Adolescent Development Essays (Examples)

Adolescent Development

Thirteen -- Adolescent Development Depicted in a Contemporary Film

Home life, family dynamics, and Tracy's relationship with her mom, dad, brother, her mom's boyfriend.

"How many times are you going to let him fuck you over," Tracy yells at her mom after finding her mom's boyfriend's clothes in the dryer. "His clothes should not be in your laundry," Tracy shouts, in an apparent mood swing brought on by her hatred for her mom's boyfriend; it's a mood swing because moments before Tracy and her friend and mentor Evie were strutting around in their new tight pants and sexy tops, being frisky, and flirtatious. Mom is busy doing a customer's hair in the kitchen (mom is a hairstylist who works at home), and Tracy makes a big fuss over those boyfriend clothes.

The home life is pretty seamy and unsophisticated, which helps explain why Tracy is so easily swept…

Adolescents

Aspects of Adolescent Development and Psychology

What impact does technology have on today's adolescents?

Technology is inextricably linked with adolescent existence. In the past decade, technology has become pervasive amongst adolescents and affects the way in which adolescents communicate with one another and with their parents. In past generations, technology was primarily limited to television and video games (and possibly a computer), but current technology has blended forms of technology that were previously distinct. Cell phones now offer internet and video viewing possibilities, so that people are never without technology.

The internet is the most pervasive technological innovation; it governs communication through email, social media and blogging. There are multiple benefits of the internet, including that it helps adolescents meet more peers than they would be able to without the internet. However, the negative aspects of the internet include that adolescents can become involved in sexual predation, racism, and…

There is an extended family network of grandparents, aunts, and uncles that provides additional figures to serve as role models for the subject, but she remains especially close to her mother and is above all cognizant of and concerned with the needs and expectations of her family as a whole.

The divorce of the subject's parents during her early adolescence necessarily had an effect on the relationship she developed with her mother, and the personality development of the subject herself. esearch has shown that the impact of a positive parent-adolescent relationship can mitigate the negative impacts of divorce, and lead to many other changes to the parent-adolescent relationship following the divorce, as well (Hines 1997). The relationship that Valerie has with her mother is very close, and one of shared responsibility and decision-making. It is likely that this relationship will develop in quite different ways following Valerie's eventual departure form…

This period is also characterized by a youth's desire to obtain privacy. Youth encounter new situations in an exploratory manner seeking insight into the situation and needing to achieve their own interpretation of the stimuli presented to them (Ohrenstein, 1986). Peer relationships are of particular importance during this time period and can be viewed by youth as being more important than family relationships (Ohrenstein, 1986). This focus aids the youth in their transition from a family orientation to that of a social orientation particularly the role in a peer group (Ohrenstein, 1986). This is the beginning stage of integration into a community and society and lays the ground work for later community involvement.

Lack of support during this time period can result in a youth who has a sense of inadequacy and inferiority (Ohrenstein, 1986).

t this stage children being to find their place within their peer group and school…

Social Networks

Adolescent Development, Socialization, and the Internet

Evaluate how social learning theory and strain theory could be used to explain adolescent development and behavior

Social learning theory suggests that adolescents learn from observing the behaviors of others, not simply in real life but also online. In fact, the mores and accepted behaviors for online interactions are often quite different from what is considered acceptable behavior offline. Teens may be emboldened by the anonymity conferred by an online avatar that enables them to hide their real names. Even if not anonymous, the distance between themselves and their online targets may encourage more meanness and cattiness than would ever take place in a face-to-face context.

As depicted in the Frontline documentary Growing Up Online, both adults and children will often not apply the same ethical standards to the behaviors in which they engage in online as they do to behaviors in…

In other words, it makes users less rather than more able to cope with life stressors and less socially functional and engaged with the world. ather than reaching out for help when they need it, marijuana smokers are more likely to drop out of life.

The type of marijuana available today is 'not your parent's marijuana' either. From 1980 and 1997, the amount of THC, the active chemical in marijuana that produces the marijuana high, rose dramatically. Marijuana is far more potent than it has ever been in the past: and so are its effects upon your daily life and your long-term future. Even if you just use it on weekends, marijuana's effects on memory and learning can last for days or weeks because of how long the drug is stored in the body. "A study of 129 college students found that among heavy users of marijuana - those who…

Movies on Adolescent Development

View Two Movies Focusing On Adolescent Development

Adolescence is a stage of physical and psychological development that occurs between puberty and adulthood. It is usually the time of the teenage years although it has physical, psychological and cultural expressions that begin earlier or can end later Jaffe, 1998.

Adolescence is also a time for cognitive development which takes place rapidly. Piaget in his cognitive development theory defines adolescence at the stage when the thoughts of the individual start taking more of an abstract form and where the egocentric thoughts of the individual decrease. This allows the adolescent to think and reason from a wider viewpoint. There are also biological changes which take place in the brain structure and its interaction with the increased knowledge, experience and the changing demands of the individual socially therefore it produces a rapid cognitive growth Golden & Norwood, 1993.

Development of…

Development of independence is shown by their ability to accomplish tasks on their own. They can start new things and have a range of activities to choose from. At this stage, children learn to develop attachment to others. Pittman, Margaret, & Kerp (2011) argue that by the age of two and three years, it may take a child one hour before returning to a secure base ( close to care giver). At the age of four and five, the observation takes three hours before the child returns. This shift from shorter to longer cycle according to Bowlby, (1973), represented the child's relationship to the caregiver.

