The Adolescent Experience


Book Description

The Adolescent Experience places the college student at the very heart of the book. The authors engage in a dialogue with the reader that is warm, caring, and often humorous as they write and share material about this time of life. The authors emphasize the role that development and society play in the lives of young people. The book has a solid research basis with a historical and multicultural focus. But most important, the book is practical and applied with the strongest prevention/health promotion material available in any basic undergraduate adolescent psychology text currently on the market.Key Features* Focuses on health promotion and illness prevention* Provides not only a U.S. but also a much needed Canadian perspective to this life stage* Involves students as participants in a long-standing inquiry into the nature of adolescence as they are introduced to the latest research in the field* Provides students with the latest practical information in subject areas like sexuality, drugs and alcohol, suicide and depression, eating disorders, crime, delinquency, and violent behavior* List server links student and/or instructor to authors* Explores the uniqueness of North America's multi-culturalism* Illustrates important concepts using literature and social history to make them tangible to students




The Promise of Adolescence


Book Description

Adolescenceâ€"beginning with the onset of puberty and ending in the mid-20sâ€"is a critical period of development during which key areas of the brain mature and develop. These changes in brain structure, function, and connectivity mark adolescence as a period of opportunity to discover new vistas, to form relationships with peers and adults, and to explore one's developing identity. It is also a period of resilience that can ameliorate childhood setbacks and set the stage for a thriving trajectory over the life course. Because adolescents comprise nearly one-fourth of the entire U.S. population, the nation needs policies and practices that will better leverage these developmental opportunities to harness the promise of adolescenceâ€"rather than focusing myopically on containing its risks. This report examines the neurobiological and socio-behavioral science of adolescent development and outlines how this knowledge can be applied, both to promote adolescent well-being, resilience, and development, and to rectify structural barriers and inequalities in opportunity, enabling all adolescents to flourish.




The Adolescent Experience


Book Description




Adolescent Development and the Biology of Puberty


Book Description

Adolescence is one of the most fascinating and complex transitions in the human life span. Its breathtaking pace of growth and change is second only to that of infancy. Over the last two decades, the research base in the field of adolescence has had its own growth spurt. New studies have provided fresh insights while theoretical assumptions have changed and matured. This summary of an important 1998 workshop reviews key findings and addresses the most pressing research challenges.




The Changing Adolescent Experience


Book Description

The path adolescents take from childhood to adulthood is a product of social, economic, political, and technological forces. These forces may facilitate youth's preparation to become healthy adults, or they may leave youth unprepared for adulthood. Knowledgeable projections are vital in shaping the agenda for research; for alerting educators, policy makers, and practitioners to new issues; and for formulating thoughtful responses to emerging dilemmas. This book focuses upon the future of adolescence in postindustrial societies. The authors identify some ominous societal changes that will affect youth: unstable job markets, competition for public resources due to an aging population, and widening income gaps between 'information workers' and low-skill workers. But they also observe opportunities created by information technology, innovations in health service delivery and criminal-justice rehabilitation, and the resourcefulness of a new generation. This volume examines these and other macro-structural changes that will impact adolescents' lives and their futures as adults.




Protecting Youth at Work


Book Description

In Massachusetts, a 12-year-old girl delivering newspapers is killed when a car strikes her bicycle. In Los Angeles, a 14-year-old boy repeatedly falls asleep in class, exhausted from his evening job. Although children and adolescents may benefit from working, there may also be negative social effects and sometimes danger in their jobs. Protecting Youth at Work looks at what is known about work done by children and adolescents and the effects of that work on their physical and emotional health and social functioning. The committee recommends specific initiatives for legislators, regulators, researchers, and employers. This book provides historical perspective on working children and adolescents in America and explores the framework of child labor laws that govern that work. The committee presents a wide range of data and analysis on the scope of youth employment, factors that put children and adolescents at risk in the workplace, and the positive and negative effects of employment, including data on educational attainment and lifestyle choices. Protecting Youth at Work also includes discussions of special issues for minority and disadvantaged youth, young workers in agriculture, and children who work in family-owned businesses.




Adolescence


Book Description

Annotation Adolescence can be a turbulent period. Encompassing both classic and modern research, Smith explores its cultural and historical context, the biological changes to the adolescent brain, and the difficulties - the search for identity, relationship changes, risk-taking and anti-social behaviours - that adolescence brings.




Risks and Opportunities


Book Description

This report constitutes one of the first activities of the Forum on Adolescence, a cross-cutting activity of the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council of the National Academies. Established under the auspices of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families, the forum's overaching mission is to synthesize, analyze, and evaluate scientific research on critical national issues that relate to youth and their families, as well as to disseminate research and its policy and programmatic implications. The goals of the forum are to: (1) review and establish the science base on adolescent health and development and make efforts to foster this development; (2) identify new directions and support for research in this area, approaching research as a resource to be developed cumulatively over time; (3) showcase new research, programs, and policies that have demonstrated promise in improving the health and well-being of adolescents; (4) convene and foster collaborations among individuals who represent diverse viewpoints and backgrounds, with a view to enhancing the quality of leadership in this area; and (5) disseminate research on adolescence and its policy implications to a wide array of audiences, from the scientific community to the lay public.




The Science of Adolescent Risk-Taking


Book Description

Adolescence is a time when youth make decisions, both good and bad, that have consequences for the rest of their lives. Some of these decisions put them at risk of lifelong health problems, injury, or death. The Institute of Medicine held three public workshops between 2008 and 2009 to provide a venue for researchers, health care providers, and community leaders to discuss strategies to improve adolescent health.




The Adolescent Experience


Book Description

The opening of the borders to Eastern Europe has expanded our view on European diversities and offered new opportunities to examine the effects of the heterogeneity in European cultural backgrounds and political systems on personality and social development. This book is a first step in utilizing the rich cultural resource offered by the large number of cultural units represented in Europe and--at least in part--in the United States. One way to understand the life conditions of adolescents in different countries is to study what they actually do in everyday life and how much time they spend on what types of activities. This book also provides essential and new information about individual and societal priorities and values. Toward this end, the "Euronet" scientists set up a postdoctoral training workshop on adolescent psychology for 10 selected American and 10 selected European participants. The Euronet project comprises 13 different samples--six stemming from Middle and Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, the Czechoslovakian Federal Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Romania), six from Western European countries (Finland, France, Germany, Norway, French, and German Switzerland), and one from the United States (Michigan). This book reports the results of this large, cross-national, longitudinal study of adolescents and the world(s) in which they live, and is offered to all those who have an interest in adolescence and/or the diversity of Europe. Readers will learn about hundreds of features of adolescence which are more or less characteristic of the cultures, ages, and genders.