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…

It is proposed that the identification and description of students with communication problems requires assessments in four domains: (1) linguistic ability; (2) cognitive ability; (3) social skill; and (4) pragmatic competence. Evidence from research on individuals with mental retardation and other developmental disorders is presented. (SLD)

Discusses studies about the role of athletics in high school students' lives. Examines the criteria for social status for both male and female students. Explores the types of activities students want to be remembered for, the current basis for popularity, and the importance of the dual role of student athletes. (Author/JS)

Considers two questions which adolescents must ask of themselves and the world as they grow up: how to separate from other people and how to connect with them. Concludes that as writers and readers people act separately, but through the books, people connect. (MG)

Examined family unemployment in terms of its effects on adolescent work values and self-concept. Findings from 344 high school students from Israeli development town showed no significant differences among youth from families where father was employed or unemployed. Findings suggest that father's work status has little impact on adolescent family…

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…

Describes adolescent satanic practices of affected families in three Southwestern states in a seven-year period. Counselors need to understand how satanism is related to religion, family dynamics, and adolescent rebellion. A systemic perspective is suggested. Counselors must be aware of their own biases to be able to help satanically involved…

This study identified expectations that 40 mothers had for their adolescent children in the areas of future living arrangements, employment/education goals, and social relationships. Mothers of adolescents with severe mental retardation and adolescents without disabilities had similar expectations for their children, that is, independence.…

The learning contract is the ideal way to enable the teacher to raise levels of expectation, to provide individual attention, and to personalize the educational experience. Includes a sample contract and suggested practices for the use of a learning contract. (15 references) (MLF)

Notes that parents need to be supported, valued, and educated to contribute to healthy sexual development of their children. Presents rationale for counselors to guide parents as primary sex educators for their children through collaboration with counselors, administrators, and parents. (Author/NB)

Currently, theoretical approaches to studying minority adolescence involve implicit links among ethnicity and pathology, cultural difference, and cultural deviance. This paper discusses theoretical approaches for exploring the interactive relationship among ethnicity, identity, and competence for minority youth to reconceptualize their…

In one study, a comparison of 42 high school juniors with 42 delinquent adolescents showed that delinquents have less successful task resolutions. In a second study of 175 seventh graders, twelfth graders, and college freshmen, juniors, and seniors, older students and those with low dysfunctional attitudes had better task resolutions. (SLD)

Studied the extent to which psychosocial development thorough the first 5 stages of E. H. Erikson's theory of personality development is associated with personality disorder symptoms, using 106 undergraduates. Negative resolutions of stages one through five may predict the presence of personality disorder symptomatology during late adolescence.…

Used the experience sampling method to examine emotional structure of the week for adolescents in fifth to eighth grades and again four years later. Found that weekend evenings emerged in middle adolescence as the week's emotional high point, a time for enjoyable peer group and romantic activities, although the scripts for Friday and Saturday…

Discusses how mobility, education, family adjustment, social relationships, and emotional adjustment to adolescence influence health adjustment. Social-work implications suggest a holistic approach emphasizing the concepts of youth and family empowerment and quality of life as the key professional endeavors in practice with youths with…