Mortgaging Our Future? Families and Young People in Australia

Abstract

The papers brought together here address a range of issues relating to families and young people. The seminar began with Peter McDonald's paper, which presents a broad and troubling overview of the changing circumstances of young people in Australia and the problems they face. The paper by Stein Ringen and Brendan Halpin examines the effect of children on disposable income and consumption produced in families. Peter Travers reports on the findings of research in the tradition of Peter Townsend and the conception of poverty and relative deprivation. Travers' study examined the feasibility of measuring differentials in the levels of deprivation experienced by Department of Social Security clients. The paper by Mark Lynch, Michael Emmison and Emma Ogilvie deals with the same research tradition, as it has been applied in the field of criminology. Their research tests the usefulness of the theory of relative deprivation in explaining juvenile delinquency in young people. The paper by Judy Cashmore and Marina Paxman discusses the results from a study which examined the circumstances, experiences and needs of a group of young people leaving wardship in New South Wales.