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This conceptual paper takes identity, digital technology, young people and education as a combined starting point and suggests how to research young people’s identity practices in and out of school. Today’s young people form their identities in a world that is increasingly imbued by digital technologies. What is evident too is that these technologies and the use of them are not restricted to one single context. Rather, digital technologies mediate multiple contexts simultaneously – to an extent where they collapse. This means that school and leisure time, public and private, digital and analog, virtual and material, time and place, social contexts and audiences, through digital technology, merge in various ways in young people’s identity practices and everyday life.

Little is known about what identity practices in collapsing contexts means to young people in their lives and how educators and others can support them. Most studies to date investigate digital technology use as a discrete phenomenon and few studies concern young people’s identity practices in contexts, as they occur. In an increasingly digital world, where dependency on digital technologies continues this forms an urgent knowledge gap to bridge. In particular to guide educators, and others, who support young people as they live and learn through interconnected spaces in and out of school. The conceptual approach of this paper is of importance to better understand how to bridge this gap.

This paper suggests a research approach that extends previous research at the intersection of identity, young people, digital technology by outlining extended ways for thinking about identity in a digital world that can be useful for investigating identity as an existential practice, extending beyond identity representations, in conditions mediated by contemporary digital technologies and in collapsing contexts. What is also included are methodological considerations about researching young people, identity and technology as dynamic research objects, rendering a holistic approach.

It is a conceptual paper that addresses identity, digital technology, young people and education as a combined starting point to outline further research.

The Guided Tour Technique and Social Media Research is suggested as possible methodologies for holistic and ethically sensitive, empirical research on identity, digital technology, young people and education.

Occupational choice describes the process that leads to occupational engagement as a result of intrinsic and extrinsic influences. There has been a considerable amount of research concerning occupational choice, gender and adolescence. However, this has largely focused on the areas of career choice and engagement in risky health behaviours. This paper aims to expand on the literature by providing a broader scope of occupation more aligned with the concept associated with occupational science. Furthering this, the researcher aims to examine the influence of gender as an extrinsic influence on occupational choice. The researcher aims to explore how contextual influences inform gendered occupational choice.

An exploratory qualitative approach was used in the current study. Incorporating photographs as a means of elucidating conversation during the interview process, photo-elicitation interview techniques were used as part of the data collection. This involved using a collection of photographs to prompt participants to discuss their interpretations of various occupations. Six adolescent boys and girls aged 11-14 years participated in the study. Participants were recruited from mixed-gendered sports clubs in the West of Ireland. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. An occupational justice perspective was used to interpret the data.

Responses suggest that gender informs occupational choice through different mechanisms. These included social systems, physical and institutional opportunities as well as expectations participants held of themselves and others they considered to be within their social grouping. Social systems included groups such as friends and family. The ease of access to physical and institutional resources was another factor that informed choice. Participants projected views of expectations they perceived others held for them informed how the participants made their choices. These factors varied across gender. Despite opportunities being available to both sexes, choices were often restricted to particular occupations.

The findings suggest that factors informing the occupational choices of adolescents included a combination of intrinsic factors such as gender and perspectives, as well as external factors including peers, family and opportunities in the local community. Practical applications of this involve acknowledging and further understanding the contextually situated nature of choice to provide more equitable practice. The results of the study may provide more insight into the factors that enable and inhibit occupation. A further understanding of these influences can redirect how we view adolescent occupations in a way that promotes health.

Using longitudinal data, this study aims to provide a greater understanding as to how parenting factors, including the employment of various disciplinary techniques, during a young person's early adolescence may contribute to excessive Internet use (EIU) in later adolescence.

Employing “Problem Behaviour” theory (PBT) as a guiding framework, this study uses data from the Growing Up in Ireland ’98 Cohort to investigate the effect of proximal and distal parental influences, measured when children were 13 years old, on symptoms of EIU in young adults at 17 or 18 years. Multiple regression models control for other child and family factors, and separate models for males and females examine sex differentials.

Estimation did not find a statistically significant association between internet-specific mediation practices in early adolescence and EIU in later adolescence. However, regularly playing games or sports together is a protective factor. Parent-adolescent conflict and spending time home alone are estimated as risk factors. How parents deal with misbehaviour is a strong predictor of EIU, with the direction of association dependent upon the type and frequency of discipline employed.

The findings are of practical significance in informing parents of modifiable aspects of their behaviour that can lead to EIU.

The study applies a longitudinal modelling framework and considers the effect on EIU of various parental disciplinary techniques, representing a novel contribution.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether attention, emotion, and cognitive regulation (CR) may be strategies to advance one’s ethnic identity.

