What happens when kids are held captive to an endless stream of MTV-like television commercials? Armed with a tape recorder, Roy F. Fox, a language and literacy researcher, spent two years interviewing over 200 students in rural Missouri schools. Why? Because more than eight million students in 40% of America's schools, every day, watch TV commercials as part of Channel One's news broadcast. Students read commercials far more often than they read "Romeo and Juliet." These ads now constitute America's only national curriculum.

In this ground-breaking study, Fox explores how these commercials affect kids' thinking, language, and behavior. He found that such ads do indeed help shape children into more active consumers. For example, months after a pizza commercial had stopped airing, students reported that one brief scene showed a couple on an airplane. The plane's seats, students noted, were red with little blue squares that have arrows sticking out of them. Also, kids blurred one type of TV text with another, often mistaking Pepsi ads for public service announcements. Kids replayed commercials by repeating or reconstructing an ad in some way--by singing songs, jingles, and catch-phrases; by cheering at sports events (one crowd at a school football game erupted into the Domino's Pizza cheer); by creating art projects that mirrored specific commercials, and even by dreaming about commercials (the product, not the dreamer, is the star).

Scientific research and science-guided practice based on the promotion of an individual's strengths constitutes a radical shift in a new and growing area of study within the field of human development. Its trademark term is positive youth development'. This approach to human development is based on the idea that, in addition to preventing problems, science and practice should promote the development of competencies, skills, and motivation in order to enhance individuals' developmental pathways.

Approaches to Positive Youth Development, is based on this concept and brings together authors from across Europe and America who are leaders in their respective fields. The main focus of the book, beyond a clarification of the paradigmatic foundations, concerns the major contexts of adolescents and young adults, namely, neighbourhoods and leisure locales, school and family, and the major themes of healthy psychosocial development, namely, competences and knowledge, prosocial behaviour, transcending problems of delinquency, civic engagement, identity, agency, and spirituality.

What exactly is civic and political participation? What factors influence young people's participation? How can we encourage youth to participate actively in their own democracies? Youth Civic and Political Engagement takes a multidisciplinary approach to answering these key questions, incorporating research in the fields of psychology, sociology, political science and education to explore the issues affecting youth civic and political engagement. Drawing on evidence that has been obtained in many different national contexts, and through multinational studies, this book provides a theoretical synthesis of this large and diverse body of research, using an integrative multi-level ecological model of youth engagement to do so. It identifies unresolved issues in the field and offers numerous suggestions for future research. Youth Civic and Political Engagement is an invaluable resource for researchers, teachers, youth workers, civil society activists, policymakers and politicians who wish to acquire an up-to-date understanding of the factors and processes that influence young people's civic and political engagement, and how to promote youth engagement.

This original and fresh approach to the emotions of adolescence focuses on the leisure lives of working-class boys and young men in the inter-war years. Being boys challenges many stereotypes about their behaviour. It offers new perspectives on familiar and important themes in inter-war social and cultural history, ranging from the cinema and mass consumption to boys' clubs, personal advice pages, street cultures, dancing, sexuality, mobility and the body. It draws on many autobiographies and personal accounts and is particularly distinctive in offering an unusual insight into working-class adolescence through the teenage diaries of the author's father, which are interwoven with the book's broader analysis of contemporary leisure developments. Being boys will be of interest to scholars and students across the humanities and social sciences and is also relevant to those teaching and studying in the fields of child development, education, and youth and community studies. -- .

From April 1986 until just after Nelson Mandela's release from prison in February 1990, supporters of the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group maintained a continuous protest, day and night, outside the South African Embassy in central London. This book examines how and why a group of children, teenagers and young adults made themselves 'non-stop against apartheid', creating one of the most visible expressions of anti-apartheid solidarity in Britain. Drawing on interviews with over ninety former participants in the Non-Stop Picket of the South African Embassy and extensive archival research using previously unstudied documents, this book offers new insights to the study of social movements and young people's lives. It theorises solidarity and the processes of adolescent development as social practices to provide a theoretically-informed, argument-led analysis of how young activists build and practice solidarity. Youth Activism and Solidarity: The Non-Stop Picket Against Apartheid will be of interest to geographers, historians and a wide range of other social scientists concerned with the historical geography of the international anti-apartheid movement, social movement studies, contemporary British history, and young people's activism and geopolitical agency.

