HD 1170

Final Study Guide

Psychosocial problems in adolescence

Steinberg proposes four general principles about adolescent psychosocial problems:

Most problems reflect transitory experimentation: rates of occasional, usually harmless,
experimentation far exceed rates of enduring problems
Not all problems begin in adolescence: because a problem may be displayed during
adolescence does not mean that it is a problem of adolescence
Most problems do not persist into adulthood: relatively transitory in nature and are
resolved by the beginning of adulthood
Problems during adolescence are not caused by adolescence: when a young person
exhibits a serious psychosocial problem, the worst possible interpretation is that it is a
normal part of growing up
Name and give examples of the three broad categories of problems in adolescence.
Substance abuse: the misuse of alcohol or other drugs to a degree that causes problems in
the individuals life
Internalizing disorders: psychosocial problems that are manifested in a turning of the
symptoms inward, as in depression or anxiety
Externalizing disorders: psychosocial problems that are manifested in a turning of the
symptoms outward, as in aggression or delinquency
Approximately what percentage of high school seniors in recent years have tried alcohol,
cigarettes and marijuana and what are the general trends in their use during the last few
decades?
75% (alcohol), 45% (cigarettes), 43% (marijuana)
marijuana use: declined steadily since the late 1970s and then rose sharply during the mid
1990s
alcohol use: declined steadily during the 1980
cigarette use: increased during the 1990s and dropped significantly since 1997 due to
increases in the price of cigarettes
Why is early experimentation with alcohol, cigarettes, and other substances of particular
concern? How are the effects of alcohol and cigarette use in adolescence related to brain
functioning and addiction later in life?
Dopamine: neurotransmitter that makes the user feel good; frequent drug use signals the
brain to reduce levels of natural dopamine, in order to main the proper level, because the
dopamine receptors cant tell the difference between the drug molecules and dopamine
molecules; the more you use, the less natural dopamine circulates
Changes in the limbic system is changing during early adolescencecan permanently affect
the way the dopamine system functions
Repeated exposure to drugs during this period of heightened malleability in the limbic
system can affect the brain in ways that make it necessary to use drugs in order to
experience normal amounts of pleasure (less changeable in adulthood)
 Alcohol for adolescents: more positivesocial; can drink more than adults without feeling
the negative effects; harms planning and regulation of impulses
How does the use of drugs and alcohol compare among White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, and
American Indian adolescents?
Highest: American indian adolescents
White and hispanic > black and Asian
Foreign born and less Americanized minority < American-born/acculturated minority
How are adolescents who experiment with, abstain from, or abuse alcohol and marijuana
different from each other, on average?
Experimenters and abstainers score higher on measures of psychological adjustment than
frequent users; moderate alcohol use during adolescence does not have negative long-term
effects
Irrational abstainers: over-controlled, narrow in their interests, anxious, and inhibited
Abusers: lower psychological adjustment; not getting along well with other children, not
showing concern for moral issues, not planful/likely to think ahead; deviant, emotionally
unstable, stubborn, inattentive
Is occasional alcohol and marijuana use normative for American adolescents today? What
are the risk factors and protective factors for adolescent substance abuse?
Yes, typically used in social situations
Better adjusted and more interpersonally competent young people are likely to participate in
social activities in which alcohol and other drugs are present
Likely to experience problems at school, suffer from psychological distress and depression,
become involved in dangerous or deviant activities, and engage in unprotected sex; health
problems, unemployment, wedlock children
Psychological (anger, impulsivity, inattentiveness); distant, hostile, or conflicted family
relationships (excessively permissive, uninvolved, neglectful, or rejecting); more likely to
have friends who use and tolerate the use of drugs; live in context that makes drug use
easier
Protective factors: positive mental health, high academic achievement, engagement in
school, close family relationship, and involvement in religious activities
What kinds of programs have been successful and unsuccessful in preventing adolescent
substance abuse?
Successful: raising the price of alcohol and cigarettes; programs designed to bring in the
whole community
Unsuccessful: enforce laws governing their purchase; programs designed solely for
information to prevent drug use, DARE
Distinguish between drug use and drug abuse
What is a status offense?
Violation of the law that pertain to minors but not adults
At approximately what age does violent criminal activity peak?
18 (onset: 13-16)
Since the mid 1990s describe how the rates of violent crime among adolescents have
changed. Who are most likely to be the victims of violent crime?
 Since 1993, violent crime among young people declined dramatically; began to rise very
slightly in the mid 2000s
Adolescents; single-parent homes in poor neighborhoods, poverty
Name some factors that are strongly linked to violence and aggression in adolescents.
Poor parenting
Affiliation with antisocial peers
What kind of programs have been successful and unsuccessful in preventing and treating
adolescent externalizing problems?
Evidence-based practicesgood
Unsuccessful: group antisocial youth togetherinadvertently foster friendships among
delinquent youth
Teach how to resist peer pressure and settle conflicts without aggression
Minimize the number of opportunities adolescent have to engage in peer-oriented
misbehavior
Encourage prosocial behavior
What is the most common internalizing problem among adolescents?
depression
At what point does the sex difference in depression change?
From early adolescence until late adulthood, twice as many females as males suffer from
depressive disorder and females are more likely than males to report depressed mood
Heightened self-consciousness and increased concern over popularity
Name some risk factors for attempting suicide during adolescence.
Having a psychiatric problem, having a history of suicide in the family, being under stress,
experiencing parental rejection, family disruption or extensive conflict
Adolescents who have attempted suicide once are at risk for attempting it again
Do adolescent suicide attempts increase after publicity about a suicide?
yes
What approaches have been effective in treating adolescent depression?
Psychotherapy
Evidence-based practices
Antidepressants (SSRIs)
Name some factors that make some adolescents more vulnerable to the effects of stress than
other adolescents.
Any one stressor is exacerbated if it is accompanied by other stressors
Adolescents with other resources are less likely to be adversely affected by stress than their
peers (high self steem, healthy identity development, high intelligence, or strong feelings of
competnence)
Using more effective coping strategies