Normal and abnormal growth and development

Witner (1909) pointed out that the normal and abnormal development of a child is aspects of a child that can be diagnosed and even treated clinically. A normal development process of a child entail sound emotional, cognitive and physical…

Coming of age movies offer insight into the prevailing social norms related to gender, sexuality, identity development, and communication. Hardwicke’s (2003) feature film Thirteen earned its actors accolades including Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations, but its salient themes deserve deeper attention from social scientists. The film addresses adolescent and developmental psychology in particular, within a broader sociological and cultural perspective. Protagonist Tracy is at the titular age of 13, pivotal because of puberty and related elements of biological development, as Arnett (2012) discusses in Chapter 2 of Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood.
Interestingly, sexuality takes a back seat to other elements of adolescent cognitive and social development in Hardwicke’s (2003) film. As Arnett (2012) points out throughout the text, adolescence is marked by dramatic cognitive shifts as the young person develops a stronger moral conscience. Early in Thirteen, Tracy witnesses her friends shoplifting, feeling palpably uncomfortable. Piaget’s theory of cognitive…

There are multiple stages of development that all children go through. The depth and breadth of these developmental changes ebb and flow greatly as growing children move from one stage of development to the next. Overall, there are several major developmental stages in the life of a child. There are the toddler years, the prepubescent years and the adolescent/teenage years. The brief literature review that follows in this report shall focus on the last of those. To be complete with this analysis, adolescence is not the end of human development given that many suggest that development extends into the 20's and 30's. Even so, the adolescent years of development are hailed by many as being the most pivotal, at least in some regards. While many would debate the above, it is clear that the adolescent years are among the most important.

Analysis

Regardless of the development or life stage that…

Adolescence is an especially critical development stage for any individual. At this stage, individuals not only experience biological changes, but also become more aware of gender roles and expectations and experience cognitive development. Family and school become social incubators that trigger changes and psychosocial responses in adolescents. The film The Breakfast Club shows how a group of five adolescents go through critical changes in this stage of their life. This paper will highlight the developmental markers observed in one character depicted the film, Claire. Clare will be used as a case study to explore developmental issues related to gender, biology, and cognition. The paper also highlights various socialization agents (specifically school and family) and how they impact the individual’s self-concept, identity, and social role.

The Breakfast Club features five teenagers detained all day at Shermer High School. Several developmental markers are evident in the film. One of the markers is…

Infant Physical, Cognitive and Social Development

One of the most important aspects of a child's physical, cognitive and social development is motor skills development. In this case, an infant is expected to master fine and gross motor skills in order for him/her to effectively explore the surrounding environment/world. Gross motor skills are considered as large muscles movements such as arms and legs whereas fine motor skills are considered are movements of smaller groups of muscles like hand and wrist. Berk & Meyers (2016) have developed a table that provides a list of gross- and fine-motor skills milestones in different stages of an infant's development. As an 11-month old infant, David has relatively developed necessary and anticipated motor skills based on the milestones listed in the table. He has fairly developed nearly all motor skills expected of infants his age and seems to be progressing well in motor skills development. David's…

This research considered this by looking at a key constituent of low self-control which is the risk seeking tendency in order to decide its constancy and change throughout early childhood, its influences on changes in criminal behavior, and its receptiveness to a complete delinquency lessening program. These matters were looked at with information from the Children at isk (CA) program, an arbitrarily allocated interference that looked at early youth. The examination exposed considerable reliability in risk seeking, but there was proof of change as well, and these alterations were connected with contemporary alterations in delinquency. isk seeking alterations were not a consequence of contribution in the CA program, in spite of that program's achievement at dropping some appearance of delinquency (Hay, Meldrum, Forrest and Ciaravolo, 2010).

Part II: Assessment of the main strengths of the reading with particular emphasis on its utility for understanding adolescent development or social work intervention.…

Youth Leadership and the Development of Communication Skills, Self-Esteem, Problem Solving and Employment Opportunities

The four-year longitudinal study by Marshall, Parker, Ciarrochi and Heaven (2014) showed that self-esteem is a reliable predictor of "increasing levels of social support quality and network size across time" (p. 1275). The idea that social support is a reliable predictor of self-esteem was not supported by the study's findings. The researchers measured the quantity and quality of self-esteem and social support levels of 961 adolescents over a five-year period to find that self-esteem is the key to helping adolescents develop into successful adult leaders with a wide range of networking possibilities open to them and a strong social support group behind them. This study directly links the concept of self-esteem to the greater possibility of employment as well, indicating that as adolescents with high self-esteem mature into adults, their ability to network and utilize support…

Student counselors are can organize a student led drug abuse prevention committee and create awareness among the adolescent children. Study results have confirmed the positive value of such student led programs in preventing the malice of drug abuse. It has also been found that multiyear preventive programs have long lasting positive effects that short-term programs. [167]. Programs such as 'Friendly Persuasion', 'Life skills Training', 'Midwestern Prevention Project' which were implemented in schools had a considerable measure of success in reducing drug abuse and in delaying the onset of drinking.[155-158]. Student counselors have to interact with teachers, social workers, health care professionals and other community-based groups to workout and implement student activity programs that can be run by adolescents.

