But in a way I'm an adult : youth culture and the negotiation of identity.

This paper approaches youth identity from the
perspective of discursive psychology and focuses
on how young people construct and negotiate
their identities. Through the use of focus group
data with adolescents from a secondary school, the construction of youth identity was examined.
The management and allocation of blame by the
young people onto others was prevalent
throughout the analysis and three main themes
became apparent. Firstly the pressures of
teenage life exasperated by misunderstandings
by significant others, such as parents or teachers.
Secondly the importance of image within youth
identity and how the media portrayal of youth has
implications for the negotiation of their own
identities. Finally, the third theme considered how
constructions of identity are seen as a negotiation
between childhood and adulthood, with the young
person talking about themselves as being more
grown up than significant others give them due
credit for. This paper extends previous work on
identity by examining aspects of youth culture
that move away from deviant youngsters in
society (Hester, 1998) and those who do not
identify themselves within a specific youth subcultural
group (Widdicombe & Wooffitt, 1995).