Promoting social connectedness, social inclusion and resilience among youth

Abstract

Youth is an important and critical period towards psychosocial maturity. Facing the socio-economic and demographic transitions, Chinese youth encounter developmental challenges but still find pathways to achieve positive outcomes. Five groups of researchers offer their insightful findings and shed light on youth development based on Chinese populations. In this issue 15.2, studies on volunteerism, openness and diversity, coping with discrimination, prosocial behaviour, and resilience over adversity contribute valuable knowledge and advance our understanding of factors leading to the positive development of youth. Ling and colleagues reported a secondary school volunteer service project that was participated by 1,046 students. Using multivariate analysis, hours of volunteerism were positively correlated with volunteering responsibility and intention to volunteer. The authors recommend for refined frameworks volunteer services and service opportunities for youth. Chan, Au-Yeung and Lau conducted a pilot study on the using retelling activities to enhance social work students’ openness to diversity. Using a randomised controlled design, a story retelling group that required students to read website materials and had dialogues with the protagonists had a stronger effect than the analytical writing group in increasing critical openness and decreasing cognitive closure. Zhang and colleagues studied the role of peer relationships in discrimination intensity and coping schemes among vulnerable adolescents. Results showed that for adolescents who experienced low-intensity discrimination, higher levels of peer relationships were positively associated with seeking help or confronting discrimination. In contrast, for adolescents who experienced high-intensity discrimination, higher levels of peer relationships were positively associated with passive endurance towards discrimination. Based on such findings, the use of divergent strategies to support vulnerable youth against discrimination is recommended. Kang and Guo investigated how the authoritative parenting style influenced their young adult children’s prosocial behaviour through self-regulation. Based on a sample of young adults from 19 to 25 years old, cognitive reappraisal partially mediated the relationship between authoritative parenting and prosocial behaviour. Expressive suppression did not play a mediating role between authoritative parenting and prosocial behaviour, as expected in the hypothesis. Du investigated the developmental trajectories and protective factors of college students with rural left-behind experience in China. Internal assets (empathy and initiative) and external resources (positive educational expectations, attention and acknowledgement from school, and low social pressure from the community) were identified as significant factors in building the resilience of left-behind children. CHINA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK 2022, VOL. 15, NO. 2, 103–104 https://doi.org/10.1080/17525098.2022.2096456