Is "youths" always used negatively?

The word "youths" always seems to be used in a negative sense (e.g. "Drunken youths", "Disaffected youths"), and our church has now adopted the more politically-correct sounding phrase "young people".

Does the word "youths" have an inherently negative connotation?

Solution 1:

There is no negative connotation at all to 'youth' or 'youths'.

However,if people only ever use it in the negative contexts you describe, then it may gain that negative connotation, pushings things over the euphemism waterfall.

Solution 2:

I would not say that the word itself carries either a negative or a positive connotation, but the contexts in which it is used may tend to be negative. A quick ngrams search for "youths" turns up mostly sociology texts in recent years...and not the kind that say everything is hunky-dory with youths, either.

Solution 3:

The question is about the word "youths," not "youth" nor "young," nor is it about being young.

My first thought was that there is no negative connotation to "youths," but on further reflection, it is youth that does not have either a negative or a positive connotation -- but "youths" does indeed have a negative connotation. I suppose this is because "youth" could refer to any young person, some of whom are actually good! Whereas "youths" applies to a specific group of young people, and we all know they're up to no good when they form into groups, right? Drunken, disaffected, etc. Perhaps the young people of your church could be encouraged to reclaim the word "youths" by applying it to themselves.

I hadn't thought about this before, so your question is appreciated.

Solution 4:

My friend George Bernard Shaw has said once "Youth is wasted on the young." That means the young people don't know what to do with their youth. I would say that the society today tolerate youth much more then ten years ago. Today you can have boss that is like ten or twenty years younger then you. There is also the word :

Yuppie (short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly mobile professional") is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early 1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late 1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession. (wikipedia).

In short the subtle connotation if the word is used in negative or in positive meaning can be found in the context. Although being young is an advantage from my point of view and there isn't inherently negative connotation.