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Challenge of Youth: A Study of Youth Identity in a Northeastern Village of Thailand
Dissertation Abstract:
The study was undertaken mainly to determine the identity of rural out-of-school youths as perceived by their parents, the village development committees, the community development workers and the youths themselves.
Data were gathered with the use of interview guide and administered questionnaire. The youth-respondents consisted of 49 males and 41 females, averaging 19 years of age, children of semi-subsistence families in Sri-bua, sures of central tendency, frequencies, cross tabulation, chi-square test and percentage comparison were used to analyze the data.
Findings showed that the identity of the Sri-bua out-of-school youths was generally characterized by: no geographic mobility, lack of experience in nonformal training, high exposure to the outside world, awareness of seasonal migration, intimate relationship with parents, “spiritual health” idealism, low fatalism, favorable attitude toward farming occupation, living and working in the village and community development program, high aspiration for education and technical skills, perception of alternatives to rice farming, moderate degree of migration propensity, and high degree of community participation.
In general, the parents had lower occupational aspiration for their children than the youths themselves, while the village development committees had higher educational but lower occupational aspirations for the youths than the community development.
Relationships found statistically significant are as follows: the greater the exposure to the outside world, nonformal training experience and migration awareness, the higher the educational aspiration; the lower fatalism, the higher the nonfarm occupational aspiration; the more favorable the attitude toward community development program, the less the perceived alternatives to rice farming; the more favorable the attitude toward the village as a place of work, the lower the migration propensity; the greater the experience in nonformal training and the higher the “spiritual health” idealism, the higher the degree of community participation.
The study suggests the proper maximization of the potential of the out-of-school youths in order that they can become the object of, partners in, and a means to development.