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“Getting out of downtown”: a longitudinal study of how street-entrenched youth attempt to exit an inner city drug scene

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Public Health, May 2017
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Title
“Getting out of downtown”: a longitudinal study of how street-entrenched youth attempt to exit an inner city drug scene
Published in
BMC Public Health, May 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12889-017-4313-9
Pubmed ID
Authors

Rod Knight, Danya Fast, Kora DeBeck, Jean Shoveller, Will Small

Abstract

Urban drug "scenes" have been identified as important risk environments that shape the health of street-entrenched youth. New knowledge is needed to inform policy and programing interventions to help reduce youths' drug scene involvement and related health risks. The aim of this study was to identify how young people envisioned exiting a local, inner-city drug scene in Vancouver, Canada, as well as the individual, social and structural factors that shaped their experiences. Between 2008 and 2016, we draw on 150 semi-structured interviews with 75 street-entrenched youth. We also draw on data generated through ethnographic fieldwork conducted with a subgroup of 25 of these youth between. Youth described that, in order to successfully exit Vancouver's inner city drug scene, they would need to: (a) secure legitimate employment and/or obtain education or occupational training; (b) distance themselves - both physically and socially - from the urban drug scene; and (c) reduce their drug consumption. As youth attempted to leave the scene, most experienced substantial social and structural barriers (e.g., cycling in and out of jail, the need to access services that are centralized within a place that they are trying to avoid), in addition to managing complex individual health issues (e.g., substance dependence). Factors that increased youth's capacity to successfully exit the drug scene included access to various forms of social and cultural capital operating outside of the scene, including supportive networks of friends and/or family, as well as engagement with addiction treatment services (e.g., low-threshold access to methadone) to support cessation or reduction of harmful forms of drug consumption. Policies and programming interventions that can facilitate young people's efforts to reduce engagement with Vancouver's inner-city drug scene are critically needed, including meaningful educational and/or occupational training opportunities, 'low threshold' addiction treatment services, as well as access to supportive housing outside of the scene.

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X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 7 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 126 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 126 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 25 20%
Student > Bachelor 15 12%
Student > Ph. D. Student 14 11%
Researcher 13 10%
Student > Doctoral Student 6 5%
Other 14 11%
Unknown 39 31%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Social Sciences 29 23%
Nursing and Health Professions 15 12%
Psychology 13 10%
Medicine and Dentistry 9 7%
Business, Management and Accounting 4 3%
Other 11 9%
Unknown 45 36%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 29 June 2017.
All research outputs
#13,037,906
of 22,968,808 outputs
Outputs from BMC Public Health
#9,040
of 14,962 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#149,004
of 310,772 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Public Health
#157
of 233 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,968,808 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 42nd percentile – i.e., 42% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 14,962 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.9. This one is in the 38th percentile – i.e., 38% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 310,772 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 51% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 233 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 31st percentile – i.e., 31% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.