White Heat, Guide Blue: The Girl Guide Movement in the 1960s

Be(ing) prepared: Guide and Scout participation, childhood social position and mental health at age 50—a prospective birth cohort study

“… 22 During the 1970s, the Guide ‘method’ had evolved into an ‘eight point plan’, aimed at developing not only the traditional ideas of: character, out-of-doors skills and challenges, fitness, homecraft skills and service, but also creative ability, mind and relationships, and a focus on personal development then rather simply character development. 11 Similarly, the Scouts were focusing on a system of progressive self-education based on: promises (laws), active learning, interactions within small groups and stimulating individual-driven self-learning through awards. 12…”

“…The movement's methods were based on a system of progressive self-education taking place in the context of small peer groups with adults guiding the process. 11 23 Not being purely recreational and unstructured, as a youth sport club might be, 24 it used activities to allow young people to learn ‘to know’, ‘to be’, ‘to do’ with adults assisting, rather than directing. Perhaps, this set of ‘capabilities’ for continued self-learning enable the participants to structure and run their adult lives in a way that is relatively more protective against mental ill health.…”

“…In order to understand the potential long-term impact of structured youth programmes, we carried out a prospective cohort study of later life mental health of individuals (aged 50) who had been Scouts–Guides in the 1970s, a movement whose methods, at that time, were close to those identified as key to ‘positive youth development’ 10 and, though operationalised through local organisations, were managed, to ensure consistency, through detailed programmes and standards governed by regional oversight. 11 12 We ask whether: Childhood participation in Scouts–Guides is independently associated with better mental health at age 50? Childhood participation in Scouts–Guides reduce inequalities in adult mental health associated with early life socioeconomic position?…”

Changing girlhoods – Changing Girl Guiding

“…When Guiding has been explored, studies have tended to focus on it as a particular kind of youth movement (Block and Proctor, 2009;Proctor, , 2002Miller, 2009), which is set in specific historical time-periods (eg. Kerr, 1954;Liddell, 1970;Gledhill 2013;Gillis, 1974;Wilkinson, 3 1969;Wilkinson, 1969), typically through the lens of British Imperialism (Warren 1986(Warren , 1987(Warren , 1990Dedman, 1993;Rosenthal, 1986;Springhall, 1977). More recently, the gendered geopolitics of imperialism in Guiding have been explored (Mills 2009;Miller 2007;MacLeod, 1983;Mechling, 2001;Parsons, 2004;Proctor, 2009;Gagen, 2004), as has the role Guiding has played as a site of citizenship-training (Matless, 1995(Matless, , 1997Cupers, 2008;Wittemans, 2009) with a particular moral stance (Gagen, 2000;Kraftl, 2006).…”

“…With the rise of second-wave feminism in the 1960s, and Britain was undergoing profound social change more widely, youth membership of militaristic leader-driven uninformed groups began to fall (Gledhill, 2013). Gledhill reports that Guiding responded to these changes pro-actively by inviting and acting on the views of their members, and thus thoroughly thrived.…”