Youth Cultures

What Youth Cultures covers

Youth Cultures is examined in Unit 1 Section B — one of two options, studied instead of Families and Households. It covers youth and the social construction of adolescence, the media and the formation of youth culture, economic change, consumption and the youth market, globalisation and youth culture, social class and youth subcultures, gender and youth culture, ethnicity and youth culture, national identity, Welshness and youth culture, neo-tribes and the changing nature of youth culture, youth deviance, delinquency and crime, anti-school subcultures and the labelling of youth, functionalist and Marxist theories of youth culture and feminist, interactionist and postmodernist theories of youth culture.

The 13 subtopics

Each one has its own page. WJEC AS Sociology students sit this topic in the first year.

• Youth and the social construction of adolescenceRite of passage, yo-yo transition and youth culture.Open →
• The media and the formation of youth cultureSubcultural capital, commodity form of incorporation and media-generated youth style.Open →
• Economic change, consumption and the youth marketYouth market and night-time economy.Open →
• Globalisation and youth cultureGlobal youth culture, cultural hybridity and hybridity in British youth music.Open →
• Social class and youth subculturesMagical solution and parent culture in subcultural theory.Open →
• Gender and youth cultureDouble standard as it applies to young people's sexual behaviour and hegemonic masculinity.Open →
• Ethnicity and youth cultureHybrid youth identity and disproportionality in stop and search.Open →
• National identity, Welshness and youth cultureUrdd Gobaith Cymru, cool Cymru and welsh Youth Parliament.Open →
• Neo-tribes and the changing nature of youth culturePost-subcultural theory and style surfing.Open →
• Youth deviance, delinquency and crimeCriminal subculture in Cloward and Ohlin's account, conflict subculture in Cloward and Ohlin's account and retreatist subculture in Cloward and Ohlin's account.Open →
• Anti-school subcultures and the labelling of youthAnti-school subculture, master status and folk devil.Open →
• Functionalist and Marxist theories of youth cultureRecall questions on youth as a bridge to adulthood, age groups, resistance through rituals, the incorporation of style, media treatment of the young, and the policing of them.Open →
• Feminist, interactionist and postmodernist theories of youth cultureRecall questions on bedroom culture, the restriction of young women's leisure, the meanings young people give their own behaviour, chosen identity, and how theory shapes what a researcher sees.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Youth Cultures further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Youth culture vs Youth subculture

  Youth culture: the broad set of tastes and values shared by young people. Youth subculture: a distinct group within it with its own style and boundaries.

• Primary deviance vs Secondary deviance

  Primary deviance: the act before anyone reacts to it. Secondary deviance: the behaviour that follows public labelling.

• Cultural hybridity vs Cultural imperialism

  Cultural hybridity: cultures mixing to produce something new. Cultural imperialism: one powerful culture displacing another.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What does it mean to say that youth is socially constructed?

   Model answer

   It means that the way a society defines young people, and the freedoms and restrictions it attaches to that stage, vary between cultures and periods rather than following from biology.

2. 2

   Distinguish adolescence from youth.

   Model answer

   Adolescence describes the physical and psychological changes of puberty, while youth describes the social status a society gives to people between childhood and adulthood.

3. 3

   Why did a distinct stage of youth emerge in Britain after 1945?

   Model answer

   Schooling was extended, full employment gave young people money and free time, and the end of child labour separated them from the adult world of work.

4. 4

   What did Abrams (1959) find about the teenage consumer?

   Model answer

   Abrams found that post-war affluence gave young people disposable income of their own, which created a distinct teenage market in music, clothing and leisure.

5. 5

   Why is the raising of the school leaving age important in explaining youth culture?

   Model answer

   Keeping young people together in one institution for longer separates them from adults and gives them the time and company in which a shared culture can form.

6. 6

   Define a rite of passage.

   Model answer

   A rite of passage is a ritual marking movement from one social status to another, such as from childhood into adulthood.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Youth Cultures revision questions

Is Youth Cultures examined at AS in WJEC Sociology?

Yes. It sits in AS Unit 1, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.

What does Youth Cultures cover in WJEC AS-Level Sociology?

13 subtopics: youth and the social construction of adolescence, the media and the formation of youth culture, economic change, consumption and the youth market, globalisation and youth culture, social class and youth subcultures, gender and youth culture, ethnicity and youth culture, national identity, welshness and youth culture, neo-tribes and the changing nature of youth culture, youth deviance, delinquency and crime, anti-school subcultures and the labelling of youth, functionalist and marxist theories of youth culture and feminist, interactionist and postmodernist theories of youth culture. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Youth Cultures organised?

By the WJEC 601-5237-0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.