Educators as First Responders is a comprehensive, hands-on guide to adolescent development and mental health for teachers and other educators of students in grades 6-12. Today's schools are at the forefront of supporting adolescents with increasingly complex, challenging psychosocial needs. Moreover, students are more likely to seek out a trusted teacher, advisor, or coach for support than to confide directly in a parent or even a school counselor. Succinct and accessible, this book provides tips and strategies that teachers, coaches, nurses, counselors, and other school professionals can put into immediate use with students in varying degrees of distress. These evidence-based practices and real-world classroom examples will help you understand the "whole student," a developing individual shaped not just by parental pressure or psychiatric diagnosis but by school and broader cultural and systemic forces.

Originally published in 1980, this was the first book to provide a wide-ranging discussion of social work with adolescents, and is composed of linked original papers by the Social Work Group and their associates at the University of Bath. The contributors discuss adolescent development and the experience of adolescents and focus on what social workers might actually do with and for these young people. Following a general discussion of social work method, using the framework provided by systems theory, there is exploration of counselling with the adolescent and his family, group work and neighbourhood work with adolescents, and the residential care of adolescents. In addition, the book examines issues of interprofessional co-operation between the services provided for adolescents, and discusses some of the personal issues which confront the social worker who works with young people.

Based on the study of a large number of young people ranging in age from eleven to seventeen, Relationships in Adolescence, originally published in 1974, proposes a new model of adolescent development, described as the 'focal' model, which makes a valuable contribution to the greater understanding of adolescence for all who have contact with this age group. The book contains an examination of three different approaches to adolescence, an outline of the research project, and a discussion of the empirical evidence concerning identity and self-image, heterosexual and parental relationships, and large group situations. Comparisons are made between age levels and between boys and girls with respect to the whole range of relationships, and the evidence illustrates significant and at times dramatic differences between groups. Of particular importance are some of the changes which occur with age, such as the degree of conflict with parents and attitudes to sexuality. Based on Dr Coleman's findings is his fresh 'focal' model of adolescent development. This model stresses the elements of growth and change in adolescence, with special emphasis on the normal anxieties and conflicts that occur at different stages of the developmental period. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.

Despite its importance, youth policy is an often-ignored area of Government planning and legislation, and policy initiatives seem to lack any guiding theme or relevance to the needs of young people. In Youth Policy in the 1990s originally published in 1992, the editors brought together prominent experts in the key areas of youth policy at the time. They provide a critical review of the major issues which implicitly or explicitly affect the world of adolescents and examine to what extent they paint a picture of existing youth policy. The aim was to provide a baseline for a policy on youth in the 1990s. The book recommends the introduction of a Minister for Young People and the use of youth impact statements at national and local level and seeks to provide information and argument for those seeking to plan policy for young people from a corporate or inter-agency perspective. The contributors are all recognized experts in their fields. They tackle their topic first by examining the historical perspective, with a special concentration on the previous decade. Each has paid regard to particular themes - ethnicity, class and gender, and where possible, has brought in material from other countries and cultures. They have then put forward suggestions for future policy.

Originally published in 1941 and written in an attempt to dispute the popular assumption at the time that a 'bit of discipline' is what is needed for the correction of young men who show delinquent tendencies, this book is much more than that. Basically an account of a kind of voluntary Borstal Institution of which the author was head from 1936 to 1940, its interest on reissue in 1967 lay in the fact that it contained the germinal ideas of most of the day's newest methods in penal treatment, not just as ideas, but in practice. Here is the therapeutic community in embryo, here are the beginnings of group therapy, of inmate participation in treatment, of therapy through relationships. None of them are mentioned by name - the names had not been invented; but anyone who wanted to understand the trends in the treatment of delinquent and maladjusted people at the time would find it all here in simple untechnical English. The book is also an account of an enthralling experience, exciting and interesting in itself, apart from any social significance. Just before the camp started, Alec Paterson said to David Wills, 'Do you really think you can run a place of this kind without the use of punishment?' Wills said he didn't know, but looked forward to trying. Readers of this book may judge for themselves how far he succeeded. A particularly interesting feature of this edition is the account of the subsequent lives of the many boys who were at Hawkspur.

