Young People's Representations of Conflicting Roles in Child Development, 2004-2005

<P>Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.</P><br>The research for this mixed methods study addressed the social construction of child development by investigating young people's experiences of work and ways in which they think about different working activities. Its particular focus is young people who are performing jobs that are commonly assumed to be inappropriate for children and are more often viewed as work for adults. The two atypical work roles chosen for the project were language brokering (translating for a family member) and performing caring duties for an adult family member. The project developed in two phases using mixed methods. A survey of working patterns of 1,002 young people in Years 10 and 12 (aged 15-18) from six schools and colleges in the South East and South Coast of England revealed that 98.4% of males and 99.0% of females had undertaken some form of paid or unpaid work. 6.6% reported that they had acted as a language broker at some time (of whom 71.2% were female). 6.4% reported that they had acted as a carer for an adult at home (of whom 64.5% were female). The second stage involved interviewing 46 of the respondents to the survey about their experiences and representations of both typical and less typical work roles. Thematic analysis of the interviews suggests that the participants overwhelmingly drew on a notion of normal childhood as a way of understanding young people's work. Normal childhood was seen as a time for dependency, education and play and not as a time for work. However this representation does not adequately theorise the lives of the young people in the study who had had experience of atypical work roles. Many of these participants drew concurrently on a view of normal childhood and a more contextualised alternative childhood in which their atypical activities were normalised within specific socio-cultural spaces.<br>
<br><br><B>Main Topics</B>:<BR><br>Topics covered included: child development; young people and work; language brokers; young carers.

本研究摘要版权归英国数据服务中心（UK Data Service）与数据集采集版权所有者共同所有。<br>本项混合方法研究围绕儿童发展的社会建构议题展开，通过调研青少年的劳动经历及其对各类劳动活动的认知开展研究。本研究的核心聚焦对象为从事普遍被认为不适用于儿童、更多被归类为成人劳动的青少年群体。本项目选取的两类非典型劳动角色为：语言中介（language brokering，即为家庭成员提供翻译服务）以及为成年家庭成员提供照料服务。<br><br>本项目采用混合研究方法，分为两个阶段开展。对英格兰东南部及南海岸地区6所中学与学院的1002名10年级、12年级青少年（年龄15至18岁）的劳动模式调研显示，98.4%的男性青少年与99.0%的女性青少年曾从事过有偿或无偿劳动。其中6.6%的受访者表示曾担任过语言中介，该群体中71.2%为女性；6.4%的受访者表示曾在家中为成年家庭成员提供照料服务，该群体中64.5%为女性。<br><br>第二阶段则对46名调研受访者进行访谈，围绕他们对典型与非典型劳动角色的经历与认知展开。对访谈内容的主题分析显示，绝大多数受访者以‘正常童年’的观念来理解青少年劳动：正常童年被视为依赖他人、接受教育与进行嬉戏的阶段，而非参与劳动的时期。但该认知框架未能充分阐释本研究中拥有非典型劳动经历的青少年群体的真实生活。其中许多受访者同时秉持两种观念：一方面是‘正常童年’的固有认知，另一方面则是更具情境化的另类童年观念——在这类观念中，他们的非典型劳动活动在特定的社会文化场域中被视为正常行为。<br><br><strong>核心研究主题</strong>：<br>涵盖儿童发展、青少年与劳动、语言中介、青年照料者四大主题。