05. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education
Paper
From Youth Empowerment to Juvenile Delinquency: Gangster Rap as a Contemporary Educational Dilemma
Alexandra Söderman, Johan Söderman
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Presenting Author: Söderman, Alexandra;
Söderman, Johan
The aim of this conference contribution is to deepen the understanding of the specific educational dilemmas that arise due to an aesthetic change in hip-hop music and culture, and to identify the values around which these dilemmas center in schools and after-school activities, as well as in juvinile detention centers.
This contribution stems from an ongoing research project that focuses, among other things, on educational dilemmas emerging in the wake of the evolving landscape of Swedish hip-hop. Over the past years, Swedish hip-hop has transitioned from being characterized by more emancipatory messages (Söderman, 2017) to increasingly embodying the aesthetic expressions known as 'drill' or 'gangster rap.' For educational settings utilizing hip-hop as a social pedagogical tool (Söderman, 2019), this aesthetic transformation presents pedagogical dilemmas. Hip-hop, previously used to prevent violence and crime, has now become the focal point of rap lyrics, popular artists, and music videos that engage in and depict violence and crime.
While this specific research project is based in Sweden, educational settings in several other countries also grapple with similar dilemmas related to the influence of 'drill' in local hip-hop, as seen for instance in the United Kingdom (Fastis, 2019), Denmark (Ringsager, 2017), and Germany (Güngör & Loh, 2017). In all these countries, including Sweden, hip-hop has previously, at least partially, been part of socio-pedagogical activities aimed at preventing young people from heading down destructive paths such as engaging in criminality and drug use. Work that is now being challenged by the aesthetic shift.
The theoretical framework for this contribution is based on Pierre Bourdieu's cultural and educational sociology (Bourdieu, 1977; 1984a; 1984b; 1990; 2000; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1970/2008). Theoretical concepts such as capital and distinction enable us to understand, interpret, and analyze the pedagogical and aesthetic values that gangster rap instigates among educators working with hip-hop in schools, after-school activities and juvinile detention centers, and also to analyze the educational values recognized in relation to hip-hop education.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe project is based on semi-structured interviews conducted with teachers and after-school educators. In short, the interviews mainly focus on the following themes:
• How is gangster rap relevant to the particular educational setting?
• What are the teachers/educators thoughts about the ongoing media debate regarding gangster rap, and how does it relate to the specific educational setting?
• What are the personal experiences related to listening to artists within the genre?
• Reflections on the emotions and thoughts that may arise from the portrayals in gangster rap concerning the young people they work with.
• In what ways does gangster rap give rise to problems or dilemmas? What are these, and why? Have they been resolved? If so, how?
To consider various statements and understandings of hip-hop, the interview material is analyzed using discursive psychological tools (Potter, 1996), where discourses are broadly understood as rhetorical resources (Potter, 1996). Analytical concepts such as interpretive repertoires (Gilbert & Mulkay, 1984; Potter & Wetherell, 1987; Wetherell & Potter, 1992), variation, function, effect, ideological dilemmas, and rhetorical strategies (Potter, 1996) are employed to systematically process the interview material.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe project is still ongoing but is expected to contribute with important pedagogical knowledge relevant to hip-hop education, after-school activities, and arts-based education in urban settings. A specific value that the research project aims to provide is to bring scientific clarity to a youth cultural phenomenon that currently tends to be surrounded by negative perceptions.
The main anticipated outcome, however, is to highlight the dilemmas that arise at the intersection of gangster rap, youth violence, and crime, as well as preventive educational activities.
Overall, our hope is that the research can contribute to improving conditions for European arts-based education in urban settings and, specifically, for social pedagogical music teachers and hip-hop educators in schools and after-school activities.
ReferencesBourdieu. P. (1984a). Distinction. A social critique of the judgment of taste. Harvard university press.
Bourdieu, P. (1984b). Kultur och kritik. Daidalos.
Bourdieu, P. (1990). The Logic of Practice. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Bourdieu, P. (2000). Konstens regler. Det litterära fältets uppkomst och struktur. Symposion.
Bourdieu, P. & Passeron, J. C. (1970/2008). Reproduktionen: bidrag till en teori om utbildningssystemet. Arkiv.
Fatsis, L. (2019). Policing the beats: The criminalisation of UK drill and grime music by the London Metropolitan Police. The sociological review, 67(6), 1300-1316.
Gilbert, G.N. & Mulkay, M. (1984). Opening Pandoras Box: a Sociological Analysis of
Scientists’ Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Güngör, M., & Loh, H. (2017). Vom Gastarbeiter zum Gangsta-Rapper?. Diversität in der Sozialen Arbeit, 68.