A story of everyday life in an American junior high school, originally published in 1983, this book demonstrates the ways in which the school culture of early adolescence both supports and denies the cultural and economic requirements of the parent society that surrounds it. It explores this school culture in relation to the local and national in political economy, to class, race and gender, and to the needs of the state. The author approaches the work of students in school as a labor process in the context of an advanced capitalist society. He describes such typical junior high activities as 'goofing off' and 'bugging the teacher' by examining the meaning of these activities to the students engaged in them, and brings acute observation and sensitivity to bear on the forms of resistance that arise among the students, showing that this resistance is a form of power which students exercise in the face of their estranged status. The nature and consequences of this resistance are examined in detail, especially as they relate to the context of a society in which estranged labor, in one form or another, is the dominant characteristic for most members. Throughout the book, the subtle pressures, the cliques, the vitality, the boredom and the ever-present humor of school life are explored. By integrating the insights of Habermas with the theories of Marx, the author is able to examine the tension between the 'reified knowledge' of the school and the 'regenerative knowledge' of the students in a sensitive ethnography which captures the student world in ways which have been missed in the past.

The transition from school to work is recognized by developmental psychologists as a significant phase in maturation of young people. In the 1990s the likelihood that the transition might be delayed by a period of prolonged unemployment was greater than any time since the 1930s. The psychological consequences of such a delay need to be understood because they may be damaging to both the individual and to society, particularly if they are long-lasting. Such an understanding is essential for the development of sound policy in relation to youth unemployment. Originally published in 1993, Growing up with Unemployment describes a major longitudinal study of a large group of South Australian school leavers through the 1980s. It assesses the scale and context of the problem and reviews the methods and theories that have been developed to study the psychological impact of unemployment. It also looks at those factors which may contribute towards helping young people cope with it, such as financial security, social support and being involved in constructive activities with other people. The authors also examine how we might be able to predict future unemployment and understand the relationship between it and alcohol consumption, smoking and drug use. This book describes a major study with important implications for employment policy, as well as future theory and research. This title will be interesting historical reading for students of psychology and social policy, policy makers and all those who deal with young people.

Originally published in 1983, this book elucidates the urgent problems of disadvantaged and delinquency-prone post-adolescents at the time by providing a comprehensive theoretical framework and a pragmatic outlook based on recent rehabilitation experiments. This analysis of post-adolescent psychodynamics focuses on specific issues which had previously received little attention and also deals with traditional topics such as cognitive and psychosocial development during the second decade of life.

Originally published in 1948, The Adolescent Child provided vital information on adolescence for parents, teachers, club leaders, social and religious workers and welfare supervisors in factories at the time. With research from both the UK and the US the author looks at the psychology of the adolescent through the many stages they encounter, from physical and emotional changes; self-identity; love and friendship to education and work. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.

For all the work on disability in previous years, there had been surprisingly little done on a subject of central importance - the social and psychological needs of teenagers with disabilities. Originally published in 1982, the purpose of this timely book was both to review the literature and to report an extensive study of the nature of the psychological problems, the quality of social life and the adequacy of the services available to a substantial group of teenagers with disabilities in the last years at school, with a follow-up study of half their number a year later. The authors show that many of these teenagers, including those with a mild disability, are often unhappy, worried and isolated from their peers. While the majority of the teenagers with disabilities, whether in ordinary or special schools, made friends at school, these friendships were rarely sustained outside. After leaving school the degree of social isolation is as great, and often worse. Among these teenagers the incidence of psychological problems was three to four times higher than for a control group, the most common being worry, depression, misery, fearfulness and lack of self-confidence and self-esteem. For the most part, the teenagers with disabilities were likely to be immature and ill-prepared to cope with adult life. These findings underline the need for a counselling service while the teenagers are still at school, and supporting services when they have left. Like other teenagers, those in this study were unprepared for the possibility of not having a job, and had not thought how to organize their lives if a job was not available or feasible. The authors draw attention to the large proportion of people with disabilities without occupation after leaving school, and the high dissatisfaction with day centres. Perhaps their most important finding is the need to rationalize the piecemeal and overlapping provision of help for school-leavers with disabilities. In the meantime, their book provides a wealth of information of direct use to those concerned with teenagers with disabilities and their families, whether in school provision, careers advice, work placement and alternatives to work, social services, counselling, medical services and further education. This book is a re-issue originally published in 1982. The language used is a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this re-publication.