Families

In what areas do adolescents typically have similar beliefs to their parents and in what
areas do they typically have different beliefs?
 Share a common social, regional, and cultural background; importance of hard work,
educational and occupational ambitions, and the personal characteristics and attributes that
they feel are important and desirable; basic, core values concerning religion, work,
education, etc
Difference in matters of personal tastestyles of dress, preferences in music, and patterns of
leisure activity
In what areas are adolescents and parents likely to bicker?
Everyday issues, such as time spent on schoolwork, household chores, and choice of friends
Parents view many issues as matters of right and wrongnot necessarily in a moral sense,
but as matters of custom or convention
Adolescents are likely to define these same issues as matters of personal choice
How are differences between the role of mothers and fathers in our culture related to
differences in adolescents relationships with their parents?
Adolescents tend to be closer to their mother, to sepnd more time alone with their mother,
and to feel more comfortable talking to their mother about problems and other emotional
matters; tend to be more involved than fathers in their adolescents lives
Fathers often rely on mothers for information about their adolescents activities; perceived
as relatively distant authority figures who may be consulted for objective information;
rarely sought for support or guidance
Fight more with mothersmore controlling; does not jeopardize closeness

Know Baumrinds model of parenting styles, including the four styles and the variables on
which they differ.
Demandingness: degree to which the parent expects and insists on mature, responsible
behavior from the child
Responsiveness: degree to which the parent responds to the childs needs in an accepting,
supportive manner
Authoritative: use warmth, firm control, and rational, issue-oriented discipline, in which
emphasis is placed on the development of self-direction; place a high value on the
development of autonomy and self-direction but assume the ultimate responsibility for
their childs behavior
Authoritarian: use punitive, absolute, and forceful discipline, and who place a premium on
obedience and conformity
Indulgent: characterized by responsiveness but low demandingness, and who are mainly
concerned with childs happiness
Indifferent: low levels of both responsiveness and demandingness
What characteristics of adolescents are associated with each style of parenting?
Authoritative: self-reliant and who has a strong sense of initiative; responsible, creative, self-
assured, intellectually curious, socially skilled, and academically successful
Authoritarian: dependent, more passive, less socially adept, less self-assured, and less
intellectually curious
Indulgent: less mature, less responsible and more conforming to their peers
Indifferent: impulsive and more likely to be involved in delinquent behavior and in
precocious experiments with sex, drugs, and alcohol
What are some ethnic differences in parenting styles and how are they related to
adolescents behavior?
Authoritative parenting is less prevalent among black, Asian, or Hispanic families than
among white familiesbeneficial
Ethnic minority youngsters benefit from parenting that is responsive and demanding
Authoritarian parenting is not necessarily bad if control is combined with warmth (not as
harmful as it is with white adolescents)
How is the ability to have both attachment and autonomy in a family related to
adolescents psychological health?
Do best when they grow up in a family atmosphere that permits the development of
individuality against a backdrop of close family ties
Conflict can be good-adolescents are encouraged to express their opinions in an
atmosphere that does not risk severing the emotional attachment
How are adolescents relationships with siblings similar to and different from their
relationships with parents and peers?
Similar to parents in terms of companionship and importance
Similar to friendships in term of respect to power, assistance, and their satisfaction with the
relationship
What are shared and nonshared environmental influences and how are they related to
siblings development?
Shared: nongenetic influences that make individuals living in the same family similar to each
other
o Socioeconomic status, neighborhoodless influential
