Adolescent concern with social issues: An exploratory comparison between Australian, Colombian, and Northern Irish students.

This study from 3 communities sought to determine the extent of adolescent concern with 4 social issues, and to document how young people cope with these concerns. A group of 399 students, aged 14 to 18 years, from 3 urban communities (viz., Colombian, Northern Irish, Australian) indicated their level of concern with 4 social issues. These were Pollution, Discrimination, Fear of Global War, and Community Violence. They then described how they coped with their main concern. In general, the Colombian students indicated the greatest levels of concern, the Northern Irish were the least concerned, and the Australian students were somewhere between these 2 groups in expressed levels of concern. However, the order of importance that each group ascribed to specific concerns varied. When it comes to coping, both community and gender-related differences were noted. In all communities, female participants were more likely to resort to using Tension Reduction strategies and less likely to turn to Relaxing Diversions,...