Youth research group
Convenor Dr Tracy Shildrick
The youth research unit has a national reputation for research with young people on youth issues. Its cutting-edge, social scientific projects – which have won funding from prestigious, national research councils and charities – have led to the publication of many books, specialist journal articles and reports.
Teaching
There is an effective synergy between youth research and teaching at Teesside. The strength of youth research led to the launch, in 1998, of an undergraduate degree in Youth Studies, the first of its type in the country.
Current research projects
- Review of Adolescent Stress
- Making Sense of Youth Transitions
- The Role of Basic Skills in the Extended Transitions of Young Adults
- Evaluation of the Hartlepool Dordrecht Initiative
- Extended Youth Transitions and Social Exclusion
- Extended Youth Transitions, Higher Education and Social Inclusion
Recent projects supported by the Economic and Social Research Council have explored young people's experiences of work, family and crime in 'socially excluded' neighbourhoods and the importance of basic skills in the transition to adulthood. Successive studies funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation have investigated long-term employment, family, housing, criminal and drug-using 'careers' of young people who have grown up in very deprived wards.
The unit has also undertaken numerous projects in the North East with a more applied focus, as well more general social science research. These include recent evaluations of youth service provision, an innovative crime reduction programme in Hartlepool, drug services in Stockton-on-Tees and of youth housing support and 'careers clubs' in Middlesbrough. Members of the group supervise several doctoral research students and the most recent action research project contained within the group is sponsored by Tees Valley Connexions.
Contact us
The recent period has been particularly successful for the youth research unit with a raft of work being accepted for publication and a round of speaking engagements.
Convenor: Dr Tracy Shildrick
Address: Youth research unit
School of Social Sciences & Law
Teesside University
Middlesbrough
United Kingdom
TS1 3BA
T: 01642 384282
E: r.macdonald@tees.ac.uk | t.a.shildrick@tees.ac.uk
