental health, particularly if experienced over several years, and that those in the middle socio-economic bracket have the worst mental health outcomes. This research has implications for welfare policies and the responsibilities of educational institutions for the welfare of young people.

This article explores the ways the body and femininity is understood and negotiated in relation to employment. This article draws on interview data from an Australian study which aimed to explore what it meant to be a ¿young woman¿ in neoliberal late modernity, and in relation to the paradoxes of post-feminism. Though there has been an unprecedented rise in youth post-secondary school participation in Australia and elsewhere, girls¿ and young women¿s increased investment and participation in education has not provided the same gains as for their male counterparts. All interview participants described being aware of gender inequalities and gender discrimination in the workplace, including the glass ceiling, the gender pay gap, and demands and pressures on women to balance career and motherhood, however many did not associate these issues with ¿feminism¿. We explore the dynamics of notions of equality, difference and the body in participants¿ discussions of work and their anticipation of motherhood and the logics by which gender inequalities are sustained.

This paper explores how taste and distaste, body image and masculinity play into young people¿s perceptions of risk related to steroid use. Data are drawn from a qualitative study on risk-taking among 52 Danish youths enrolled in high school or vocational training. A number of ¿risky¿ practices such as drug use, fights, speeding, etc. were discussed. In contrast to these practices, which were primarily described in relation to ¿physical risks¿, steroid use was understood as part of an ¿identity¿ or ¿lifestyle¿ in a way these other risks were not. Few interviewees had used steroids, and the large majority distanced themselves from the practice. Reasons for not wanting to use steroids were related to (1) perceiving the drug to be part of a broader lifestyle and identity that they are not interested in committing to or embodying and (2) finding the body image, physicality and associations with steroid use ¿fake¿, ¿gross¿ and distasteful. We draw on recent developments in feminist sociological theory related to the gendered body as both a performance and process to understand steroid use as a practice through which the body and self is produced. More than a one-dimensional ¿risky¿ practice, we argue that gendered and embodied identities are crucial to understanding the dynamics of steroid use.

This article reports on an innovative pedagogical approach within the Learning Partnerships program in which school students help to ¿teach the teachers¿ within pre-service teacher education. Classes of school students join with classes of pre-service teachers to provide input on how teachers can enhance school students¿ engagement and wellbeing. The article draws on data collected from 125 students (aged 13¿16) and 120 pre-service teachers in these workshops. Findings generated from a mixed methods study combining pre-workshop focus groups (n¿=¿Students: 38, Teachers: 33) and post-workshop focus groups (n¿=¿Students: 69, Teachers: 15) and post-workshop surveys (n¿=¿Students: 96; Teachers: 101) demonstrated that the workshops were mutually beneficial for both students and pre-service teachers. Participants found that workshopping together enhanced their belief in the possibility of positive student¿teacher relationships. The pre-service teachers reported greater confidence in communicating with young people about the issues that affect student engagement and wellbeing. The school students reported that they were more willing to use teachers as a source of help. Implications include the need for increased attention to a ¿third space¿ for learning in teacher development which provides opportunity for learning with and from young people about how to foster their engagement and wellbeing.

This article draws on qualitative interview data exploring men's understandings of their bodies and practices of body work in Australia in the context of increasing 'visibility' of men's bodies and increasing attention to young men's body image. For the men discussed in this article, body work practices of eating and exercise in particular relate to their embodiments of masculinity and to their broader understandings of their bodies and 'selves'. While appearance and 'beauty' are typically constructed as feminine concerns and important to women's constructions of identity, these examples show that a concern for the body's appearance is also an important component of current embodiments of masculinity. This article provides an outline of a Deleuze-Guattarian approach to theorising the body through the concepts of affect and assemblage and suggests how this approach can assist in empirical analysis of the complex, contingent and contradictory relationship between the idealisation of health as an 'image' and 'ideal' gendered appearances in young men's gendered and 'health'-related body work practices. This has academic and practical implications for understanding contemporary gender arrangements related to the social and cultural circumstances in which the body is becoming ever more central.

This article addresses one of the areas of global concern for Southern youth: HIV rates amongst young people from key communities. In the Asia-Pacific region 95% of all new infections occur amongst those under 25. Furthermore, in this region the nature of the epidemic is concentrated, chiefly affecting people from certain sub-groups such as those who inject drugs, sell sex, participate in male-to-male sex and people who are transgender. In this article we discuss an innovative peer-led leadership and advocacy program for youth which uses post-structural theoretical frames and concepts in an effort to steer against the dominant medicalised and individualising storylines which tend to inform approaches to HIV prevention. We draw on examples and data collected from the NewGen Asia Leadership training program to illustrate the ways post-structural concepts can be used to inform program design as well as analysis and critique of the impact of change efforts. Rather than the traditional focus on transmission of knowledge, skills, and attitudes in prevention efforts, we aim to show how the concepts of positioning, platform, and possibility may be mobilised in strategies used to address the challenge of HIV prevention amongst key youth populations.