With increasing rates of globalization, understanding the cultural factors that promote positive adaptation in migrant children and adolescents is vital. In prior research, acculturation and enculturation frameworks often rely on unidimensional or bidimensional conceptions of culture to study the effects of migration on child and adolescent…

This study describes the learning and development experiences of teacher education students after taking an introductory course on adolescent psychology. The instructor adopted the developmental instruction model (DIM) (Knefelkamp, 1998) in this study and facilitated students learn through experiential learning. Fifteen students (aged between 20…

Adolescent development can be influenced by two critical factors in camp programming: content of the values that shape and inform the camper and degree of challenge. Camp adventure activities successfully merge recreation and education in an outdoor setting that provides space for the explorations of youth. Camp can play a unique role in guiding…

Describes a study of self-concept changes among 87 ninth-grade students during a 10-week mandatory adventure course. Concludes that course participation improved overall self-esteem and perceptions of own physical self and popularity, particularly among male students. Contains 16 references. (SV)

Describes northern Michigan's Pine River Camp Vision Quest four-day solo wilderness experience for 13- , 14- , and 15-year-olds based on Indian ceremonies to personalize and demarcate in a spiritual manner the questor's entrance into society as a fully responsible and mature adult. Reports experiences of 17 campers. (NEC)

This proceedings contains transcripts, presentations, and workshop summaries from a 2-day conference on experiential learning in youth development, held by the Brathay Hall Trust in the English Lake District. Brathay is a British educational charity that offers a variety of youth development courses, ranging from outdoor adventure activities to…

Adolescent work experience is often proposed as developmentally significant. This study attempts to demonstrate that different work settings expose youth to substantially different experiences. Opportunities for learning, initiative and autonomy, and interaction are examined in six job types commonly held by adolescents. (SK)

Discusses the origins and context of adolescence as a cultural phenomenon and illustrates how rites of passage can nurture healthy developmental changes in adolescents. Describes and evaluates the application of a rite of passage during a backpacking experience that was designed to usher teens from adolescence to adulthood in a Christian context.…

Increasing violence and suicide among adolescent boys is attributed to a lack of security in our fast-changing society and a lack of direction and value for young men. Rites of passage constructively channel the undirected energies of youth to initiate a purposeful and responsive adulthood. Nine British programs are described, and recommendations…

Presents an interview with the founder of a high school Walkabout program emphasizing experiential, challenging, risk-oriented activities to assist the transition to adulthood. Discusses programs goals, student self-concept and self-evaluation, development of a supportive learning community, and activities useful with younger students. (SV)

Describes the development of a New Jersey adventure program for homeless teenagers. Discusses the developmental tasks of adolescence--separating from family, forging a healthy sexual identity, preparing for the future, and developing a moral value system--and the positive impacts of adventure on these tasks. Addresses the issue of closure and…

The third biannual Brathay Youth Conference focused on ways to help young people negotiate the key transitions in their lives and the role of informal and experiential learning in such strategies. This document summarizes speeches, workshops, and research reports presented at the conference. The speeches were (1) welcome and introduction (Steve…

Presents the results of studies on adolescence which analyze the biographical importance of school in adolescent life and the psycho-social stress of scholastic requirements. States that appropriate scholastic, pedagogical, and didactic concepts that meet the fundamentally changed significance of scholastic "work" in adolescence should…

Examines impact on adolescence of major cultural changes brought about by advent of television, combined threat of nuclear war and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, and changes in social values and family structures. Main thesis is that volume and pace of contemporary changes have an unsettling effect on internal experience and create…

Notes that Montessori envisioned that the ideal environment for adolescents was "Erdkinder," or "children of the land." She believed that nature could provide a calming force for adolescents, and working the land with peers could prepare adolescents for real life. Describes the development of the Blackwood Land Laboratory,…