STRATEGIC STUDIES ON YOUTH AND SPORTS
Year:2015 | Volume:14 | Issue:29|Papers Count:14

Opening the "population window" by young people born in 1980s (baby boom) in Iran, as an transitional and changing society over the last decades, has resulted challenges for youth welfare and national development, instead of golden opportunity to benefit them, due to lack of earlier and long term planning and policies to support the young generation's needs in life cycle (from childhood to adults). In this context, measurement and providing a comprehensive image of youth situation in Iran, through the new and rights - centered approach named "Social Exclusion/Inclusion" can be useful, as it reveals knowing and assessing youth socio-economic condition and difficulties, moreover, can suggest to policy makers relevant social policies affecting youth affairs.This paper aims to operationalize and apply "social exclusion" to measure Iranian youth deprivations and insufficient social inclusion/integration in social system as objectively and subjectively. Objective social exclusion is operationalized in 3 dimensions: 1- material deprivations 2- lack of basic social rights 3- lack of socio-cultural integration. Subjective social exclusion has been extracted from the gap between youth's expectations and real life.This study is a descriptive- explanatory national survey over years 2012 - 2014. The population consisted of 15-29 years old youths. Using the multi-stage cluster sampling method, 4522 participants were selected from 12 provinces. They received the standard - localized questionnaire.Findings revel that near the half of youth (45%) participants have been suffering objective social exclusion (mean score 34 in a 0-100 grading scale) over their life course & mean score for subjective social exclusion was about 2 times (68.7%) higher than objective one. Therefore, about half of them (49.2%) had the hard sense of subjective exclusion. Observed differences in levels and dimensions of social exclusion between youths in different groups have been analyzed.

Considering the importance of assessing and identifying effective couple Factors on healthy marriage, this study aimed to determine the predictive role of factors marital in the successful marriage among youth couples. This is a descriptive- correlational research in which 853 couples in Tehran with at least one child were selected through random cluster sampling method and then assessed by Iranian Family Health Questionnaire (IFHQ) and Demographic Characteristic Questionnaires. Data analyzed using Pearson correlation and stepwise multiple regression analysis. The results of Pearson’s correlation coefficient showed that there was a significant and positive relation between marriage health and couple factors. In addition, the results indicated that marital factors could predict 59 percent of successful marriage. Hence, a number of different factors can contribute to building a successful marriage including reciprocal caring, intimacy, acknowledgment, commitment, attempt to satisfying one another, sexual satisfaction, and agreement. These factors are of fundamental role in successful marriage. Therefore, with regard to marriage, it is necessary to pay more attention to social and cultural contexts.

The research was done to identify the factors affecting youth employability, investigate youth employability and provide the best advices for improving youth employability. This project aims to answer these questions: “What is the best definition for employability?” “What features or scales can be utilized to measure Iranian young people’s employability?” “Is it necessary to provide indigenous scales?” “What is the relationship between employability and issues as academic and vocational education?” “According to the definition of employability, how is the status of employability of Iranian young people?” and “According to the research findings, how can youth employability be improved?”Quantitative (survey with 1500 samples) and qualitative (interview and focus group) methods have been chosen for answering these questions. Findings have shown that there is significant difference between the basic knowledge and employability scales and province location of youth; for example, youth who are living in developed or underdeveloped province have different level of employability. Furthermore, work culture (because of hardworking and perseverance not being as a value), financial deprivation (because of being deprived of knowledge or skill and starting up occupation), performance of educational system (because of inattention to vocational education and imbalance labor market) and instability macro-policy are major factors in decreasing employability of Iranian youth. Also, this research asserts that youth unreal assumptions about their status of employability and business environment have caused decreasing their employability.

NGOs are one of the manifestations of civil society with the rule of democratic values that most people's participation in various social affairs which can help with issues such as policy making, implementation and follow-up activities involved in the conduct of public affairs YNGOs situation. In this paper, (youth NGOs) in Iran are studied in documentation and library methods. we try to express the role and importance of youth NGOs in the national interests. YNGOs are non-profit and voluntary youth activities in terms of welfare and public services. By the definition of the United Nations, NGOs are organizations to reduce pain and enhance the interests of the poor and protecting the environment, providing social services and development indicators. Due to the efforts of NGOs in humanitarian and food aid, medical care, clothing and other necessities in case of events that cause damage to natural factors and human societies, including war and acts of terrorism or extremist groups, it should be said that they are of great important. Therefore, the public measures, particularly by youth NGOs in other countries of the world for natural influence foreign audiences, will share the understanding of the country's philanthropic programs for others.