Nonshared: nongenetic influences in individuals lives that make them different from people
they live with
o Siblings treated differently by parentsdifferent experiences in the same context
o Peer relations, school relations
What does research indicate about the following factors and their relationship to adolescent
development:
1) the importance of the number of parents in an adolescents house versus the quality
of the adolescents relationship with them: quality of relationships is more important
a. stepfamiliesmore problems than single-parent homes
b. single-parents families without divorceless difficulties than those with
divorced/remarried families
c. adolescents without dadbetter off than those with adolescents who show no
interest in them
2) the importance of the process of going through a divorce versus the resulting family
structure: the process of going through a divorce, not the resulting family structure that
matters most for adolescents mental health; signs of difficulty after the divorce, but the
majority has adjusted to the change and behave like other peers after two or three years
3) exposure to marital conflict, disorganized or disrupted parenting, and increases in
household stress: more adversely affected by it when they are aware of it than when it is
more covert, when it leads to feelings of insecurity or self-blame, when it disrupts the
quality of the parent-child relationships ; conflict between parents often spill over into
parent-child relationship, making mothers and fathers more hostile, more irritable, and less
effective; depression, distress, aggression
How great are the effect sizes in differences between adolescents from divorced and
nondivorced parents?
More educational and behavioral problemshigher levels of marital unhappiness and
conflict with strained parent-child relationships
In the adverse effects of divorce are attributable to the immediate problems of adjusting to a
new household structure or due to exposure to intense marital conflict before and during
the divorce, these effects will dissipate within a few years
Average effect size is small
The effects of divorce tend to be stronger among school-aged individuals than preschoolers
or college students
More common in US and more likely to have access to psychological services, such as
counseling
What are some of the sleeper effects of divorceproblems that appear in adolescents
several years after their parents have divorced?
Adjustment difficulties may not be expressed until adolescent; increased drug use and higher
rates of early pregnancy
Particular developmental challenge of adolescenceintimate sexual relationshipsaffects
ones conceptions of relationships or views of romantic commitment
How are fighting between divorced parents and consistent discipline from divorced parents
related to adolescents adjustment to divorce?
Nature of the relationship between the adolescents divorced parents, not which one he/she
lives with that makes a difference
Adolescents with parents with a congenial, cooperative relationship and appropriate
discipline from both homesfewer behavioral problems and less emotional difficulty
Suffer when conflict is intense
Is it more difficult for children or adolescents to deal with the remarriage of their parents?
What style of step-parenting is most effective?
Adolescents
Consistent, supportive, authoritative style of parenting
How is parents income loss and unemployment related to adolescent development?
Disruptions in parentingadolescent difficulties
Girls: demands for maturity and increased responsibility around the housepessimistic
expectations about their own occupational futures
Boys: more frequent conflict with fathers
More involvement in problem behavior and heightened irresponsibility
Often exposed to harsh, uninvolved and inconsistent parentinggreater risk for
psychological and behavioral problems
Marital conflictproblems (affects quality of parenting); less involved, less nurturing,
harsher, and less consistent in their discipline
How is chronic family poverty related to adolescent development?
Increases in anxiety and depression, more frequent conduct problems, and diminished school
performance
Violence, stress, depression, suicidal thoughts, academic difficulties, and behavior problems
What family factor has the strongest relationship to adolescent development?
 Teenagers feeling of connectedness with parents and family; feeling loved and cared for by
parents

