With many of the Catholic student population disengaged from regular ritual experiences their working vocabulary of the prayers and knowledge of the Church is limited. A beneficial bridge for many of these disconnected students, specifically male adolescents has been the use of storytelling in connection to Catholic themes to lay the foundations…

The popularity of adolescent fantasy movies about cosmic war and the enjoyment of military adventures that we find in World War II movies suggest the unique importance of war-themed culture in fostering solidarity in large, complex, and factionalized societies. War movies offset the power of sub-cultural movements by emphasizing the togetherness…

An emerging literature suggests that females are more likely than males to take and post selfies and that such selfies tend to both conform to and legitimize the sexualization of femininity. It has been found that key predictors of selfie behaviors are narcissistic personality traits and that taking a higher number of selfies may, in turn, put…

While the observations of generalist educators (Irving, 2009; Scheld, 2012) and anecdotal studies have suggested that interests in popular stories can "turn non-reading pupils into readers" (Smith, 2005) and increase critical writing skills (Kell, 2009; Thomas 2006), many art teachers fail to recognize the educational merits of fanart,…

Reasoning about problems with empirically false content can be hard, as the inferences that people draw are heavily influenced by their background knowledge. However, presenting empirically false premises in a fantasy context helps children and adolescents to disregard their beliefs, and to reason on the basis of the premises. The aim of the…

This article uses queer performance theorist José Muñoz's metaphor of disidentification to interpret digital narratives produced by adolescent girls in the juvenile arbitration program. Muñoz views public artistic performances of marginalized subjects as a liminal strategy. While they cannot embody the normative ("good" middle…

"Princess Mononoke," "Akira," and "Cowboy Bebop" may not be household names. But in the world of anime, or Japanese animation, they are among the top 10 films ever made. With its complex plots and moral messages, anime is as intelligent as some of the best feature films. From the epic fantasy "Ninja Scroll"…

This article explores ways to utilize students' interest in fantasy literature to support critical literacy. Focusing on Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games series (2008, 2009, 2010), the author addresses how elements of the trilogy relate to violent acts in our world, helping student understand that violence and brutality toward children is not…

This chapter examines a specific aspect of digital media use, namely the viewing of violent content amongst a male adolescent cohort aged 15-17 years. It is a qualitative study that examines the online practices of fourteen male adolescents, with particular emphasis placed on their understanding of violence. The participants offer the researcher…

Adolescents spend a substantial part of their leisure time with playing games and using social media such as Facebook. The present paper examines the link between adolescents' computer and Internet activities and computer literacy (defined as the ability to work with a computer efficiently). A cross-sectional study with N = 200 adolescents, aged…

Five years ago, when the author transferred from a local elementary school to her current position, she took one look at the dismal circulation figures and knew she had her work cut out for her. One of the first things she did was create a graphic novel section to attract young male readers. She also began stocking up on guy-friendly adventure and…

Few studies have compared urban and rural adolescents' mental health problems, especially in developing countries. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mental health problems and coping styles of adolescents in urban and rural areas in China. A total of 927 urban and rural high school students in Shandong Province of China were…

This paper challenges post-feminist discourses and recuperative masculinity politics in education that have evoked mythical constructions of the successful "achieving" girl in ways that flatten out social and cultural difference and render invisible ongoing gendered and sexualised inequalities and violence in the social worlds of schools…

In a recent review (Giesbrecht, Lynn, Lilienfeld, & Merckelbach, 2008), we critically evaluated the research literature on cognitive processes in dissociation. In a comment, Bremner (2010) has voiced reservations about our contention that evidence for the causal role of trauma in dissociation is limited. In this reply, we argue that Bremner's…

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), announced its 2010 annual lists of Fabulous Films for Young Adults and Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults ages 12 to 18. This article presents the list of titles that were released in January 2010 during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston,…