Youth Development Explain Your Understanding

Youth Development

Explain your understanding of factors that put students at risk for failure in school and the factors that contribute to successful learning.

Students are at a sensitive stage in their life and hence they require proper guidance and support to become educated, well behaving citizens. Two main factors which are found to have a great negative bearing on the development of students are drug abuse and alcohol consumption. Consuming drugs and alcohol increases truancy and consequent loss of academic performance. It is a saddening fact that the use of ecstasy and other drugs is very common in school and college campuses and most students have their first taste of these dangerous habits during their teenage years. As per the data released by a survey conducted by the 'national institute on drug abuse' more than 90% of 10th graders and around 75% of 8th graders feel that they have "very easy" access to alcohol. [23] It is to be understood that drug abuse is a seriously debilitating problem as it drastically compromises the academic performance and the health of the student. Further, drug abuse and alcohol addiction reduce independent thinking and hence these students easily succumb to peer pressure and indulge in unsafe sexual activity. The observed increase in the number of HIV infections among school going adolescents validates this. [27]

Having listed out the important factors that affect academic performance and health of students it is important to understanding the underlying risk factors that promote these undesirable habits among them. The importance of parental control is fairly obvious and schools must promote frequent interaction between parents and teachers. Most schools welcome parental involvement in community-based programs. Lack of parental supervision is singled out as the main factor responsible for adolescents indulging in these destructive and dangerous habits such as drugs and alcohol. Studies by Richardson et al. (1989) and YMCA (2001) have confirmed this point. A San Diego study, conducted on 5000 8th grade students has also attested that children who are left unattended and home alone are more prone to try alcohol and drugs early in their life. [29] However, it has also been observed that these destructive behavioral patterns can be effectively countered by engaging students in constructive activities. Cognitive, psychological, emotional and social development are important for success in academic pursuit and for this a caring, protective and loving family, as well as a positive community environment are indispensable. [66] Special in school programs as well as after school community-based programs have proved to have a positive influence in promoting good habits and motivating students in their studies.

2) Describe the importance of family-school relationships with families who are socially and culturally diverse and give examples of strategies to support them

Modern society is made up of different cultures and hence any single community-based program may not be suitable for students from different family and cultural settings. Depending on their cultural differences youths may vary in their perception of community-based programs offered by the school. [113] There are strong links between schools and communities and schools are striving to promote active family participation. Schools that include community-based programs have performed better in preventing negative habits and in promoting academic performance. However, researchers have also found out that in order to be successful any school-based program must not have conflicting values with the student's family values. Further, parents themselves are at odds when they are faced with a social setting that they are not accustomed to, in which case it is difficult to expect reinforcement of messages advocated by school-based programs. [111]

Integration of values is the key to success and for this to happen, schools, parents and the community must work together. [110] Development is accelerated if there is minimal clash of values between the different settings which the student has to face. In the increasingly multicultural environment schools have realized the influence of family structure on the learning ability of the student and have incorporated a variety of activities to suit the varied linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Teaching techniques and the syllabus are modeled to reflect the cultural sensitivities of the different students. Schools have started to promote parental involvement and this is definitely a positive signal. Asides the parent teachers meetings, schools are encouraging parents to volunteer in community based activities that the schools promote. Active parental involvement is found to boost the emotional development and improve the academic performance of the children.

3) What role and responsibilities to you see a school counselor having as an advocate for students facing institutional, systemic and/or interpersonal barriers to learning?

Adolescence is a transitional phase where children pick up social skills and learn how to interact with the society independently. This is also a vulnerable phase in that children begin to make their own choices. Under the demands of the situation it is not uncommon for young students to give in to peer pressure and entertain bad habits. Young children become easy prey to bad elements of the society and hence it is imperative that the counselor has to mould these young minds in a positive manner and in as much as possible strive to eradicate evil habits from entering the learning environment. As human resource personnel, school counselors have immense responsibility in organizing counseling sessions and in implementing new programs that are developed in cooperation with community based agencies. They constitute the main link between teachers, students, therapists and social service agencies for implementing collaborative programs. Counselors have to evaluate each student and as and when required direct the parents and students to the appropriate services.

Reducing truancy is important for success in academics. Given the inter-relatedness of negative indicators such as drug abuse, alcohol consumption, truancy and decline in academic performance counselors have the important task of identifying such evil habits among the students and initiating corrective measures. In the case that such destructive habits are identified in students the counselor must immediately take corrective measures. The counselor holds the responsibility of notifying the concerned parents and referring the affected students to rehabilitation centers.

It is the counselor's responsibility to advise the students on health promoting and prosocial behaviors. Drug awareness programs led by students themselves would be the best way to create awareness about the evils of substance abuse. Results have indicated a huge success for student run programs such as 'Friendly Persuasion', 'Life skills Training', 'Midwestern Prevention Project' etc. . These programs have proved to have reduced drug abuse and delayed the onset of alcohol consumption among school children. [155-158]. Since student managed programs are a proven success formula counselors should implement more programs which involve students in the leadership role. This can be achieved if counselors work closely with teachers, social workers, health care professionals and other community-based groups.

4) Describe the skills necessary for a school counselor to be effective in the collaboration among school staff, parents, students and agencies.