Peer Groups

How is the development of age-segregated peer groups related to whether a society has
particularistic or universalistic norms?
Particularistic: guidelines for behavior that vary from one individual to another; more
commonly found in less industrialized societies
o Family background, not age, determinds what their rights and responsibilities are
o Socialization best in family groups, where elders can pass on the familys particular
values and norms to their younger relatives
Universalistic: guidelines for behavior that apply to all members of a community; more
common in industrialized societies
o Norms that apply to one apply to everyone
Modernization created age groupsuniversalistic
In what four ways are adolescent peer groups different from peer groups in childhood?
Sharp increase during adolescence in the sheer amount of time individuals spend with their
peers and in the relative time they spend in the company of peers versus adults
Peer groups function much more often without adult supervision than they do during
childhood, partly because adolescents are more mobile and partly because they seek, and
are granted more independence
Increasingly more contact with peers is with other-sex friends
Emergence of larger collectives of peers, or crowds

What are cliques and what purpose do they serve for adolescents?
Small, tightly knit groups of between 2 and 12 friends, generally of the same sex and age
Common activities; friendship
Provides the main social context in which adolescents interact with one another; social
setting in which adolescents hang out, talk to each other and form close relationships
What are crowds and what purpose do they serve for adolescents?
Large, loosely organized groups of young people, composed of several cliques and typically
organized around a common shared activity
Reputation and stereotype
How do researchers study cliques and crowds?
Participant observation: researcher infiltrates a group of individuals in order to study their
behavior and relationships ; observed is also a participant
How do cliques and crowds change during adolescence?
Due to increased importance of romantic relationships
Early adolescence: same-sex cliquesboys and girls may go to parties or hang out together
but they still spend time with peers of the same sexromantic interestsmiddle to late-
adolescence mixed-sex cliques
Late adolescence: peer crowds begin to disintegrate
Larger peer group is replaced by loosely associated sets of couples
 Maturitycrowds in terms of abstract, global characteristics rather than concrete,
behavioral features
More consciously aware of the crowd structure in school
Crowd structure becomes more differentiated, more permeable, and less hierarchical
allows more freedom to change crowds and enhance their status
How do crowds serve as reference groups?
Provide members with an identity in the eyes of other adolescents
Judge one another on the basis of the company t hey keep and they become branded on the
basis of whom they hang out iwth
What is the most important influence on the composition of cliques and how does it change
over time?
Similarity
Typically composed of people who are of the same age and the same ethnicity, from the
same socioeconomic background, and during early and middle adolescence, the same sex
Describe how cliques are related to an adolescents age, social class, race and ethnicity, sex,
orientation toward school, orientation toward the teen culture, and involvement in
antisocial activities.
Age segregation: result from the structure of schools; not many chances to make different
age friends in school; more likely to make friends of different ages outside of school
Sex segregation
o Early and middle adolescence: same sex
o Cliques: generally interested in different things
o Sensitivity about sex roles
Social class segregation: adolescents associated mainly with peers from the same social class
or adjacent social classes
Ethnic segregation: more ethnically segregated with age
o Cross-ethnic friendships are less common in ethnically diverse schools than in
schools where one ethnic group predominates
o More powerful determinant of friendship patterns (more than socioeconomic
status)
o Academic achievement, attitudinal
How are gangs similar to and different from other adolescent peer groups?
Groups of adolescents who are similar in background and orientation, share common
interests and activities, and use the group to derive a sense of identity
Tend to be more isolated from their family, to have more emotional and behavioral
problems, and to have poorer self-conceptions than other adolescents
Relationships are not close or intimate
Dont have much reason to maintain friendship in the absence of their shared interest in
antisocial activities
How do selection and socialization influence similarity between friends?
Both selection and socialization are at work across a variety of attitudinal and behavioral
domains, including school achievement, drug use, mental health, and delinquency
Those who use alcohol or tobacco are likely to choose friends who also use drugs
Spending time who use drugs also increases adolescents use as well
 Socialization (peer influence) is far stronger over day-to-day preferences in things like
clothing or music; selection may be a somewhat stronger factor as far as delinquency and
gang membership
What is the difference between sociometric popularity and perceived popularity?
Sociometric: how well-liked an individual is; determined mainly by social skills, friendliness,
sense of humor; determinants are variable
Perceived: how much status or prestige an individual has; variable and ever changing; good-
looking and athletic or rebellious, delinquent; peer norms change
How are aggressive, withdrawn, and aggressive-withdrawn adolescents different from each
other?
Aggressive: have trouble controlling their aggression
Withdrawn: shy, anxious, and inhibited; often the victims of bullying, especially when they
are boys
Both: have problems controlling their hostility, but like other withdrawn children, they tend
to be nervous about initiating friendships with other adolescents
What is relational aggression and which adolescents typically use it?
Acts intended to harm another through the manipulation of his or her relationships with
others, as in malicious gossip
Girls: exclude others from social activities, damage reputations of others, withdraw
attention and friendship
What is hostile attributional bias and how does it relate to adolescents behavior?
Tendency to interpret ambiguous interactions with others as deliberately hostile
Unpopular younsters lack social skills and social understandings necessary to be popular
with peers; unpopular aggressive children are ore likely than their peers to think that other
childrens behavior is deliberately hostile, even when it is not
More likely to retaliate
Plays a central role in the aggressive behavior of rejected adolescents
Do the same adolescents who engage in traditional bullying also engage in cyberbullying?
Yes; victims of bullying are also victims of cyberbullying
Most internet bullying is not anonymous
What does research indicate about the adjustment problems of individuals who function as
both bullies and victims?
Victims: low self-esteem, depression, and academic difficulties
Bullies: problems in social skills and in the control of aggression
Both aggressive and withdrawnmost disturbed
Bullying and victimization in the same childrenelements of the broader context: climate of
schoolincrease likelihood of aggression between classmates