4) by providing a positive developmental environment at school the student counselor optimizes the chances of a student succeeding in his overall development. As Pittman states, "Adolescents who are merely problem-free are…

Adolescent Environment

The subject interviewed is a 17-year-old Hispanic male from Cleveland, Ohio. Although his legal name is Harley, this adolescent chooses to call himself by the name "Renegade." Renegade lives in a loft with 12 other boys ranging from the ages of 15 to 27 above a rare book store in a historic and impoverished section of the city. Renegade was either orphaned or abandoned at a young age, and spent many years bouncing around foster homes and group homes as a ward of the state of California. Since leaving the care of the state, Renegade was able to uncover many mysteries about his past that were officially "sealed" regarding his biological family. Renegade was not given any information about his ethnic background as a child, but his mocha-colored skin and dark, striking hair obviously set him apart as an ethnic minority. There were Latino and Mexican boys in…

Adolescence

Adolescent Self-Portrait

Adolescence: A conflicted life period

Adolescence is often considered to be a particularly 'fraught' time during the average individual's life history. Although the construction of adolescence and the age during which someone is considered to be an adolescent may vary from culture to culture, most societies define a certain period of time as 'not childhood' and 'not adulthood.' There are common physiological changes seen in all adolescents such as menstruation in females; lowered voice in males; and increased height and body hair in both genders. Adolescents also begin to experience and experiment with showing sexual desire. However, these changes can cause great anxiety and confusion, as the adolescent struggles with his or her emerging adolescent identity.

Females in particular tend to be more anxious about their body image than boys because of the great emphasis placed upon female beauty within the culture as a measure of self-worth…

Adolescents & Advertising Media Messages

Examination of a Commercial

The advertisement chosen for examination in this brief study is Britney Spears Pepsi commercial in 2010, which was part of the advertising during the World Cup. The intended audience for the advertisement is the general audience and specifically male and female young people. The ad features Brittney Spears singing, drinking Pepsi, and volley a ball. Brittney appears beautiful and sexy in this commercial and gives the appearance that drinking Pepsi will make everyone athletic and sexy. This ad would be interpreted of course by each gender differently as the male gender would interpret the commercial to mean that drinking Pepsi would ensure that they attract sexy girls and females would view the commercial as appealing to them to drink Pepsi to ensure that they are hot and sexy like Brittney Spears. This ad is not accurate in its portrayal of body…

Adolescents' Emotional Adjustment

Reaction Paper

School Organization and Adolescents' Emotional Adjustment

att's article explores the connection between school organization and adolescents' mental health. There is a commonly held belief that adolescents receive a superior educational and interpersonal experience in private schools and small schools. att cites studies by Coleman and others that have given support to the perceived superiority of private schools. Coleman's findings in support of private schools did not however address mental health, but were instead limited to academic achievement.

att's questions "Are private schools better not only for academic achievement but for mental health? Are small schools associated with broad indicators of emotional well-being?" (2003, p.345) form the basis for her study. att's study addresses these issues by examining three indicators of adolescents' emotional adjustment: depression, suicide attempts and violent dispositions.

att's study analyzed data collected by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent health, which surveyed health-related…

In fact, even executives in fashion and beauty magazines see an alarming trend of "too thin" to the point of looking emaciated and unhealthy -- certainly not a look that "sells" (Wilson 542).

What is happening is a continual push to be something different, not because there is actually anything wrong with us -- at all. It is because advertising tells us that something is wrong. Advertising is part of the marketing mix that is designed to persuade a consumer to purchase something. Of course, there are many ways of doing this, and the "science" of this media has certainly evolved in the last century. Advertising is subliminal, sophisticated, pervasive, covert, overt, and a seminal part of the contemporary world. However, advertising has become so sophisticated that it sends messages both overt and covert that even if we are not paying attention to the exact product, the images we see…

His article does an excellent job of discussing in comprehensible terms the recent research which has addressed the current state of knowledge about the relationship between substance abuse amongst teens and mood disorders and provides a breakdown of possible treatment options.

Flaherty, L., & Flaherty, M. (2005). Adolescent psychiatry: he annals of the American society for adolescent psychiatry (Vol. 29). Hillsdale, New Jersey: Analytic Press.

his resource is from a special edition of Adolescent Psychiatry that pertains specifically to issues that arise along with adolescent substance abuse issues. he topics within range from teenagers with Ecstacy addiction to gambling problems. o the practitioner and the interested adult, parent, or educator, the information within this journal provides a fastidious and compelling look into the vast range of issues that may coincide with an adolescent's substance abuse problem. With specific regard to adolescents, depression, and substance abuse, two articles are especially illuminating:…

There are remedies (albeit not easy ones for the individuals involved), as suggested by the research. However, and this is very important, the current public health approaches that the Saudi government has taken, as Mabrey et al. (2010) note, have focused fairly narrowly on medical approaches. This focus includes research that has been conducted on metabolic syndrome (which is caused primarily by being overweight). This is caused by clear-cut factors and has a number of possible poor consequences.

Mabrey et al. (2010) note that metabolic syndrome is on average 10 to 15% higher in the GCC states than in the rest of world and that females are disproportionately affected by metabolic syndrome. These researchers are among those who note that a strictly medical approach to such medical problems is far from sufficient. For while metabolic syndrome itself can be identified and described in purely medical terms, such an approach does…

On the other hand, 'resistance for liberation' may have the obverse effect causing children (in this case adolescents) to take these self-same disabling elements and use them for their growth and success.

Poverty may be a social construct but it need not tarnish an individual for life. Ultimately, the individual decides what to do with his or her life, and the same circumstances that can turn one into a drug-doped self-destructed convict can turn another into a bastion of society.

eferences

Ayers. W. A kind and just parents. The children of juvenile court

Leadbetter, B.., & Niobe, W. (2007). Urban girls revisited: Building strengths. NY Univ. Press. NY.

Lichter, D., Shannahan, M., & Gardner, E. (2002). Helping others: The effects of childhood poverty and family instability on prosocial behavior, Youth and Society, 34, 89-119

Martin, D., Martin, M., Gell, ., Davis, C., & Guerreri, K. (2008). Adolescence, 43, 608-711.

