When rural teens pile into a couple of pick-up trucks to drive around,
is that the same as urban gangs roaming the streets?
Most informal sources say no, but social work professor Barry Hall and
his research colleagues want to know if that fits into the issue of
rural youth activities and violence.
In an $85,000 project started this fall at the University of
Lethbridge, he and Judith Kulig of the university’s health sciences’
faculty are looking into how rural young people define violence.
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They decided to work in this area because the community was concerned
about how young people were spending their time and whether they were
getting in trouble.
“But no one knew,” Hall said. “There’s nothing in the (academic)
literature about rural youth violence.”
Many people in southern Alberta were shocked when a bullied teenager
killed a fellow student in 1999 at a high school in Taber, Alta.
“There was a great sense of loss about the shootings. People realized
it happens outside the U.S. and big cities.”
That led to a spate of anti-bullying programs in schools across the
Prairies. While Hall calls this a wonderful response, he said it is
only a beginning.
The researchers want to find out whether rural young people’s exposure
to guns affects their behaviour. Other areas to explore are boredom,
domestic family violence, suicide and what young people do if they
witness violence.
The study will start by advertising for 30 young people willing to be
interviewed about their definitions and experiences of violence. They
will come from two unnamed towns in southern Alberta, one with a base
in agriculture and the other in mining. As well, 360 young people will
be randomly surveyed in three southern Alberta health districts. The
researchers will release their initial results next spring at public
forums in the two towns to get feedback.
Hall said the goal is to develop health care and other services that
deal with young people and their concerns, possibly through a youth
advisory panel to assist those who design programs.
Young people in southern Alberta who want to be part of the study can
contact the researchers at 877-394-3960, or at the soon-to-be-activated
website ruralyouthviolence.ca.