Schools

What are some of the goals of the comprehensive high school in the United States?
Educational institution that promised to meet the needs of a diverse and growing population
of young people
 Classes in general education, college preparation and vocational education were all in one
building
Classes in music, art, family life, health, PE, and other subjects to prepare adolescents for
family and leisure as well as work roles
How is school size related to student learning and engagement?
Student performance and interest in school improve when their schools are made less
bureaucratic and more intimate
Achieve more when they attend smaller schools that create a cohesive sense of community
May affect academic outcomes, but it does not necessarily affect students emotion
attachment to the institution or their mental health (intimacy by breaking up into small
groups within large schools)
Large schools may have more activitiesless spots for activities; small school students are
more active in a wider range of activities
Small schoolsstudents can do more things that develop their skills and abilities; make
them feel needed and important; more likely to have positions of leadership
How is class size related to student learning?
Classroom sizes from 20 to 40 studentsno effect on achievement during adolescence
Small classes may help young elementary school children, but adolescent in class with 40
students learn just as much in class with 20 students
What are some of the variables that are related to the successful transition of adolescents
into secondary schools?
Academic motivation and school grades drop as they move from elementary to
middle/middle to high school
Disrupt academic performance, behavior and self-image of adolescents; temporary
Stable family and peer relations
Teachers regulations and grading patterns
Changing schools is easier for students who move into small rather than large institutions
Teachers must be supportive