Niobe.…

To specifically teach the biology of puberty, students can fill in diagrams of the body and brain, identifying the areas associated with the hormones the human body releases in during puberty and the areas of the body affected most by these hormones (Puberty, 2007, Discovery.com). Understanding the physical reasons for hair growth and the male change of vocal tone can make these changes seem less frightening when students experience them personally.

Also, trusting adults can be difficult for students at this age. Parents may be worried about what their child is learning in class on this subject. To bridge the difference between adult and child attitudes, and create dialogue, teachers can create supportive assignments such as asking students to brainstorm questions they have about the opposite sex and the experience of puberty, and then assigning students the task of interviewing a parent or trusted adult of the opposite sex to…

This term seems to have been coined in the 1990s when researchers were attempting to describe a constellation of behaviors observed in persons using the Internet to such an extent that it began to cause other aspects of their lives to become dysfunctional. The DSM-IV disorder most similar to the pattern of behaviors observed with overuse of video games is pathological gambling. Presumably, the more colloquial term addiction was derived from the similarities to gambling addiction. For this report, this pattern of heavy video game playing is referred to as "video game overuse." (Khan, 2007) Kahn additionally relates that: "Symptoms of time usage and social dysfunction/disruption appear in patterns similar to that of other addictive disorders. It is not clear whether withdrawal symptoms are associated with video game overuse; some excessive users do not exhibit "cravings" for the games if they are unavailable, while other users insist they cannot reduce…

This was equivalent to those youth utilizing ongoing, long-term services (Pollio, Thompson, Tobias, eid and Spitznagel, 2006).

Critique

There are several significant limitations that must be considered when looking at the results of this study. First, there was lack of a control group which limits the conclusions that can be drawn concerning causal assertions about the effectiveness of services. It is thought that future research on service use for this population needs to include a comparison condition of other troubled youth, perhaps runaway/homeless youth not seeking crisis services. Features of the sampling strategy limited the generalization of the findings. Since the sample included only service-using youth, it is not generalizable to the entire runaway/homeless population. The authors believed that the youth in this sample were representative of the population of service-using runaway/homeless youth from Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska, and Kansas. However, other research has suggested that this population is not representative…

Third, increased cognitive demands in school challenge the adolescent. Fourth, the adolescent must develop more mature verbal communication skills. Fifth, the teenager will develop an ego separate from the parents, whereas in childhood the ego remained closely linked to that of the parents. Sixth, the adolescent formulates clearer career goals. The seventh task of adolescent development comprises the psychological detachment from the parents, often entailing interpersonal conflicts and difficulties relating to authority figures. Eighth, the adolescent develops stronger relationships with peers that help him or her formulate a sense of self. The ninth task of adolescence relates to the development of the sexual self: the teenager also comes to terms with gender issues. Tenth, the adolescent develops a personal system of values that may remain with the individual throughout the lifetime. The eleventh and final state regards controlling immature impulses and becoming a more mature manager of instincts and behaviors.

Herdt, G. (2004). Sexual development, social oppression, and local culture. Sexuality esearch

& Social Policy, 1(1), 39-62. doi:10.1525/srsp.2004.1.1.39

One of the most contentious debates in the field of psychology today is the question of nature vs. nurture, or the extent to which biology influences personal psychology vs. cultural constructs. Although it has fallen out of favor somewhat, there is also the Freudian 'essentialist' argument, which suggests that certain mental models span across cultures. According to the article, "Sexual development, social oppression, and local culture," traditional theories of adolescent development have emphasized the importance of the individual, and focused upon the creation of an adult self as if it existed outside of culture in both the Freudian and biological discourses of psychology. Herdt (2004) conducts a review of Freudian and developmental psychology, to argue for a more culturally-informed understanding of the progression of adolescent development.

In the field, a philosophy of…

Anti-Social Behavior in Adolescents

Current essay is a discussion of the antisocial behavior disorder amongst adolescents. The author critically reviewed studies on the topic. The literature suggests that neighborhood and peer holds a great influence as regards antisocial behavior amongst adolescents. Previous research has confirmed socialization experiences outside of the family shape what goes on inside of the family. Also there is possibility that peer and neighborhood characteristics are related to parenting and family relationships. Presence of violence in neighborhood may cause stress among parents resulting in poor parenthood quality.

Neighborhood Influences

Peer Influences

Mediating Effects of Adolescent Antisocial Behavior

Conclusions

eferences

Anti-Social Behavior in Adolescents

Introduction

The importance of socialization contexts outside of the family has been well documented. In particular, neighborhood (e.g., violence, collective efficacy) and peer relationship (e.g., relationship quality, peer deviancy) factors both have been linked to a number of adolescent outcomes, such as self-esteem, academic…

Movie: The Karate Kid (2010)

Targeted Age Group: PG rated, 10+ (The Karate Kid-Family Movie Review, 2015)

'The Karate Kid' is appropriately PG-rated; there is, however, some content that adults might wish to know of, especially because this drama has a few themes aimed at older viewers. The beginning of the movie shows a climbing scene of a child's height chart. Typical milestones, like beginning kindergarten and losing the first tooth are included; however, the last 2 entries are daddy's death and the child's 9th birthday. While at this juncture, the background music is jolly and light, the death of his dad when Dre was just 8 years of age has a mildly shocking impact, and may upset younger children (Andlor, 2013).