Potter, J. (1996). Representing reality. Discourse, rethoric and social construction. London: Sage.
Potter, J. & Wetherell, M. (1987). Discourse and social psychology: Beyond attitudes and behaviour. London: Sage.
Ringsager, K. (2017). ‘Featuring the SyStem’: hip hop pedagogy and daniSh integration policieS. Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society, 42(2), 75-93.
Söderman, J. (2017). Hip-hop in Sweden. Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. New York: Bloomsbury.
Söderman, J. (2019). Holistic educational ideals and pedagogy of trust within civil society popular music education. Journal of Popular Music Education, (2) 1-2, 65-80
Wetherell, M. & Potter, J. (1992). Mapping the Language of Racism: Discourse and the Legitimation of Exploitation. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf
05. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education
Paper
How Did Depression-related Disorders in the Styrian/Austrian School Population change between 2013 and 2024.
Mathias Krammer1, Lisa Paleczek2, Edvina Besic1
1PHST, Austria; 2University of Graz, Austria
Presenting Author: Krammer, Mathias
For several years, school children across Europe and worldwide dealt with a variety of crises– such as the Covid-19 pandemic (e.g., school closures), the war in Ukraine and Gaza, the climate crisis— all of them with a likely impact on children’s social and emotional development, A particularly severe and profound impact of these events was shown on affective and internalized behavioral disorders (Cena et al., 2022; Kaman et al. 2023; Krammer, et al. 2022; Mulkey et al. 2023; Ravens-Sieberer et al. 2022; Walz et al. 2022). As outlined by Mulkey et al. (2023), a considerable degree of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic go well beyond the viral infection and have had a significant indirect effect on multiple areas of child development, school readiness, educational attainment, socialization skills and mental health, just to name some examples.In this regard, Walz et al. (2022) outlined in their meta-analysis, encompassing almost 800.000 European participants, a significant increase in depression symptoms, in particular for 16-18 years old male adolescents during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the authors, female adolescents also showed an increase in depression rate when accounting for only clinical depression symptoms (Walz et al. 2022). Along these lines, Cena et al. (2022), showed a steady increase of loneliness, affective disorders, and suicidal ideation for Italian adolescents. Finally, also Krammer et al. (2022) showed a significant increase of internalized behavioral problems for Austrian male and female sixth graders during the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, one of the shortcomings of the mentioned research is the primarily focus on adolescents. Moreover, the focus lies on a rather short time period, during the pandemic or shortly afterwards.
This paper aims to address the above-mentioned issues concentrating on 9-13 years old school children, and comparing data from ten years ago with data from some time after experiencing the Covid-19 restrictions. The main research question focuses on differences in the distribution and incidence of depression related affective disorders in Styria (Austrian):
1.) Are there any significant differences in the distribution and incidence of depression-related symptoms between the Styrian general school population of the years 2013 and 2024?
In this regard, we assume an increase of affective disorders in the Styrian school population. In addition, we will investigate whether this increase is focused only on specific groups at risk (e.g., low-income families), or if it is a more general phenomenon affecting the entire school population. To learn more about the connections between depression-related symptoms and other individual background factors, we also considered information on social media usage, educational background of the family, depression cases in the family etc.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe paper relies on two different data sets originally used for the standardization of the “Depressionstest Kind – DTK -II” (Depressiontest Children II: Rossmann, 2014) in 2013 and for the current re-standardization in 2024. This test is a questionnaire for self-assessment of children's current depressive state. The child's well-being is mapped on three dimensions relevant to depression, which relate to 1) dysphoric mood and self-esteem problems, 2) agitated behavior and 3) fatigue and other psychosomatic aspects. The questionnaire consists of 55 short and child-friendly items, which the children can answer with "yes" or "no".
For 2013 the standardization sample consists of approx. 1200 students and can be seen as representative for the Styrian school population. For the 2024 data set, we are currently gathering data (completed in April), again aiming at a sample size of 1200 students in Styrian primary and secondary schools. Beside the scores of the DTK-II for 2013 and 2024, also social and economic background information of the students was/is being collected.
Additional to descriptive statistics, the usage of multivariate statistical methods (i.e., regression and analysis of variance) is planned for analyzing the data gathered in 2013 and 2024, respectively.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsAs the 2024 data is currently being collected, we can only speculate about the outcomes. We do expect an increase of depression-related symptoms in the 2024 dataset compared to the data gathered in 2013, due to the different crises children experienced in the last years. We will also be able to present findings on connections between DTK-II scores and relevant background variables and they will be discussed in the light of intervention programmes matching students’ needs.