What is tracking and what are some of the advantages and disadvantages?
The grouping of students according to ability into different levels of classes within the same
school grade
Pros: allows teachers to design class lessons that are more finely tuned to students abilities,
Cons: students in lower track may receive poorer-quality education; discriminate against
poor or ethnic minority groups and may hinder rather than enhance their academic
progress
Influence adolescents friendshipstend to socialize with peers from the same academic
group; polarization
Affluent people tend to be able to move up more easily
How are high ability boys and girls treated differently with regard to tracking in math?
Boys are more likely than girls to be placed in more advanced math classes (even though
girls score higher than boys on standardized tests in elementary school)
Girls are less likely to be moved from a lower to a higher math class
How do the effects of tracking differ for students in the high, low, and middle tracks?
 High: more challenging instruction and better teaching; more likely to engage in classroom
activities that emphasize critical thinking; positive influence on school achievement, on
subsequent course selection, and on ultimate educational attainment
Lower tracks: inferior education; increase preexisting differences among students; students
who need the most help are assigned to the tracks in which the quality of instruction is the
poorest; exert less effortlimit learning
Academically rich get richer, poor get poorer
Desegregation on academic achievement: students have a wider range of students to
compare themselves to; high ability studentsexpectations raised for them and their
teachers evaluations of them; low ability studentslowered expectations and get worse
grades from teachers; high look better, low look worse
What does research indicate about the effect of desegregation on academic achievement
and self-esteem for minority and white adolescents?
Little impact on the achievement levels of either minority or white youngsters
Minority youngsters self-esteem is higher when they attend schools in which they are in the
majority
Fare better psychologically when the cultural environment of their neighborhood is
consonant with the cultural environment of their school
Attachment is higher when more classmates are from the same ethnic group
Safer, less lonely, and less harassed in relatively more diverse schools
How does being a racial or ethnic minority affect adjustment to school?
Uncomfortable if there arent a lot of others of the same racial ethnicity
Notice the little things more often than other people
Prejudice
How is academic achievement related to whether adolescents attend public, private, or
charter schools and what variables seem to be related to this?
Public: less safe
Private: higher test scores; more safe; racial segregation (affluence); less likely to have gangs
or fighting; social capital (strong communities with interpersonal resources); typically
assigning more homework and are more orderly and disciplined
Charter: more safe; help inner city students with free education but with better options
May be more affected by background than the schools themselves
What aspects of the school and classroom climate have important effects on adolescents
achievement? What style of teaching is most effective for adolescents achievement and
their engagement in school?
Schools that are responding and demanding
Relationships between students and teachers are positive; teachers are both supportive and
demandingpsychological well-being
Moderate degree of structure with high student involvement and high teacher support
Encourage student participation
High proportion of time on lesson, begin and end on time, provide clear feedback to
students, give ample praise with good performance
Promote cooperation over competition
The performance of which kind of students appears to be tied more strongly to teacher
expectations?
Academically weaker students (self-fulfilling prophecy)
How are students ethnicity and socioeconomic background related to teacher expectations?
Teacher expectations create self-fulfilling prophecies that ultimately influence how their
students behave
Consciously and unconsciously shape teachers expectations, which affect student learning
May call on poor or minority students less often than they call on white of affluent students
(believe their responses are more worthy than the poor/minority students)
Having low expectations for some ethnic groups and high expectations for others can
contribute to feelings of hostility between students from different ethnicities
Which strategies have been successful and unsuccessful at reducing school violence?
Unsuccessful: zero tolerance policymany students end up with arrest records and contact
with the justice system for acts that in the past would have been treated as disciplinary
infractions by school officials
Successful: programs that attempt to create a more humane climate; intervene to change
behavior or disruptive students at an earlier age
What percentage of high school graduates enroll in college immediately after graduation?
How do college graduation rates compare to college enrollment rates?
70% of white and 60% of black and Hispanic high school graduates go directly into college
fewer than 60% of all students who enroll in a four-year college complete their degree
within 6 years
What are some recommendations to help the one-third of adolescents who do not go
directly to college make the transition from school to work?
Apprenticeship; vocational skills during high school
Use some of the money for financial aid to subsidize college tuition and give it to those who
do not go to college
Based on what we know from research, what are five characteristics of good schools for
adolescents?
Emphasize intellectual activities (nature and size of the student body, quality education
valued by all
Teachers are committed to their students and are given a good deal of freedom and
autonomy by administrators in the way that this commitment is expressed in the classroom
Well integrated into the communities they serve; involve parents
Composed of good classrooms; active participants, atmosphere is order, not repressive;
debate
Staffed by teachers who have received specific training in teaching adolescents

