Research Guides: Teens and Tweens: EDUC 0819/0919: Explore Teen Trends

Explore teen trends

If you have not chosen a trend, spend some time searching Google and figuring out what interests you. For any trend you select, you'll want to make sure that there is at least some scholarly information on the trend, e.g. a research study conducted and reported on by an expert and most likely published in an academic journal. You can search Google Scholar early on to get a quick idea of whether or not the scholarly sources you'll need exist.

How Can I Use Wikipedia?

Wikipedia can be a great place to begin finding information on a teen trend or issue. You'll need to find additional sources, but Wikipedia articles may help you learn more about your chosen culture. Use the citation list at the bottom to lead you to more sources.

Newspaper Sources

You may be allowed to use a few popular sources in addition to your top-tier scholarly sources. These newspaper databases will help you locate newspaper and magazine articles and possibly get access to back issues of publications that you wouldn't be able to get through Google.

US Newsstream (formerly ProQuest Newsstand) This link opens in a new window
U.S. Newsstream features newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites dating back to 1980. Some titles include: Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.
Alternative Press Index This link opens in a new window
Alternative Press Index is produced quarterly by the Alternative Press Center and indexes alternative, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines that report and analyze the practices and theories of cultural, economic, political and social change. The coverage in Alternative Press Index is from 1991 to present; Alternative Press Index Archive covers 1969 to 1990. (Updated quarterly)
Ethnic Newswatch This link opens in a new window
Concurrent user limit: 12
Ethnic NewsWatch is a full-text collection of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press.

Selected books related to youth and identity

You may also need to consider how to narrow your topic down, or how to relate it back to course themes such as adolescent development. For example, if you're interested in "teen use of social media," maybe you'll want to focus on a specific form of social media such as SnapChat. From there, perhaps you'd focus in how SnapChat, or other new media environments, affect teen relationships.

Contemporary Youth Culture
ISBN: 0313327165
An international and inter-disciplinary roster of experts shed light by exploring such topics as hip hop culture; punk culture; social justice movements; video games; political activism; language and identity; post-feminism; television; rites of passage; heterosexuality and homosexuality; race and ethnicity; social class; poetry and literature; visual art; conceptions of beauty and body image; academics; sports; drugs; families; refugee youth; the Internet; youth journalism; fashion; and violence. This authoritative and reliable guide will prove accessible and fascinating to adults and adolescents.
Encyclopedia of Children, Adolescents, and the Media by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett (Editor)
ISBN: 1412905303
From Internet censorship to sex and violence on television and in video games to debates over rock lyrics, the media and their affect on children and adolescents is one of the most widely debated issues in our society. The Encyclopedia of Children, Adolescents, and the Media presents state-of-the-art research and ready-to-use facts on the media’s interaction with children and adolescents. With over 400 entries, the two volumes of this resource cover the traditional and electronic media and their controversial impact - for good and ill - on children and adolescents.
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture by Gale Editor (Editor)
ISBN: 9781558628472
Publication Date: 2013-05-17
Includes numerous essays, alphabetically arranged, and written or reviewed by subject experts and edited to form a consistent, readable, and straightforward reference. Entries cover topics and persons in major areas of popular culture: film; music; print culture; social life; sports; television and radio; and art and performance (which include theater, dance, stand-up comedy, and other live performance).
The Transformation of Sexuality [print] by Thomas Johansson
How do contemporary young people construct their sexual identities? Are young people sexually liberated, or is human sexuality increasingly controlled and manipulated by commercial forces? Thomas Johansson explores the construction of sexual identities by young people as part of a wider process of identity construction, combining the work of key authors such as Elias and Foucault with original and revealing empirical material drawn from an extensive survey of the views of 1300 sixteen to nineteen year olds, combined with a number of qualitative in-depth interviews with different sexual subcultures. Topics covered include fidelity and infidelity, love, homosexuality, pornography and beauty ideals. Designed to look beyond media images and popular prejudices the book illustrates how young people of both genders, of different nationalities and of different group allegiances view and relate to their own sexuality.
Popular Appeal by Sharyn Pearce; Vivienne Muller; Lesley Hawkes
Now is an opportune moment to consider the shifts in youth and popular culture that are signalled by texts that are being read and viewed by young people. In a world seemingly compromised by climate change, political and religious upheavals and economic irresponsibility, and at a time of fundamental social change, young people are devouring fictional texts that focus on the edges of identity, the points of transition and rupture, and the assumption of new and hybrid identities. This book draws on a range of international texts to address these issues, and to examine the ways in which key popular genres in the contemporary market for young people are being re-defined and re-positioned in the light of urgent questions about the environment, identity, one's place in the world, and the fragile nature of the world itself.
The Subcultural Imagination by Shane Blackman (Editor); Michelle Kempson (Editor)
The Subcultural Imagination discusses young adults in subcultures and examines how sociologists use qualitative research methods to study them. Through the application of the ideas of C. Wright Mills to the development of theory-reflexive ethnography, this book analyses the experiences of young people in different subcultural settings, as well as reflecting on how young people in subcultures interact in the wider context of society, biography and history.
African Youth in Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture : Identity Quest
This book explores how African youth are depicted in contemporary literature and popular culture, and discusses the different ways by which they attempt to construct personal and cultural identities through popular culture and social media outlets. The contributors approach the subject from an interdisciplinary perspective, looking at images in children's and adolescent literature from Africa, and the African diaspora, from Nollywood and Hollywood movies, from popular magazines, and from youth cultures encountered directly through field experiences. The findings reveal that there are many stereotypes about Africa, African youth and black cultures, and that African youth are aware of these. Since they juggle multiple identities shaped by their ethnicities, race and religion, it is often a challenge for them to define themselves. As they also share a global youth culture that transcends these cultural markers, some take advantage of media outlets to voice their concerns and participate in political struggles. Others simply use these to promote their personal interests. Contributors ponder the challenges involved in constructing unique identities, offering ideas on how African youth are doing so successfully or not in different parts of the continent and the African diaspora, and thus offer new possibilities for youth studies.

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