Analyze the chosen media content for its appropriateness for the cognitive development level of this target audience. In doing so, make sure to explain what characterizes the cognitive…

Middle Eastern Students: What Is the Effect of Advisory Participation in the Adolescent Years- Grades 8-9

Benefits of student advisory

Adolescence and its effects on learning

Functions and Expectations of Advisory Program

Middle Eastern Student advisory experiences

Participants

Social and economic mobility is a function of educational achievement. It is important to ensure that all children receive education in order to secure their future and that of the nation. The U.S. accommodates many immigrants from the Middle East. Several studies done in the recent past have examined how immigrants fair in the educational system. However, few studies attend to the subject of adolescent students from the Arab world participation in advisory programs for schools and the effects of such participation explicitly. It is not clear whether the results of adolescent participation in school advisory programs would necessarily coincide with the participation by Arab immigrants. Considering the consistent negative portrayal of…

Over the last five years research has indicated that the brain of an adolescent is not as developed as researchers once thought. In fact, advances in technology have made it possible to further examine the development of the human brain. esearchers have found that part of the frontal lobe, referred to as the pre-frontal cortex that is believed to be the management center for the body, is not fully developed in adolescents (Sowell et al., 2001; Cobb, 1998). The article explains that the lack of development in this part of the brain explains some of the behaviors that are displayed by teenagers because it is responsible for advanced cognition ("Adolescence, Brain Development..,"2004). Advanced cognition permits human beings to prioritize thoughts, visualize, think in the abstract, predict consequences, plan, and manage impulses ("Adolescence, Brain Development..,"2004). With these things being understood the underdevelopment of this part of the brain could explain why…

Adolescence)

The Issue of Students of Arab Descent

Scope for Advisory Participation groups

ole of Involvement from Parents as External Stakeholders

Barriers and Facilitators to Parent Involvement

Advisory Participation and Policy Implications

elation between Parental Involvement and Child Growth

The ole of Native Americans in Interventions

Traditional Parenting Practices

Considerations

Middle Eastern Students: Effect of Advisory Participation in the Adolescent Years - Grades 8-9

It is believed that when children and adolescents take part in group activities, they experience better social and psychological health. Indeed, it has also been documented that participating in team sports leads to positive health outcomes. Analysts observe that such eventuality accrues from the social dimension that team sports provide. The positive involvement by adults and peers enhances such gains (ochelle M. Eime, Janet A Young, Jack T. Harvey, Melanie J. Charity, & Warren . Payne, 2013). eader advisory techniques; applied with youthful patrons present an…

Piaget’s Stages of Development
Few theorists have had as strong an impact on developmental psychology as Jean Piaget. While the theories of Lev Vygotsky have offered compelling counterpoints to Piaget’s theories, the stages of psychosocial development Piaget proposed remain salient. In fact, it is easy to combine emerging research on childhood development from infancy to adolescence in terms of Piaget’s stages. As Lightfoot, Cole & Cole (2009) point out, evolutionary theories, information processing theories, and systems theories can all be integrated within the staged concept of development that Piaget proposed. Piaget shows how children develop physically, socially, and cognitively. Likewise, theories of childhood development can demonstrate how children develop self-awareness, empathy, and complex use of language. The four main stages of development include the sensorimotor, the preoperational, the concrete operational, and the formal operational. While far from being discreet stages with strong demarcations between them, empirical research in cognitive, behavioral,…

Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., & Pachan, M. (2010). A Meta-Analysis of After-School

Programs hat Seek to Promote Personal and Social Skills in Children and Adolescents. American Journal Of Community Psychology, 45(3/4), 294-309. doi:10.1007/s10464-010-9300-6

he main idea of the study is to gauge the impact of after-school programs by evaluating a substantial sample of studies related to the subject, identifying various outcomes, variables, and locating themes or characteristics identified with positive outcomes (Durlak et el., 2010, p. 294). he study also emphasizes the role of after-school programs in building or strengthening personal and social benefits to those who enroll in them. Durlak et al. utilize a meta-analysis method in order to assess the efficacy of after-school programs in their promotion of personal/social skills in children and adolescents. hey located and reviewed 75 reports examining 69 separate after-school programs. Using a standardized mean difference (SMD), the researchers developed an index…

Unfortunately, for those individuals who did not use direct coping strategies but instead used the kind of coping that distances one's thoughts, emotions, and physical presence from the stressor (e.g., denial and wishful thinking) or disengages completely (e.g., escape and emotional numbing) to cope with discrimination stress tended to have lower self-esteem.

Consequences/Effects of Low Self-Esteem

A number of studies have shown that low self-esteem is predictive of negative outcomes. Parker et al. (2005) found that girls and adolescents with low self-worth reported the greatest jealousy of friends and that a reputation for being jealous of friends was associated with aggressive behavior and other peer adjustment difficulties, including loneliness.

Donnellan et al. (2005) found a link between low self-esteem and externalizing problems such as aggression, antisocial behavior, and delinquency. The authors cited osenberg (1965), who suggested that low self-esteem weakens ties to society and weaker ties to society decrease conformity…

Studying a sample of 153 top commercial Web sites directed at children under 13, the CME found that COPPA has spurred changes in Web sites' data collection practices. Web sites had limited the amount and type of information (e.g., name, postal address, phone number, age) collected from children, and there was a three-fold increase in the posting of privacy policy information explaining sites' data collection practices. A few sites found innovative solutions (e.g., anonymous registration) that allowed children to interact with site content without revealing personal information. Overall, however, the Center found that many sites were not doing their best to comply with the provisions: Most (66%) did not place links to privacy policies in "clear and prominent" places, and only some sites (38%) obtained parental consent in accordance with key provisions. Further, researchers pointed out that in trying to discourage children under 13 from entering personal information, some sites…

Increased vocabulary levels leads to increases in reading comprehension. Students with higher levels of vocabulary can also express themselves in more unique and complex formats, essentially increasing their ability to comment on the reading material in a way that better correlates with their exact emotions or experiences associated with that reading material.