Work & Leisure & Positive Youth Development

How has the proportion of U.S. high school students holding part-time jobs changed in the
last 40 years?
Significant decline in proportion of time devoted to paid jobs, significant increase in time
devoted to leisure due to compulsory schooling
How does the amount of time U.S. high school students spend on part-time work and
leisure differ from students in other industrialized countries?
Generally spend far more time on leisure, far less time in productive activities than
counterparts in other countries.
The majority of working students work in which two kinds of formal jobs?
Retail and service sectors/ restaurant work
Boys in manual labor, girls in service positions.
What does research reveal about with whom adolescents work, whether they develop
responsibility through work, and whether they learn to manage money through work?
Working more than 20 hours per week during the school year is associated with what
behaviors in adolescents?
Benefits of working overstated, intensive employment in high school may negatively affect
development and preparation for adult work.
Do not necessarily gain responsibility through work experience due to high rates of
misconduct on job.
Most of income spent on personal expenses premature affluence = less satisfied with
financial situations as young adults; fewer than 10% save most of income for future
education.
Working more than 20 hrs a week may jeopardize school performance and engagement.
Less participation in extracurricular activities, enjoy school less, spend less time on hw,
earn lower grades.
What are some characteristics of unemployed adolescents?
Majority of unemployed youth have only high school or less education.
What programs have been suggested to facilitate the transition from school to work for
non-college bound adolecents.
Apprenticeship programs, counseling services, strengthen youth organization.
Service learning structured educational experiences that involve volunterring in
community
How does the Experience Sampling Method allow researchers to study the relationship
between adolescents moods and their daily activities?
Chart moods, monitor social relationships, catalog activities in great detail.
Adolescents, when signaled, report company, activity, and mood.
Moods generally more positive when with friends, least positive alone, moods with family
fall between.
Mood with friends more positive as age increases, mood with family curvilinear patter
moods more negative btwn elementary/middle school, rise btwn middle/high school.
Participation in extracurricular activities is more common among which adolescents?
More prevalent in affluent families, students with better grades, more rural communities,
smaller schools, schools where activities play central role.
Participation in extracurricular activities is associated with what behavioral and
psychological factors in adolescents?
Improves school performance, reduces dropping out, druge use, delinquency, risk taking,
enhances psychological well-being/social status.
Team sports may be associated with increased alcohol use/delinquency.
 Positive link btwn athletic participation and academic performance among poor student
and poor communities.
Extracurricular activities cross racial friendship better mental health for Blacks.
Theatre emotional development
Value of school; self-confidence/self esteem.; student/parent bond to school.
How is problem behavior after school related to the safety of an adolescents neighborhood,
the amount of time spent in unsupervised activities with peers, and parental monitoring?
Time of high school peer pressure, susceptibility too peer influence
Adults strong deterrent against problem behavior.
Hanging with friends in absence adult supervision at night = increase in problem behavior
What are the goals of positive youth development programs?
to facilitate healthy psychosocial development, not simply to deter problematic
development.
What components are associated with successful youth development programs?
Deter problem behavior but also promote positive youth development
Participants placed in demanding roles, encouraged to met high expectations, expected to
take responsibility for behavior, helped to understand consequences of failing to fulfill
obligations.
Greater sense of responsibility/competence could lead to increased parental autonomy
granting development of adolescent independence.
How many hours a day does the average adolescent spend using one or more kinds of
media? In general, how is the frequent use of media related to adolescent development and
can we infer cause from this relationship?
Average adolescents spends 8 hours using one or more kinds of media
Exposed to media closer to 11 hours
Impossible to say what causes which (media exposure vs. problem behavior/risky activity)
o Ex: sexual behavior and sexy music/ TV with sexual content; What causes what?
How is exposure to messages in the media related to adolescents behavior and beliefs about
sex, cigarettes, alcohol, and violence?
Sex: portrayed as pleasurable and carefree. Common in media, women as sex objects;
Absence of possible physical consequences of sex.
Cigarettes: effects strongest on those inclined to smoke; actually influences adolescents to
smoke.
Alcohol: common in media; anti-drinking ads actually effective in changing attitudes.
Violence: repeated exposure to violent imagery can cause aggressive behavior; TV
violence exposure linked to aggressive behavior.
Name some positive and negative aspects of adolescents frequent use of the internet.
Positive acquire accurate information; educate about healthy behavior, dependent on
quality/content; strengthen relationships through communication (amongst close friends,
not strangers or non-close friends)
Negative displace time spent on physical activity; messaging between strangers results
in lower quality relationships with close friends; instant messaging with not close friends
can lead to compulsive behavior, depression.
What do we know from research about the effects of media messages and adolescent girls
body images? What are the factors that make up the 5 Cs model of positive youth
development?
Media focuses on dating relationships, physical attractiveness/thinness; relative to male
perspective of physical beauty
o Fashion magazines can result in body dissatisfaction; dieting/weight los magazines
unhealthy weight control behaviors.
5 Cs model of positive youth development
o Competence positive view of ones actions in domain specific areas
o Confidence internal sense of overall positive self-worth and self-efficacy
o Connection positive bonds btwn individual/peers/family/school/community
o Character respect for societal/cultural rules, possession of standards for correct
behaviors; right/wrong; integrity
o Caring/compassion sense of sympathy/empathy