Chapter 5/6 Adolescents in Society

Chapter 5/6 Adolescents in Society By: Ahed Yousif Fatima Beydoun Racha Abedelsater

Adolescence and Puberty • Adolescence: The period between the normal onset of puberty and the beginning of adulthood. • Puberty: The physical maturing that makes an individual capable of sexual reproduction.

The three factors that have been particularly important in the development of adolescents as a distinct stage in the life cycle are: • Education: it extends the period of adolescence because many students are dependent on others for their financial support. • Exclusion of youth from the labor force: some states require the working age to be above the age of 16 as result of this action many of the young people would lack the training to compete for jobs. adolescents work part-time job while they continue going to school. • The development of the juvenile and adult offenders: a separate legal status, and the creation of a separate legal status for young people in the American society.

The Five Characteristics of Adolescence • Biological Growth and Development • Undefined Status • Increased Decision Making • Increased Pressure • The Search for Self

Biological Growth and Development: • Controlled by the brain and the endocrine system. • Experience of spurts in height and weight. • Changes in the body development, development of sexual characteristics, and complexion problems. • 50% of teenagers experience blackheads, acnes, and pimples which may lead to anxiety or embarrassment to the teenagers.

Undefined Status: • Expectations and rules for teenagers are set by parents • The U.S. has created values and styles popular among teenagers. • Adults get bothered by the values and styles • It is difficult to determine status.

The five characteristics of adolescence cont. • Increased Decision Making: • Most of the teenagers have decisions made by adults. • Adolescents should make their own decisions in this stage of their lives. • Many of the decisions for teenagers are important such as their future career. However, many decisions are not important like attending school clubs.

Increased Pressure: • Pressure comes from many sources: An example is parents (they state what time an adolescent should be at home, what they can and can't do). • Schools: adolescents are pressured to attend classes and complete assignments. • Becoming part of an “in” group: it is one of the greatest pressures because many teenagers want to be like their friends. • Job pressure: finding a part-time job in the summer and interacting with people.

The Search for Self: • Adolescents should search and think about the important things for them. • Adolescents should establish personal norms, set priorities, prepare for future roles, and create their own position in the society. • Anticipatory socialization: learning of the rights, obligations, and expectations of a role in preparation for assuming that role at a future date. (Part-time job and club membership are examples).

Factors That Influence the Emergence of Dating • Rise of industrialization • Urban life couples with child labor law • Automobiles and Phones • Women social lives • Status Attainment and Casual Dating

Rise of industrialization: • Young adults are less dependents on their parents’ assistance for economic security (they establish their own households). • The economic freedom reduced parental control over courtship and set stage for the development of dating.

Urban life couples with child labor law: • Free time was increased • Adolescents had not been directed to supervision of adults because their parents work outside home.

Automobiles and Phones: • Telephones: make it easy for young people specifically in order to arrange social engagements. • Automobiles: give young people the freedom to move.

Women social lives: • Women interacted more in the social life especially when she entered work and took active roles in the community.

Status Attainment and Casual Dating: • One of the earliest sociological analyses of American dating patterns which is offered by Willard Waller. • Patterns are selected based on: nice clothes, good looks, and popularity. • Mate-selection: it depends on a person’s character which is of primary importance • Homogamy: it is the tendency of individuals to marry people who have similar social characteristics as their own.

Functions of Dating • There are at least five functions of dating • Form of recreation • Mechanism for socialization • Fulfills psychological needs • Helps individuals attain status

Form of recreation • It allows people to get together to have fun and this is related to casual dating.

Mechanism for socialization • It teaches about the opposite sex • It helps individuals to define their self concept and to behave appropriately.

Fulfills psychological needs • Conversation • Companionship • Understanding

Helps individuals attain status • People are judged by who they date so if the person they are dating is valued by others they are able to raise their own self status through that person.

Sexual behavior The rate of teenage sexual behavior: • 28% of unmarried females between the ages of 15-19 were sexually active in 1971, while that rate increased to 42% in 1982. • The rate of unmarried teens who have babies decreased from 97% per 1000 females in 1957 to 52% per 1000 females in 1982. These changes are due to birth control devices.

