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This paper offers a discussion on the connection between the language and ideology of young people, and the possible relationship between these aspects and the stereotypical mentality of the Costa Rican society. Furthermore, the analysis follows a social and historical perspective about the relationship between thought and language, and applies a method of thematic analysis to interpret the lyrics and themes of a selected song form the musical genre called Dancehall. In addition, two main points are presented. In first place, this particular musical language is evidence of the encryption strategy that limits the access to this cultural group to other social groups, and generates some linguistic and cultural changes at a long term. In second place, on the thematic level, this cultural manifestation doesn't differ from other Costa Rican cultural expressions because it perpetuates certain stereotypic world visions. As a result, the study conclusions are part of a working hypothesis for further research about the relationship between language and ideology of youth groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the discriminant validity of the Eating Attitude Test (EAT-40) through the Item Response Theory and its one-parameter model, known as the Rasch model. The EAT-40 (Garner & Garfinkel, 1979) is an instrument for early detection of risk to develop eating disorders (ED), and its evidences of validity in Costa Rica are reviewed in this paper. For this study, the Spanish version of the instrument (Castro, Toro, Salamero & Guimerá, 1991) was applied to a sample of 556 women from the metropolitan area of Costa Rica, with an average age of 17.66 years (SD = 6.65). To increase the variability of the scores, the sample was composed of high school students (n = 391, 70.3%), university students (n = 120, 21.6%), ballet academy students (n = 26, 4.7%) and anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa hospitalized patients (n = 19, 3.4%). Through the Rasch model, the analysis of the item-person map, and the analysis of the characteristic curve of the items and the complete test, consistent evidence of the ability of the EAT-40 items to discriminate between people with and without the risk of ED was obtained. In the last section, the findings are discussed and the clinical sample size limitations are approached. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The different socioeconomic, cultural, and socio-territorial conditions of the costarican society show that the experiences of young people are not equal. The objective conditions are different, but so are their subjective constructions. It is important to understand the way the different objective realities influence the subjectivities of young people, and therefore the real capabilities that they actually have. One way to understand this is by reaching in to the way young people think of their future. This paper analyzes the aspirations and expectations about the future of costarican urban youth, related to study, professions and jobs, depending on the level of social inclusion or exclusion in which they develop. The fact that the idea of a “dream" doesn't means the existence of a bond with reality, leads to think that dreams should be infinite for all, and that the only differences between people's dreams should lay on their individual particularities. However, the truth is that in reality this isn't necessarily like that. The social conditions on which people develop, their interactions, and the “habitus" that are built from the different ways of knowing and experimenting the world, influence the subjectivities, to the point of potencialize or limit the future wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is aimed at gathering some gauges related to increasing rates of alcohol consumption among young people and the jeopardy involved in binge drinking. Besides it displays a state of art of the national consumer trends based on the available data from which could be proposed a set of psychosocial issues to be researched in order to achieve a wide and deep comprehension of the origins and dynamic of the risky behaviors derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]