After-school programs, scout groups, community service activities, religious youth groups, and other community-based activities have long been thought to play a key role in the lives of adolescents. But what do we know about the role of such programs for today's adolescents? How can we ensure that programs are designed to successfully meet young…

The authors tested a theoretical model positing that poverty has an indirect effect on child and adolescent functioning through children's poverty-related stress. Path analyses with a multiethnic sample of 164 children aged 6 to 18 revealed that the stress associated with poverty, such as economic strain, family conflict, violence/trauma, and…

The aim was firstly to determine if peers and parents had a different impact on the personality development of the adolescent. A second aim was to determine if gender played a role in this regard. An empirical investigation was carried out involving 98 learners from Grades 8 to 11 (53 boys and 55 girls). The respondents completed instruments…

The Surgeon General, the Nation's top public health officer, is appointed by the President of the United States to help protect and promote the health of the Nation. The recently published "Surgeon General's Call to Action To Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking" [ED496083] highlights underage alcohol use as a major public health and…

The socioeconomic stratification of American society profoundly influences how the life course unfolds by shaping various developmental pathways as well as the connections among these pathways. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of American adolescents, this study charted trajectories of personal control and parental consultation from…

Movies are a pervasive cultural influence on the lives of young men and women. One only has to utter the words, "double secret probation" to a college audience to understand the extent of this influence. Yet the large body of research in film does not draw on higher education research. We explore how college choice and adolescent development…

Purpose: To examine concordance between two self-reported measures of puberty: Sexual Maturation Scale (SMS) and Pubertal Development Scale (PDS) and their acceptability to adolescents. Methods: Participants of a school-based study in grades 5, 7 and 9 were classified into one of 5 pubertal stages using each method. Results: 2864 students (age…

For the first time ever, Citizen Through Sports Alliance (CTSA) convened a panel of youth sports experts from across the country to evaluate youth sports in the United States and articulate its successes and failures. The panel evaluated only community-based youth sports programs, focusing on those that serve children ages 6 to 14. The panel is…

This guide is addressed to children in the often neglected middle years--ages 9 through 12--to help them see themselves as better persons and students in the process of growing up. Part one discusses issues that concern children as persons: self-esteem, things that can hurt and annoy, disabilities, dilemmas and decisions, learning to say no to…

This descriptive study analyzed the portrayal of females as protagonists in adolescent literature published 1989-1993. A review of literature showed that 85 percent of main characters in stories for young children were male and that sexism still existed in books for young people. For this study the literature survey instrument used in the initial…

This packet contains four pamphlets that are part of a campaign to encourage adults to provide and promote positive activities for youth and to serve as role models for young people. "Positive Activities: A Campaign for Youth" includes information on what positive activities are, how to get involved in helping to provide positive activities for…

It has been suggested (Youniss and Smollar, 1985) that the re-negotiation of the parent-adolescent relationship involves processes of separation and connectedness, with separation characterized, among other indicators, as the withdrawing of information by adolescents in order to establish territories that are unsupervised by the parents. This…

This document presents the standards for social work practice with adolescent clients created by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). The standards are designed to guide social workers in a variety of settings as they help adolescents become competent and productive adults. The 12 standards are presented and interpreted. Standard 1…

Adolescent suicide is thought by many experts to be the second leading cause of dath among adolescents. The present strategies being used, which attempt to prevent these suicides by treatment during adolescence, do not seem to be working. This study therefore examined the development of self-concept and coping strategies during childhood in an…

This monograph promotes the enhancement of self-esteem as a basic responsibility of middle level schools. Chapter 1 makes a case for the importance of self-perception, and describes a rationale specifically focused on early adolescents that is based on history, contemporary issues, and research. Chapter 2 analyzes changes in the adolescent's…