This study provides a review of the emerging themes from the extensive literature on disadvantage and discrimination experienced by young black people in Britain. The review focuses in particular on: homelessness; under achievement at school; school exclusion; juvenile justice; looked after young people; substance misuse; racial abuse and racial bullying; racial and cultural identity; and mental health problems.
This study provides a review of the emerging themes from the extensive literature on disadvantage and discrimination experienced by young black people in Britain. The review focuses in particular on: homelessness; under achievement at school; school exclusion; juvenile justice; looked after young people; substance misuse; racial abuse and racial bullying; racial and cultural identity; and mental health problems.
Extended abstract:
Author
BARN Ravinder;
Title
Black youth on the margins: a research review.
Publisher
York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2001.
Summary
This research review explores the wide range of areas in which minority ethnic youth have been found to be disadvantaged. Research evidence suggests that, unless areas of risk and vulnerability are seriously addressed at policy and practice level, minority ethnic young people at the margins of society will become increasingly disaffected and alienated. This report addresses the needs and concerns of those vulnerable young people who are represented amongst the statistics of 'looked after' children, those under achieving at school and excluded from school, young offenders, and those with substance misuse and mental health problems.
Context
Black young people constitute about 10 per cent of the total child population in Britain. The majority of these children will grow up to lead emotionally secure and healthy lives. A certain proportion will come to the attention of health and social services as a result of ill health, poverty, poor housing/homelessness, racial discrimination and disadvantage, and family breakdown, and will require help and assistance to meet their particular needs and concerns.
Method
There is no mention in the text of how the research review was undertaken or what search strategies were employed.
Contents
The introduction provides a background and gives a demographic context to the issues addressed in the review. Chapter 2 explores the situation of young people in contact with the personal social services and their range of needs. A particular focus is placed on children in substitute family placements, residential care, care leavers, and those considered to be at risk of abuse and neglect. Chapter 3 identifies some areas where black young people may be at particular risk of becoming excluded from mainstream society. Research evidence and official statistics are used to provide an understanding of the need and concerns of young people around education, employment and training, homelessness, substance misuse, juvenile justice and mental health. Chapter 4 provides an analysis of thinking about the concept of racial and ethnic identity, and its significance to black young people in multi-racial Britain. Chapter 5 places its efforts in the identification of gaps in future research and provides a conclusion to the review.
Conclusion
"The widespread diversity between ethnic groups racially, and culturally and in their experience of British institutions is now beginning to be recognised at policy level. Although racial inequality in a range of areas including housing, employment, education, health and social services has been documented over the past 40 years, the differential experiences of minority ethnic groups are now beginning to highlight important needs and concerns. Racial inequality continues to impact the life changes of black young people. It is crucial that there is an adequate conceptualisation of the areas of risk and vulnerability for different groups and that such conceptualisation is able to begin to influence policy and provision to reduce disadvantage and discrimination."
284 references ISBN 1 84263 044 X
Subject terms:
literature reviews, mental health problems, racial discrimination, racial harassment, racism, social exclusion, young people, black and minority ethnic people, cultural identity;
Psychiatric Bulletin, 24(3), March 2000, pp.94-95.
Publisher:
Royal College of Psychiatrists
This paper proposes the centrality of identity negotiation as a psychological process occurring when one is faced with the concrete reality of racism and social exclusion.
This paper proposes the centrality of identity negotiation as a psychological process occurring when one is faced with the concrete reality of racism and social exclusion.
Subject terms:
mental health, mental health problems, models, psychology, racism, social exclusion, black and minority ethnic people, cultural identity;
British Journal of Psychiatry, 182(4), April 2003, pp.289-290.
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
This article argues that it is possible to derive two quite different meanings for social exclusion, with different evidential bases, and with different implications for social and clinical action. The first concept of social exclusion, Demos, has implications for citizens' rights; the other, Ethnos, has more-significant implications for the practising clinician. Demos refers to the range of access rights which are offered by citizenship of a given nation state. By contrast, Ethnos refers to a shared cultural community rather than a national community, and to the shared values, identification and sense of cohesion that are engendered by membership of particular social groups and communities. Interventions designed to have an impact upon social inclusion through Demos channels would include enhancing structures that promise and deliver greater access to services. Actions by psychiatrists to achieve service improvement through Ethnos-related measures would, for example, relate to greater emphasis within the psychiatric training curriculum on understanding the interrelationships between ethnic minority culture and the experience of mental illness. There is in turn an interplay between these two domains: Ethnos-related measures are unlikely to be effective without concurrent Demos-related changes.
This article argues that it is possible to derive two quite different meanings for social exclusion, with different evidential bases, and with different implications for social and clinical action. The first concept of social exclusion, Demos, has implications for citizens' rights; the other, Ethnos, has more-significant implications for the practising clinician. Demos refers to the range of access rights which are offered by citizenship of a given nation state. By contrast, Ethnos refers to a shared cultural community rather than a national community, and to the shared values, identification and sense of cohesion that are engendered by membership of particular social groups and communities. Interventions designed to have an impact upon social inclusion through Demos channels would include enhancing structures that promise and deliver greater access to services. Actions by psychiatrists to achieve service improvement through Ethnos-related measures would, for example, relate to greater emphasis within the psychiatric training curriculum on understanding the interrelationships between ethnic minority culture and the experience of mental illness. There is in turn an interplay between these two domains: Ethnos-related measures are unlikely to be effective without concurrent Demos-related changes.
Subject terms:
mental health problems, models, multicultural approach, multicultural society, psychiatry, social exclusion, social care provision, welfare state, black and minority ethnic people, communities, citizenship, cultural identity, ethnicity;
British Journal of Social Work, 32(6), September 2002, pp.779-797.
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Mental health or ill health is, by some, thought to be inherent within the individual, whereas social justice, as its name indicates, resides within the realm of the social. However, where we understand social justice as, on the one hand, an issue involving equality and fairness, and on the other as having both material and symbolic dimensions it becomes clear that there is an important link. In particular groups which suffer disadvantage and discrimination may be expected to suffer higher rates of mental ill health. However, the key to understanding this is by identifying the mechanisms by which this can happen. In order to do this it is necessary that one does not look at mental health (or illness) in an undifferentiated way, since there are different processes involved for different forms of mental ill health. This article, therefore, looks at this by focusing on the issue of social justice through two significant relationships: gender and depression, and race and schizophrenia. It then examines the mechanisms which link these together, and show how they are significant psychological consequences of social injustice arising in both material and symbolic form.
Mental health or ill health is, by some, thought to be inherent within the individual, whereas social justice, as its name indicates, resides within the realm of the social. However, where we understand social justice as, on the one hand, an issue involving equality and fairness, and on the other as having both material and symbolic dimensions it becomes clear that there is an important link. In particular groups which suffer disadvantage and discrimination may be expected to suffer higher rates of mental ill health. However, the key to understanding this is by identifying the mechanisms by which this can happen. In order to do this it is necessary that one does not look at mental health (or illness) in an undifferentiated way, since there are different processes involved for different forms of mental ill health. This article, therefore, looks at this by focusing on the issue of social justice through two significant relationships: gender and depression, and race and schizophrenia. It then examines the mechanisms which link these together, and show how they are significant psychological consequences of social injustice arising in both material and symbolic form.
Subject terms:
mental health problems, mental health services, racism, schizophrenia, social exclusion, social welfare, sociology, stereotyped attitudes, black and minority ethnic people, cultural identity, depression, discrimination, equal opportunities, gender;