The aim of this study was to identify factors influencing the formation of religious identity of Karaj’s students. The population consisted of Karaj’s high schools with cluster sampling from three regions uptown, downtown and inner-town, three schools were selected.The method of research was mixed method and research tools were questionnaire and interview. At first for selecting the research sample, we used the Khodayarifard et al (2010) religiosity questionnaire that was executed on the high school fourth-grade students those were totally 230 individuals with the age average of 17 and acquired in theory field (mathematics, science and humanities). After the execution of religiosity questionnaire, 65 individuals who received the highest score in the religiosity questionnaire were selected and each person responded separately to the questions about effective religious identity formation resources which were made by the researcher (a Semi-structured questionnaire were adjusted according to contributing sociological factors to the formation of religious identity and the final form was used after using the highly qualified experts’ opinions) in a 15-minute session. Descriptive content analysis was used in evaluating of the interview data.The findings of analysis performed on the sample of interviews showed these effects on students’ religious identity: (1) school (teacher’s characteristics, educational activities, and curriculum) (2) families (economic issues, cultural level, religiosity, the type of the job and...) (3) social factors (media issues, cultural programs of mosques, government officials, and religious bodies) The results showed that orderly the most important factors in the formation of students’ religious identity was parents’ religiousness, participating in religious organizations and student clubs. The results also showed that a number of high-ranking state officials and ineffective teachers had have been negative results on the students' religious identity formation.Findings suggest that family education and religious upbringing of children to education be taken seriously and religious organizations should organize students with proper planning.

The purpose of the study is to identify and prioritize the strategies of developing environmental culture and to enhance the participation of athletes in environmental protection activities. Due to the mutual influence of sport and environment, the need of more environmental knowledge in sport community is obvious. So, the provided strategies in the survey can be used for all levels of sport. Final data are the result of mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative) and Friedman ANOVA. The population was the elite athletes in different kinds of sports and non-random goal oriented sampling were been used for qualitative interviews. Finally, the strategies classified in three main branches and mentioned the top ten specifically. These three branches were: educational and research strategies, managerial and structural strategies and cultural and national strategies.

The system of policy making and planning in the field of youth affairs experiences multiple challenges and problems which prevents its full efficiency despite various attempts. These challenges are of various dimensions and nature, but many of them are rooted in structural aspects of organizing youth affairs. The present paper seeks to address these challenges focusing on structural issues with a view to suggest a proper structure for optimizing its functions. It builds on two theoretical foundations namely the evolution of public management theories and youth participation theories to justify the suggested model for organizing youth affair in Iran. The methods used in this paper and the related paper research consist of comparative study, content analysis and literature review.Findings of the comparative identified six main models of structural arrangements for governmental institutions and bodies responsible for organizing youth affairs. Various factors were identified at the domestic level which had caused the inefficiency and failure of the system of policy making and planning in the field of youth affairs; these factors could be classified in four categories, namely contextual, behavioral, normative and structural.Accordingly, a new model called the Integrated and Participatory (Networkbased) Model of Organizing Youth Affairs in the country has been suggested. This model is aimed to tackle the above mentioned challenges of the past to a considerable extent while contributing to further development of this field by benefiting from international experiencing.

Nowadays, the usage of soft potential and its neutralization is undeniable in world economic and political changes that could been studied in three cultural, economical and political dimensions. One of the sub-variables in cultural part is sport. This research is an analytic- descriptive one and the researcher has used library studies after analyzing the soft potential in sport and its effect on isotropy of countries. The research is to answer these questions: Will sport put positive effects on economical development of some countries as a component of creating soft potential? Why does sport put effect on isotropy countries as a component of creating soft potential.The results of research showed that identification and advantage of one country to others in the field of power, rooted in sport competition that is nowadays as a professional and commercial way, is the symbol of advantage and effectiveness of sport in creating of soft potential. Therefore, use of dominance strategy, absorption and satiation in sport that is one of the aims of soft potential, can be effective on national and international relations. In addition, it may lead to association, national timidity and cultural accretion and finally, economical development.