The paper is presented in three parts. The first section discusses integrative inquiry (INIQ) (Bresciani Ludvik et al., 2016), a mindfulness methodology and mindful inquiry training program, as a potential pathway to help mitigate stress and enhance healthy development and well-being strategies that combat stressors related to ethnic and racial identity; and increase opportunities for positive ethnic identity development. INIQ was designed to influence areas of the brain associated with attention regulation, emotion regulation, and CR in order to decrease stress and anxiety, and heighten executive functions of undergraduate and graduate students. The second section discusses an exploratory study to see whether INIQ resulted in higher mean scores for participants on their ethnic identity, as assessed by the multigroup ethnic identity measure (Phinney, 1992).

The results indicated that there was a significant increase in pre-test and post-test scores for mindfulness (p=0.001) as well as the dependent measure for learning exploration (p=0.028) among 30 undergraduate, master’s- and doctoral-seeking students. There was also a non-significant increase for clear understanding (p=0.15) and overall ethnic identity achievement (p=0.387); and non-significant decrease for ethnic belonging (p=0.424).

These findings suggest that INIQ may increase students’ ethnic learning exploration, which is an important process in ethnic identity development (Phinney and Ong, 2007). This study also suggests that INIQ increases mindfulness in participants. The authors conclude with a discussion and recommendations to future INIQ and other diversity centered student support practitioners interested in influencing positive ethnic identity formation.

This paper discusses early childhood classrooms as powerful spaces for identity work and, more specifically, as a place (or not) for supporting early STEM identity development. It makes the case for educators and researchers alike to promote an expanded role of early childhood STEM education in the daily lives of young children.

This paper uses a qualitative interpretive methodology, drawing from a wide array of research and theoretical literature from early childhood and STEM education and developmental psychology, as well as public policy.

Today, both research and interventions aimed at fixing the “leaking STEM pipeline” and theory/research on STEM identity development focus on children in middle school and above. Yet, children's attitudes about STEM and about themselves as STEM learners are formed early, and identity work is a task of early childhood. This suggests a need to focus on young children's engagement with STEM education as a means of nurturing their early STEM identity development.

This paper synthesizes previous research to outline the need for expanding STEM education in early public schooling. It proposes a conceptualization of early STEM academic identity development (based on the premise that middle school is too late to fix the leaking STEM pipeline).

The twofold aim of this theory-building article is to raise questions about the ability of queer cinema to transform market culture and ideologies around gender and sexuality. First, the authors examine how the very capitalization of queer signifiers may compromise the dominant order from within. Second, the authors address how brands possibly can draw on these signifiers to project authenticity.

Through visual methods of film criticism and the semiotic analysis of three films (Moonlight, Call Me By Your Name and Portrait of a Lady on Fire), the authors outline some profound narrative tensions addressed by movie makers seeking to give an authentic voice to queer lives.

Brands can tap into these narrative attempts at “seeing the invisible” to signify authenticity. False sublation, i.e. the “catch-22” of commodifying the queer imaginaries one seeks to represent, follows from a Marcusean analysis.

In more practical terms, “seeing the invisible” is proposed as a cultural branding technique. To be felicitous, one has to circumvent three narrative traditions: pathologization, rationalization and trivialization.

In contrast to Marcuse's pessimist view emphasizing its affirmative aspects, the authors conclude that such commodification in the long term may have transformative effects on the dominant ideology. This is because even if something is banished to the realm of imagination, e.g. through aesthetic semblance, it can still be enacted in real life.

People who identify as transgender face stigma, isolation and harassment while often struggling to come to terms with their gender identity. They also disproportionately experience mental health difficulties. The purpose of this paper is to present the voices of transgender people in the Republic of Ireland (RoI) in regard to the issues they are facing, improvements they would like to see made to schools, workplaces, services and society in general and whether mental health supports fulfil their needs.

Ten open questions were embedded within a quantitative online survey (LGBTIreland study) on factors impacting social inclusion, mental health and care. These open questions were re-analysed with exclusive focus on the transgender participants (n = 279) using content/thematic analysis.

The participants in this study reported significant signs of mental distress. The following themes emerged: impact of stigma, deficiencies in mental health services, need for education on transgender identity, importance of peer support, achieving self-acceptance and societal inclusion questioned.

Efforts to recruit young participants have led to a possible over-representation in this study.

The findings suggest the need for improvement in mental health support services, including further education in how to meet the needs of transgender individuals.

Transgender people in Ireland experience social exclusion. The need for more inclusivity was emphasised most in secondary schools. Education on transgender identities in all contexts of society is recommended by the participants.

This study reports on the largest group of transgender participants to date in RoI. Their voices will affect perceptions on social inclusion and mental health care.