The rate of teenage sexual behavior cont: • Birth rate among American teenagers is 5 times as in Canada or Western Europe, this is because American teenagers use birth control less effectively than Canadian and Western European Teens.

Influences of early sexual behaviors. Influence early sexual activity are family income level, parent's marital status, and the adolescent's grades in school. teenagers from low-income, one-parent families tend to have higher rates of sexual activity than do teenagers from higher-income, two-parent families. adolescents who are having academic or behavioral difficulties in school tend to engage in sexual relations at earlier ages.

Consequences of Early Sexual Behavior • Babies born to teenage mothers have lower birth weights and are more likely to die within the first year of life. • Teenagers who become mothers and fathers are less likely to finish high school and college. • Due in large part to lower levels of education, individuals who become parents during adolescence have lower lifetime earnings. • Death during childbirth is more common for teenage mothers. • Even when pregnancy does not occur, early sexual activity can have a negative health impact by exposing teenagers to sexually transmitted disease • Children of teenage parents are more likely to experience learning difficulties.

The Rate of teenage Drug Use • 57% of seniors used marijuana in 1987, rate went down from 66% 1982 • marijuana use began to decrease in 1979 • 20% of high school students smoke on a daily basis • Alcohol use among teenagers remains stable since 1976 • Over 92% of the high school seniors surveyed in 1987 reported having used alcohol at some point and 66% had a drink as recently as a month before the survey, 5% were daily drinkers and nearly 40% had had five or more drinks on a single occasion within two weeks of the survey. • drug use among the approximately 15 to 20% of teenagers did not graduate from high school • United States has the highest rate of drug use among adolescents of any industrialized nation.

Causes of Drug Use • having friends who regularly engage in drug use • having social and academic adjustment problems • living in a hostile and rejecting family situation.

Consequences of Drug Use • over 67% of the seniors disapproved of smoking one or more packs of cigarettes a day. In 1987 increased to more than 74% • Changes in the teens attitude • in the 1970's 69% had health problems • Negative attitudes toward regular use of drugs; LSD, cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, barbiturates remained constant • in 1977, over 65% of seniors disapproved of regular marijuana use, it increased to 89% in 1987

The Rate of Teenage Suicide • The rate of suicide for young people in the U.S. has more than doubled in the past three decades. • In 1997 Surgeon General David Statcher said that a youth suicide occurs once every 2 hours in the U.S., 12 times a day, and 84 times a week. • Suicide rates exceed the general rate of population in the U.S. especially during the period of social disorganization where norms are less clear, no behavioral guidelines or social support, and low levels of social integration. • The rate of suicide for adults aged 65 and older is twice as high as it is among the young. • The CDC questioned high-school students in 2008 where: • 8% of the students attempted suicide. • 17% considered suicide. • 2% made a suicide attempt.

The Sociological Perspective on Suicide • Studying the structure of society and people's experience help understand the variation in suicide rates. • Emile Durkheim said : • Suicide is the most comprehensive sociological analysis. • Variations in suicide rates can be explained by the level of social integration in a society or a group. • Social integration is the degree of attachment people have to social groups or to a society as a whole. • Groups or societies with higher or low levels of social integration will have high rates of suicide. • Social integration increases the rates of suicide because group members place the needs of the group above their own personal needs.

Predictors of Teenage Suicide • Alcohol or Drug Use • Triggering Events • Age • Gender • Population Density • Family Relations • Cluster Effect

Alcohol or Drug Use: • Increased suicide and it is associated with: • low levels of self control • easily frustrated

Triggering Events: • Fear of punishment • Loss of or rejection of important person • Unwanted pregnancy • Family crisis • Poor school performance • Fight with a friend or a family member

Age and Gender • Older teenagers and young adults commit suicide more than those of age 13 or under. • Females are 3 times more likely than males to attempt suicide.