Writing summaries for reading material is another method of using writing exercises to increase literacy levels. Teachers should implement lessons were students write hierarchal summaries that help organize the structure of reading material in a shape that is more familiar and understandable to students (Meltzer, Cook, & Clark, 2011). Writing summaries force students to internalize the material and reassert it in a different way. This further engages them with the texts, as they are forced to put the material in their own words.

Thirdly, using student-generated content to expose weaknesses in understanding can play a key role. Having…

Young adults are on the threshold between youthful behaviors and the adult world. Humans in their late teens begin to accept responsibilities for their own lives and learn to depend upon themselves financially, socially, and psychologically. This is also the time when they make life choices which will ultimately shape their futures and the people they eventually become. Renowned theorist Daniel Levinson defines adult development in the age between 17 and 33 as the novice phase, because this is the point where the young person takes on new responsibilities in the same way as an amateur or novice in a specific occupational field. According to theorist Erik Erikson:

In this stage, the most important events are love relationships. Intimacy refers to one's ability to relate to another human being on a deep, personal level. An individual who has not developed a sense of identity usually will fear a committed relationship…

Northern and Southern Colonies before the Civil War

In the middle of the 19th century, the industrial revolution that was growing depicted the presence of the two countries all of the most progressive independent states. The symbolic status in England laid the foundation of working class exploitation, urbanization and industrialization and the other one based on village, farmhouse, agriculture, and trustworthy relations between tenants and squires in 1845. egarding the census of the 1850, the population of the United States was about twenty-three million; this was a rise from thirteen million in the year 1830. As of 1850, the North saw increased populations of immigrants incoming. The census that was carried out in 1860 showed the population of the United States to be about thirty-one million. This represented a thirty-nine percent increase in a span of ten years where the South only had eighth million whites compared to twenty million…

Brain Development

What Kinds of Changes Are Occurring Within the Brain During the First 2 Years of Life?"

There are several kinds of changes that occur within the brain during the first 2 years of life (Bornstein & Lamb, 89). In fact, some developmental specialists believe that if first two years of life periods in brain development are not utilized, opportunities for brain development can never be regained because in later years the flexibility of using brain is lost. By the time a baby is born, she will have l00 billion brain cells, but these cells are not connected in circuits the way they will be, when the brain begins to mature. In the first two years of life, the brain rapidly forms connections between brain cells and ultimately a single cell can connect with as many as 15,000 other cells (Bruer, 75-81).

During the first year of life, the…

(Reading for the 21st Century: Adolescent Literacy Teaching and Learning Strategies," 2004)

2. Alphabetic Principle-related Skills: This includes: "phonemic awareness, the ability to manipulate the sounds of oral language and phonics and the relationship of letters to sound." (Ibid) Strategies includes instruction" that focuses on high-frequency, sound- spelling relationships." (Ibid)

3. Fluency: This is the ability to read "quickly, accurately and with appropriate expression." (Ibid) Strategies include: "guided oral reading and repeated reading" (Ibid) for improving fluency and comprehension.

4. Vocabulary: The size of the learner's vocabulary is that which leads to "large variations in reading ability." (Ibid) Strategies include "direct [and] explicit instruction and learning from context while reading" (Ibid) for increasing vocabulary among students.

5. Reading Comprehension: This is the most "apparent deficit in students' reading abilities at the secondary level." (Ibid) Strategies include the following:

a) Comprehensive monitoring;

b) Cooperative learning;

Graphic organizations;

d) Story structure;

e)…

bevy of information about diabetes and the many different considerations for treatment that pertain to it. In this regard I found it quite comprehensive. It provides a good deal of detail about treating this condition from administering insulin to the different ways the human body can change: and the ways those changes inherently affect treatment. The article is loosely structured around a case study of an adolescent diabetes patient who is incurring difficulty with managing type 1 diabetes. Her story is used as a framework for the author's explanation of treatment concerns pertaining to adolescents which involves physical attributes, hormonal ones, and even social ones. The author explores the different types of diabetes and a number of different options for managing this condition. The focus of the way the majority of the information is presented, however, is within a context that applies to adolescents.

I learned a substantial amount of…

Psychiatric Disorders

There is a high correlation between youth with substance abuse problems and youth with mental illness. Often, the substance abuse is a means of self-medicating. There are a lot of potential underlying factors for this high comorbidity, but it is important to recognize that the comorbidity exists, and it has implications for treatment. Proper psychiatric care is often required in concert with addiction treatment interventions, in order to ensure that youth facing these issues are able to overcome their addictions.

Psychiatric Disorders

There are a number of psychiatric disorders that can occur with substance abuse during adolescence. For example, among those with an alcohol use disorder, 37% had comorbidity with a mental disorder. The odds are particularly high for multiple addictive disorders, such as drug use disorders. Some of the most common comorbidities with substance abuse disorders are antisocial personality disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders (egier et al.,…

Prejudice in Individuals:

Prejudice is the rigid irrational attitudes and opinions possessed by individuals or members of a specific group about another individual or group. onsequently, being prejudiced is defined as having preconceived beliefs regarding some people groups or cultural practices. In addition to being preconceived and difficult to change, prejudices can be positive or negative. While is possible to be prejudiced and fail to act upon the beliefs or attitudes, negative prejudices can result in discrimination. This negative form of prejudice is practiced in order to guard opportunities through denying access to groups of people. There is an urgent need to lessen prejudice because of the changing social structure, demographics, work place settings, and education settings. However, many efforts to reduce prejudices in these various settings have been legal and have failed to confront the dynamics of the disorder.