Eighty Thousand Adolescents, originally published in 1950, illustrated by maps, photographs and diagrams, describes and interprets the results of a study of the young people of Birmingham. This study was made by the staff and students of Westhill Training College, under the direction of Bryan Reed, Youth Tutor. Visits were paid to some hundreds of youth organizations, and answers to a series of questions were given by over a thousand young people, both 'attached' and 'unattached'. Some of the questions to which the investigators set out to find answers were: In what kind of homes are young people growing up? How do they earn their living? How many take advantage of opportunities for further education? How do they spend their leisure? - and their pocket money? What do they read? What are their emotional, intellectual, spiritual and social needs? and how far do Education Authorities, Clubs, Churches, etc. meets these needs? In his summing-up Mr. Reed calls attention to the need for imaginative and instructed leadership, for a sense of purpose in the Youth Service, and for the integration of this Service in the wider life of the community. Today it is a fascinating look back at adolescent life in post-war Britain.

Originally published in 1997, Aids and Adolescents provided an insight into a wide range of adolescent issues which were rarely compiled in one volume at the time. Much of the HIV epidemic response had been at the individual level in the hope that this narrow focus would provide the key to containment and resolution of spread. However, over the ten years since the epidemic had taken hold, it was clear that paradigms were limited, input was uncritical and large cohorts were overlooked. In this text a series of contributions have been compiled to explore adolescent issues ranging from sexual behaviour and health education campaigns to HIV prevention and HIV/AIDS care. The chapters begin by giving an overview of adolescent problems, such as homelessness, pregnancy and gender, and explore why these problems are so often overlooked. We then move on to an examination of the facts and fictions associated with adolescent risk, challenging some of the basic current notions underpinning approaches to the subject at the time. Also included are particular focused studies of Australian adolescents' beliefs about HIV and STDs and also the American adolescents' perceptions of drug injection. Finally, the volume gives a focused view of those with HIV infection, with a review of findings of the time, neuropsychological and psychological factors. This overview provided some comments on merging issues and future directions. Today it can be read in its historical context.

The purpose of this book is to examine whether physical distance from jobs or racial discrimination in youth labor markets explains a greater part of minority youth's employment problems. First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Young people spend a significant amount of time with technology, particularly digital and social media. How do they experience and cope with the many influences of digital media in their lives? What are the main challenges and opportunities they navigate in living online? Youth in the Digital Age provides answers from a decidedly interdisciplinary perspective, beginning in a framework steeped in context; biography; and societal influences on young people, who now make up 25% of the earth's population. Placing these perspectives alongside those of current scholars and commentators to help analyse what young people are up against in navigating the digital age, the volume also draws on data from a five-year research project (Digital Media and Young Lives). Topics explored include well-being, privacy, control, surveillance, digital capital, and social relationships. Based on unique and emergent research from Canada, Scotland, and Australia, Youth in the Digital Age will appeal to post-secondary educators and scholars interested in fields such as youth studies, education, media studies, mental health, and technology.

The 2011 Arab uprisings led to a great proliferation of studies on the situations in the Arab countries of the Mediterranean, with particular attention given to their young people, whose role was particularly central. Eight years on, in-depth exploration is still needed of the conditions in which millions of (mainly young) people demanded change. In this context, this volume examines the state and diversity of the forms of socioeconomic, political and cultural marginalization facing the region's young men and women, as well as the strategies and routes of contestation by which they escape them. Through the interdisciplinary empiricism of this book, based on the results emerging from the SAHWA Project (funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme, grant agreement n 613174), we aspire to build a complex description and analysis of the current situation of the Arab Mediterranean youth. The aim is to fathom out young people's patterns, agency and living conditions, focusing on the relational character of the juvenile worlds actively constructed by themselves. The authors explore the main trends that are reflected in the social strategies, cultural constructions and changes within the Arab youth population, and whether the creation of new lifestyles and the emergence of youth cultures are an indicator of sociopolitical transitions. To answer all these questions the researchers have conducted a comprehensive study in five Arab Mediterranean countries: Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia. Based on mixed method research the data collection is composed of two primary sources: the SAHWA Youth Survey 2016 (2017), in which 10,000 young people were interviewed; and the SAHWA Ethnographic Fieldwork 2015, involving more than 200 young people.