ReferencesCena, L., Trainini, A., Zecca, S., Zappa, S., Cunegatti, F. & Buizza, C. (2022). Loneliness, affective disorders, suicidal ideation, and the use of psychoactive substances in a sample of adolescents during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A cross‐sectional study. In: Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 36, 188–198.
Kaman, A., Erhart, M., Devine, J., Reiß, F., Napp, A.‑K., Simon, A. M., Hurrelmann, K., Schlack, R., Hölling, H., Wieler, L. H. & Ravens-Sieberer, U [Ulrike] (2023). Two Years of Pandemic: the Mental Health and Quality of Life of Children and Adolescents - findings of the COPSY longitudinal study. Deutsches Arzteblatt international, 120(15), 269–270. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.m2023.0001.
Krammer, M., Tritremmel, G., Auferbauer, M. & Palecezek, L. (2022). Durch die Coronapandemie belastet? Der Einfluss von Covid-19 induzierter Angst und Besorgnis auf die sozial-emotionale Entwicklung 12-13 Jähriger in Österreich. In: Zeitschrift für Bildungsforschung. https://doi.org/10.1007/s35834-022-00336-8.
Mulkey S.B., Bearer C.F., Molloy E.J. (2023). Indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children relate to the child's age and experience. Pediatric Ressearch, 94(5), 1586-1587. https://doi.org.10.1038/s41390-023-02681-4.
Ravens-Sieberer, U., Kaman, A., Erhart, M., Devine, J., Schlack, R. & Otto, C. (2022). Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on quality of life and mental health in children and adolescents in Germany. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 31(6), 879–889. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01726-5.
Rossmann, P. (2014). Depressionstest für Kinder – II (DTK – II). Hogrefe.
Walz, L., Dannheim, H., Pfadenhauer, I., Fegert, L., Bujard, J. (2022): Increase of depression among children and adolescents after the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic in Europe: a systematic review and meta analysis. In: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 16(109).
05. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education
Paper
Internalizing and Externalizing Disorder Levels among Adolescents: Data from Poland
Anna Babicka-Wirkus1, Paweł Kozlowski1, Łukasz Wirkus2, Krzysztof Stasiak2
1Pomeranian University in Słups, Poland; 2University of Gdańsk
Presenting Author: Babicka-Wirkus, Anna;
Kozlowski, Paweł
The paperl concerns internalizing and externalizing behaviors among Polish adolescents attending primary schools in a medium-sized city in Poland. The aim of the study was to examine the levels of select problem behaviors (i.e., depression, withdrawal, somatic complaints, aggressive behaviors, delinquent behaviors, thought problems, and internalizing and externalizing disorders) in early adolescence. Another important aim was to establish the ranges of the norm and deviation which would indicate the need for intervention aimed at internalizing and externalizing disorders in the sample.
Externalizing disorders involve conduct and aggression problems, insufficiently regulated behaviors of an antisocial or oppositional-defiant nature, or behaviors which do not fit within accepted social norms. These all involve projecting internal problems experienced by the individual outwards. The basic symptoms of externalizing disorders are various manifestations of aggression, opposition against one’s surroundings, impul- sivity, destructiveness, and antisociality. Their emergence in childhood and adolescence are a significant predictor of chronic criminal behavior in adulthood (Wolańczyk, 2002). Externalizing problem behaviors such as aggression, damaging property, or stealing are among the most frequent adjustment problems in childhood and are the most reliable predictor of mental health problems in adulthood (Sanders et al., 2017). Children who exhibit externalizing behaviors may suffer a range of legal consequences which could significantly impact their future (Samek et al., 2014). High occurrence of externalizing disorders (Achenbach, 1982) may be a source of social maladjustment.
Internalizing behaviors refer to personality problems related to inhibition, anxiety, and overcontrolled behaviors. An excessive sense of control may lead to a deep, neurotic internalization of social norms. This may be the basis of excessive cautiousness in new and subjectively difficult situations, as well as shyness during interpersonal contact. Despite average or above-average intellectual abilities, individuals with internalizing disorders do not achieve adequately high results in school (the so-called inadequate school achievement syndrome), which facilitates a sense of being underappreciated (Wysocka et al., 2014).