Prejudicial Processes:

There are two prejudicial processes that operate differently…

Adolescent Substance Abuse

Substance abuse, commonly referred to as drug abuse and alcohol abuse, has recently gained popularity amid the youth of America. This has been confirmed by SAMHSA (2003) whose survey indicated that around 2.2 million teenagers were convicted of being involved in substance abuse in 2003. Teenage is called the golden period of a person's life as this is full of excitement and energy. People are willing to experience all the good and bad things in life, and for some natural reason, bad things tend to be more attractive. Therefore, the inclination of youth towards excessive usage of drugs and alcohol is not surprising. However, the teenage period does not last long. If people continue the same activity as adults, this can ruin a person's social, academic life, putting a stop to his professional career. This makes it a critical problem that should be resolved as a priority.…

Adolescent Literacy Plan of Action

Successful academic learning and student performance are founded on literacy (Meltzer & Ziemba, 2006). Listening, reading, observational, writing, presentation, speaking and critical thinking skills are used by literate students to learn, communicate what they have learned and even transfer the knowledge gained to other scenarios (Meltzer & Ziemba, 2006). A literacy leadership team and the school principal must lead continual improvement as a goal for students to develop literacy. When an entire school community collectively holds expertise in literacy, it becomes the most beneficial to students (Irvin, Meltzer & Dukes, 2007). In addition to expertise, schools must do what's necessary to enhance their ability to minimize the gap existing between practice and knowledge. All school aspects, like assessments, curriculum, resource allocation, policies and structures, professional development of teachers, instruction and culture of the school, are impacted by the existence of systemic literacy development efforts (Irvin,…

Adolescent Development in the Movie The Breakfast Club

The 1985 film The Breakfast Club, which was written and directed by John Hughes, presents an ideal opportunity to study and psychoanalyze adolescent development. The film portrays five different teenage stereotypes (the jock, nerd, criminal, prom queen, and social outcast) which are consigned to detention in the library on a weekend day (Tanen & Hughes, 1985). As the teenagers gradually get to know each other and interact amongst themselves, they reveal crucial causes and effects of some basic psychological principles related to the development of adolescents. They share a number of problems in common including an almost universal sense of alienation from their parents and from adults in general. As such, there are several psychological theories that apply to them, including, most eminently, Erickson's stages of development.

Erickson's stages of development are predicated by some basic facts of what is known as…

Farris (1990) cites Glasser's Control Theory as a foundation for developing activities to motivate adolescent learners. Briefly this theory asserts humans have five basic needs: the need for survival, belonging, power, freedom and fun. Effective teachers recognize and respond to students' needs and a critical part of that response lies in helping students accept and maintain that essential control.

Farris (1990) proposes possible classroom responses designed to meet these needs. To satisfy the need to belong a teacher should create a classroom with an accepting atmosphere, create a sense of ownership, recognize student's attempts to be accepted, praise students' performance, teach using groups, and discipline or reprimand in private whenever possible to avoid humiliating students. The need for freedom can be addressed by involving students in rule making, providing opportunities for free expression, encouraging creativity in assignments, and possibly consider eliminating assigned seating. The need for power can be addressed…

Sexual Activity in Adolescence

The scholarly literature on adolescence and health reflects the fact that some young people make risky decisions regarding sexual activities -- and the use of drugs also plays a role in their behavior. In this paper, those issues and others related to adolescent behaviors -- including the earlier initiation of sexual activities -- will be presented through in-depth analysis.

Adolescent Sexual Activities and Psychosocial Adjustments

There has been an assumption in the literature for some time that when adolescents delay their first sexual experience, they adjust better psychosocially as young adults a bit later in their lives. Another assumption has been that instances where young adults have their first sexual intercourse experience between 16 and 18 years of age "…are linked to lower adjustment in many life domains" (Haase, 2012, 199).

However, a peer-reviewed research article in the journal European Psychologist challenges those notions with empirical…

Adolescents with poor problem-solving skills are at greater risk of suicide, according to an article in the Journal of Clinical Psychology (Grover, et al., 2009). The authors concentrate on the problem of "chronic stress" in adolescents, saying it involves "deprivation or disadvantage" that is ongoing and those dynamics create a "continuous stream of threats and challenges" for the adolescent. The therapy in this research? Counselors, therapists, parents and teachers all need to help adolescents learn "well-developed problem-solving abilities" in order to "buffer the negative impact of both episodic and chronic stress…" (Grover, p. 1286).

Conclusion

Earlier in this paper it was asserted that up to 20% of adolescents in the U.S. will encounter some form of depression due to stress. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) suggests that the best treatment for severely depressed youths is a combination of psychotherapy and antidepressant medication; that formula works better than either…

Psychology Development

Early Childhood

Medelein N. Moody, (2013). A Relational Aggression Intervention in Early Childhood. University of Nebraska. ProQuest LLC.

The paper was aimed at interrogating the relational aggression in early childhood and if there are interventions within the school setting that can act to reduce the aggression. This intervention is referred to as the Early Childhood Friendship Project and entailed taking stock of the changes in the behavior of the children as they undergo the study and the project. The preliminaries within the article indicates that there is usually a significant differences between the relational aggression between the boys and girls in school with the later recording a higher rate of aggression.

The study was conducted through a survey method and formal testing as the children went through the project and the teachers concerned recorded the results and any noticeable changes over time.

The results that were observed showed…

Leadership Training for Adolescents

The focus of this work is the examination of whether early youth leadership training for adolescents could be a vehicle to address these problems among youth in rural communities. This study is quantitative in nature and investigates the existence of current leadership training programs at primary and high schools. The effect of newly developed leadership training programs and their effect on selected study participants will be examined. The sampling in this study will involve various age groups between 12 and 18 years of age.