Population Density: • Underpopulated areas have higher rates of suicide than do heavily populated areas because they have access to few social services.

There are high rates of suicide in violent families, intense marital conflict, recent loss of a parent through divorce or death, and rejection of family toward their children.

Cluster Effect: • Occurs when a member of the community takes his/her life.

By: Ahed Yousif Fatima Beydoun Racha Abedelsater Chapter 6/7 The Adult in Society

The 3 eras of adult male development according to Levinson: 1. Early adulthood (ages 17 through 39) 2. Middle adulthood (ages 40 through 59) 3. Late Adulthood Era (ages 60-64)

1. Early adulthood (ages 17 through 39): this stage has 4 periods: • Early adult transition: this period starts when young adults go away to college or take full employment and move out of their childhood homes. (Ages 17 though 22). • Entering the adult world: exploring variety of relationships and opportunities of career, becoming a responsible member of society, and forming a stable life structure. (Ages 23 through 27). • The age 30 transition: this is a difficult period. It’s the time to look at one’s choices. Levinson considered this period to be crucial because it often involves shifts in direction. (Ages 28 through 32). • Setting down period: during this period, individuals commit to things that are important to them, such as work, family, leisure, friendship, or community. They also work to fulfill the dreams they established previously. (Ages 33 through 39).

2. Middle adulthood (ages 40 through 59): • The midlife transition: during this period individuals questions their life structure. In most instances, they come to realize that the dreams they formed in early adulthood are beyond fulfillment. Escaping the pressure of unattainable dreams is one of the major tasks in this period. (Ages 40 through 44). • Middle Adulthood Era (ages 45-59): Stabilizing time, family and relationships become more important than work, children leave, grandchildren enter the picture, and balance between work, family, friends and leisure.

3. Late Adulthood Era (ages 60-64): • Late Adulthood Transition (ages 60-64) : Realize that the end of life is closer than the beginning, assessment of past life structures, tendency to try to fulfill one or two life dreams - travel, for example, spend more time with family. • Late Adulthood (ages 65+): Realize that the end of life is closer than the beginning, retirement, increased dependency on others, acceptance of life structures, and past decisions and approaching end of life.

The 3 eras of adult female development according to Frieze: • Leaving the Family • Entering the Adult World • Reentering the Adult World

Leaving the Family • Leaving the Family: leaving the Family, bridge between adolescence and adulthood, leaving home, break with parents, often go to college, sometimes marry, and many still receive parental support of some kind.

Entering the Adult World • Entering the Adult World: marriage and motherhood, around age 25 to 33, first pregnancy, first real job, often difficult attempts to balance marriage, motherhood and employment, daycare, job advancement possibilities are limited if the woman also has children, many stay home from work to raise the children.

Reentering the Adult World • Reentering the Adult World: Once children reach school age, many women return to work. Most of these are in early thirties. Irony – These women are developing a commitment to their careers when their husbands are having serious doubts about their own. American attitudes on marriage and careers are changing, as are male/female roles.

Labor force: • Labor force: • Consist of all individuals age 16 and older who are employed in paid positions or who are seeking paid employment.

Components of labor force: • Profession – High status occupation requiring specialized skills obtained through formal education. • Engineer, lawyer, teacher, medical technician, doctor, dentist, writer. • Unemployment – When a person does not have a job but is actively seeking one. • Unemployment rate – Percentage of labor force that is unemployed.

Most important factors in determining job satisfaction: • Had control over work • Used their skills and talents • Received recognition and appreciation • Felt safe at work • Good relations with co-workers • Flexible hours • Job security

Gerontology and Social gerontology • Gerontology: The scientific study of the processes and phenomena of aging. • Social gerontology: Studies the nonphysical aspects of aging.

The three stages that are people 65 and older are placed into are: • Young Old (Ages 65-74): Adjustment to retirement. • Middle Old (Ages 75-84): Issues regarding health and mental decline • Old Old(Ages 85+): Increased mental, physical and financial dependence

Chapter 5/6 Adolescents in Society