The topic of adolescent development in Europe is one which has received little academic attention in recent years. Developmental Tasks in Adolescence makes an exciting contribution to the field by applying socialisation theory to four major developmental tasks of life: Qualifying, Bonding, Consumption and Participation, arguing that if the tasks in these areas are mastered, then personal individuation and social integration can take place, a prerequisite for the formation of self-identity. In highly developed societies, adolescence encompasses a period of about 15 years on average. Puberty, or the transition from childhood, starts earlier and earlier, and the transition to adulthood is increasingly postponed. Developmental Tasks in Adolescence proposes that the way in which adolescents master the tasks of everyday life has become a pattern of orientation for the life stages which follow because of the new lifestyle requirements that are typical for modern democratic societies. Today, a life full of uncertainties and ambiguities is no longer limited to adolescence, but rather continues into adulthood. Hurrelmann and Quenzel's sociological approach is valuable reading for students and academics in psychology, sociology, education, social work and youth studies, and for those on professional training courses in these fields.

Extensive Gallup research offers a unique glimpse inside the heads and hearts of today's teens. A must-have for parents, youth workers, and teachers.

This book explores the causes and consequences of the contradictions in young people's lives stemming from the affluence-purpose paradox: a lack of purpose-in-life among many of those living in the most affluent societies in human history. This paradox is endemic to identity societies where people experience a choice-contingent life course, and is examined using an interdisciplinary approach-largely with an integration of developmental psychology and sociology, but also using historical, anthropological, economic, and political perspectives. The transition to adulthood is now commonly a prolonged process, with young people facing a number of psychological challenges and sociological obstacles in their identity formation. Challenges include difficulties in making prudent choices about goals. Obstacles involve cross-pressures in the wider society as well as in educational institutions. Consequently, many youth experience their education as alienating and stressful rather than as an opportunity for personal development. Those without a sense of purpose have more difficulties with their identity formation that can produce symptoms of anxiety and depression. The current student mental health crisis is examined in this context. An additional challenge is an ambiguously defined adulthood. Young people who are confused about appropriate adult roles often value hedonistic activities rooted in narcissism and materialism rather than in more fulfilling long-term goals. Conversely, those who are agentic in their personal development can thrive in adulthood, especially when they combine agency with generativity. This book ends with a series of recommendations for researchers and policy makers to help youth cope with the affluence-purpose paradox.

This book explores the causes and consequences of the contradictions in young people's lives stemming from the affluence-purpose paradox: a lack of purpose-in-life among many of those living in the most affluent societies in human history. This paradox is endemic to identity societies where people experience a choice-contingent life course, and is examined using an interdisciplinary approach-largely with an integration of developmental psychology and sociology, but also using historical, anthropological, economic, and political perspectives. The transition to adulthood is now commonly a prolonged process, with young people facing a number of psychological challenges and sociological obstacles in their identity formation. Challenges include difficulties in making prudent choices about goals. Obstacles involve cross-pressures in the wider society as well as in educational institutions. Consequently, many youth experience their education as alienating and stressful rather than as an opportunity for personal development. Those without a sense of purpose have more difficulties with their identity formation that can produce symptoms of anxiety and depression. The current student mental health crisis is examined in this context. An additional challenge is an ambiguously defined adulthood. Young people who are confused about appropriate adult roles often value hedonistic activities rooted in narcissism and materialism rather than in more fulfilling long-term goals. Conversely, those who are agentic in their personal development can thrive in adulthood, especially when they combine agency with generativity. This book ends with a series of recommendations for researchers and policy makers to help youth cope with the affluence-purpose paradox.

Alcohol and other drugs of abuse cause significant physi ological changes, especially during development. The effects on the infant and child range from severe mental retardation to mild changes in activity and neurological functions. Although the level of intake needed to cause fetal damage is not clear, the magnitude of the problem is significant, with many long-term sequelae. As a result, it becomes critical to better diagnose and manage drug and alcohol use during pregnancy. This must involve special training for health care professionals. In addi tion, recognition of the psychosocial factors affecting alcohol use, especially by youth and young adults, is critical to modi fying behavior, and thus reducing fetal alcohol exposure. Cultural considerations can also come into play in modi fying alcohol and drug use by women so as to reduce fetal damage. The trends in alcohol and drug use by youth forecast rising levels of damage to infants. These children will need extensive medical and educational care for years to decades. Clearly, understanding of the role women must take in modifying their alcohol and drug use during pregnancy will facilitate changes in our cultural and educational practices that will help reduce fetal trauma from alcohol.