Research questions in this study include those stated as follows:

(1) What is the relationship between early leadership training and problem solving skills among rural youth?

(2) What is the relationship between early leadership training and self-esteem among youth?

(3) What is the relationship between early leadership training and enhancing leadership skills among rural youth?

Significance of the Study

The significance of…

Nowadays, adolescent problem behavior is conceptualized as 2 empirically derived syndromes: externalizing problems (including delinquency and aggression) and internalizing problems (including depression, anxiety, and withdrawal) (Achenbach, 1991a, 1991b). Little is known about the structure of internalizing problem behavior. Accordingly, the first aim of this study is to examine the structure of externalizing and internalizing problem behavior during adolescence. (eitz, Dekovic, & Meijer, 2005, ¶ 2).

At the end of their study, eitz, Dekovic, and Meijer (2005) recount that prior research primarily focused on externalizing problems, the structure of a limited range of problem behavior, and basically found support for a 1-factor structure. Their study, eitz, Dekovic, and Meijer assert, extended previoius research as it explored externalizing, as well as internalizing problems, examining whether both types of behaviors belonged to one single factor of general problem behavior (1-factor model), or whether the two types behavior ought to be deemed two separate…

Erickson's and Piaget's Theory of Child Development & adolescent depression

This is a paper concerning the development stages of an adolescent and depression. Erickson's and Piaget's Theory of Child Development will be used to explain what may lead to a child feeling depressed or suicidal.

DEPRESSION IN TEENS

Approximately five percent of children and adolescents experience depression at some point in their lives (AACAP 1998). Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson studied the development of the adolescents. Their theories will give clearer understanding to why teenagers become depressed and what can be done about the problem. Depression comes from a variety of problems in the adolescent's life. Recognizing depression is important. "Out of 100,000 adolescents, two to three thousand will have mood disorders out of which 8-10 will commit suicide" (Brown 1996). The causes of depression in a teenager can stem from family problems, peer pressure and bullying, and changes in…

Egocentrism

The concept of egocentrism in adolescence has been controversial for years. Many theorists have addressed the topic with differing beliefs and conclusions (McDevitt, 2002). Egocentrism in adolescence can be painful not only for the adolescence but for those who are within his or her life circle. It is all about concern that they are being watched. Teens often stop letting mom or dad go to their school, they do not want to be seen in public with them and they insist on wearing the popular name brand clothing or they believe that their life will be ruined.

There are several schools of thought regarding egocentrism in teens. Piaget believed that it actually began to dissipate during the teen years though he did develop a theory about why teens are preoccupied with what others think about them (McDevitt, 2002). According to Piaget it is actually a bit contradictory. It is…

During the study a number of factors were considered for the evaluation of the fact that females unlike males in Saudi Arabia constitute a larger proportion.

Themes

Lifestyle and dietary

Adolescent boys and girls were studied for at least two weeks on their feeding habits, for this period, females were observed to consume more snacks than male in that males could only consume snacks once a fortnight unlike their female counterparts who for the 14 days averagely took snacks at least 12 days. For the consumption of rice, bread, nuts and fish the percentage of females consuming this surpassed that of men i.e. 54.8 to 50.5%, this shows that females consumes more food products that are energy giving than males in Saudi Arabia leading to deposition of more calories in the body triggering obesity as it is supposed that the body can not convert the whole chunk of calories. More…

Young people with poor eating habits can develop eating disorders or these disorders may be in response to various psycho-sociological issues that arise during adolescence. Irrespective of the cause, adolescents with eating disorders run the risk of a wide range of adverse healthcare outcomes, including obesity, high blood pressure, bone loss and even death. The problem is more common than many people believe, and the prevalence of eating disorders has been increasing in recent years due in part to improved recognition of the condition by clinicians. To determine the current state of affairs with adolescent eating disorders, this paper provides a review of the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature to develop a background and overview of eating disorders, their effects and how these conditions are treated. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings about adolescent eating disorders are provided in the conclusion.

Background and Overview

Professional and public…

Treating Adolescents With Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is an eating confusion described by a terror of fatness experienced during the adolescence period that leads to them to starving themselves leading to harmful low body weight, a moody fear of being fat and compulsive hunt for thinness. Though not limited to a certain age or sex, it mostly affects the female. The eating disorder affects both the physical appearance; thin appearance and psychological health. Though the origin of anorexia nervosa is blurred, severe fasting and weight loss are regularly linked with efforts to manage the increasing psychological and social burden of adolescence, the disorder leads to a reported death rate of 6-10% of the adolescent who do not seek medication in time Berkman et al., 2006.

The worry among most clinicians is whether to focus on anxieties the adolescence have during this period of growth or addressing the rigorous dieting and…

NUTRITION DURING THE ADOLESCENT STAGE IN PREVENTING FUTURE DISEASES? HOW MIGHT NUTRITION AFFECT GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT, AND LEARNING DURING THE ADOLESCENT STAGE? SOURCES I NEED FOR MY BIBLIOGRAPHY: I REQUIRE THREE (3) PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS AND TWO CREDIBLE WEBSITES.

The importance of nutrients during adolescence

Adolescents in the contemporary society find it difficult to follow a strict set of rules and most are inclined to pay little to no attention to their health. Nutrition is a delicate topic when considering adolescents because many consider that their health status is not going to change in the future. The fact that overweight adolescents have come to represent an important problem in the present contributes to the gravity of this situation and it is thus essential for teenagers to have a complex understanding of the concept of nutrition. Nutrition is important when considering learning and behavior, this meaning that the future of society partly rests…