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe subject of the study was to diagnose the scale of occurrence of behavioral problems in early adolescence. The main research problem in the current study was conceptualized as follows: What is the scale of incidence of behavior problems in early adolescents? The following specific research questions were derived from this research problem:
1. Does gender differentiate the incidence of behavior problems among early adolescents?
2. Does age differentiate the incidence of behavior problems among early adolescents?
3. Does grade average differentiate the incidence of behavior problems among early adolescents?
The first aim of the study was to assess the levels of problem behaviors in early adolescence in specific areas, such as anxiety and depression, withdrawal, somatic com- plaints, aggressive behaviors, delinquent behaviors, social problems, thought problems, attention problems, and internalizing and externalizing. Regarding the last two areas, it was important to diagnose the normal score range, the cut-off point (indicating the need for psychopedagogical consultation and support), and the clinical score range (indicating the need to assess the relationships between the specific areas of problem behaviors in adolescents and specific variables such as gender, age, and grade average).
Six hundred and eight students from all of the primary schools in a medium-sized (50–100 thousand citizens) Polish city took part in the study. Due to missing data in some cases, data from 550 participants were used in the analyses. The sample was created by randomly choosing one sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade class from each of the primary schools in the city. Thus, the current study involved a total of around 29% of all students from these grades. In the sample, 55.3% of the participants were girls and 46.7% were boys.
To empirically verify the research problem and questions, a Polish version of the Youth Self Report questionnaire for adolescents aged 11–18, devised by T. Achenbach, adapted by T. Wolańczyk was used. The YSR is comprised of 112 items, and it measures problem behaviors on eight scales: I—Withdrawal, II—Somatic Complaints, III—Anxiety and Depression, IV—Social Problems, V—Thought Problems, VI—Attention Problems, VII—Delinquent Problems, and VII—Aggressive Behaviors. The total score for the internalizing behaviors scale is obtained by appropriately summing the scores of scales I, II, and III and subtracting the score of Item 103. On the other hand, the total score for the externalizing behaviors scale is obtained by summing the scores of scales VII and VIII.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsOne of the most important finding of our research is that the proportion of girls who achieved scores in the clinical range was higher than the proportion of boys. The greatest differences were identified for thought problems, in which 33.9% of girls achieved scores in the clinical range compared to 7.4% of boys. According to the cognitive-behavioral model, cognitive distortions lead to inaccuracies and distortions in perceiving and processing data from the surrounding environment. This may lead to inadequate emotional reactions and contextually inappropriate perceptions of behavior.
Another troubling conclusion relates to the anxiety and depression scale, on which 30.7% of the girls and 2.7% of the boys in the sample achieved scores in the clinical range. A similar tendency towards higher levels of such emotional problems among girls than boys.
A detailed analysis of the results showed that older students—that is, 13- and 14-year-olds—exhibited higher levels of withdrawal than 12-year-olds (p < 0.001). Younger children (12-year-olds) exhibited lower levels of somatic complaints than 13-year-olds (p = 0.008) and 14-year-olds (p < 0.001). Analogous differences occurred for anxiety and depression.
The youngest children in the sample also exhibited lower levels of attention problems than 13- and 14-year-olds (p < 0.001). Analogous differences were observed for delinquent behaviors—12-year-old students exhibited lower levels of delinquent behaviors than did older students, including both 13- and 14-year-olds (p < 0.001).
The analysis showed statistically significant intergroup differences, based on grade average, in attention problems, delinquent behaviors, aggressive behaviors, and externalizing disorders
ReferencesAchenbach, T.M. (1982). Developmental Psychopathology; Wiley: New York, NY, USA.
Narusyte, J.; Ropponen, A.; Alexanderson, K.; Svedberg, P. (2017). Internalizing and externalizing problems in childhood and ado- lescence as predictors of work incapacity in young adulthood. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 52, 1159–1168. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-017-1409-6.
Samek, D.R.; Hicks, B.M. (2014). Externalizing Disorders and Environmental Risk: Mechanisms of Gene-Environment Interplay and Strategies for Intervention. Clinics and Practice, 11, 537–547; https://doi.org/10.2217/CPR.14.47.
Sanders, M.; Mazzucchelli, T.; Mazzucchelli, T.; Sanders, M. (2017). Children with Externalizing Behavior Problems. In The Power of Positive Parenting: Transforming the Lives of Children, Parents, and Communities Using the Triple P System; Sanders, M.R., Mazzuschellli, T.G., Eds., (85–96); Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. Available online: https://www.oxfordclinicalpsych.com/view/10.1093/med-psych/9780190629069.001.0001/med-9780190629069-chapter-6 (accessed on 9 September 2022).
Wolańczyk, T. (2002). Zaburzenia Emocjonalne i Behawioralne u Dzieci i Młodzieży Szkolnej w Polsce; AM: Warsaw, Poland.
Wysocka, E.; Ostafińska-Molik, B. (2014). Internalizing and externalizing disorders and type of family of origin—Theoretical analysis and findings. Polish Journal of Social Rehabilitation, 8, 131–155.
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