This fifth chapter in "The Challenge of Counseling in Middle Schools" looks at the issue of sexual maturation in early adolescence via four articles. "The Counselor's Impact on Middle-Grade Students," by Hershel Thornburg, examines physical, intellectual, and social developmental tasks of early adolescence. "Contraceptive and Sexuality Knowledge…

Just as infants and the elderly have special health care needs based on their stages in the life cycle, adolescents also have particular health needs. While some of those needs are simply a result of the bodily changes that define adolescence, others are true medical conditions which are most commonly found in this age group. Among achievements…

The role of psychosocial immaturity in the behavior of adolescent mothers remains unexplained. This project explores the validity of Newberger's Parental Awareness (PA) model which outlines the development of parents' conceptions of their parental role. PA distinguishes parents reported to be abusive from non-abusive parents. This study tests the…

Delinquency intervention and research have undergone changes in recent years. One new line of research has been aimed at mapping out juvenile criminal careers. Findings from this research suggest that involvement in technically delinquent activity may be a transitory, developmental phenomenon related to adolescence. Youth appear to be increasingly…

Thos paper discusses myths about adolescent psychopathology, including the beliefs that psychopathology is a normal state in adolescence; that adolescents grow out of their psychopathology; and that with regard to psychopathology, adolescents are either like adults or like children. Key features of adolescent development are summarized, the life…

This study examined the interrelationships between individual development and the family system by testing the hypothesis that variations in family relations during middle adolescence are associated with psychological and social aspects of adolescent development and with parental midlife development. Data were collected from 27 parent-adolescent…

This issue of Emphasis addresses the educator's role in confronting adolescent pregnancy by presenting articles on educational programs for adolescents which have been developed and/or implemented by Planned Parenthood affiliates. Programs are presented which attempt to provide information to adolescents or to the community; to change attitudes,…

The goal of this research synthesis is to evaluate the validity of the claim that there are fundamental limitations on the ability of adolescents to engage in critical thinking. Critical thinking is defined as an analytic, focused cognitive activity aimed at understanding phenomena at a root rather than a superficial level; a type of thinking…

While recent research has examined the positive benefits students receive from participating in extracurricular activities, very few studies have concentrated on female adolescents and their participation in such activities. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of participation in extracurricular activities on the level of…

A complete outline is presented of a 2-day, 10-hour training program for establishing a student assistance program dealing with the problems of alcohol and drug abuse. The sessions are presented in the following sequence: (1) registration and introductions; (2) presentation of the problem; (3) clarification of expectations and establishment of a…

Violent individuals are a heterogeneous group, making it unrealistic to think that a single psychological profile can classify them. Adolescents (N=72) at the Michigan Center for Forensic Psychiatry who had committed homicides were studied in an effort to distinguish clinically meaningful subtypes based on the motives and circumstance of their…

The Teenage Health Teaching Modules (THTM) program is a health education curriculum for adolescents. Each THTM module frames an adolescent health task emphasizing development of self-assessment, communication, decision making, health advocacy, and self-management. This module presents a discussion on the special physical and mental characteristics…

Research on the emergence of sex differences in spatial ability during early adolescence prompted a meta-analysis of 172 spatial ability studies conducted since 1974. The meta-analysis confirmed that there are actually several spatial abilities, that some types of spatial ability show marked sex differences while others show none, and that spatial…

The purpose of this paper is to disconfirm Piaget's theory of an invariant sequence of intellectual maturation for all youths in all cultures. The author's view is that the kinds and sequences of human development vary greatly, depending on the cultural milieu. The author derives 36 propositions from Piaget's theory, dismisses 5 of them as…

This study has been an attempt to explore the varying levels of success in the Eriksonian developmental stages that adolescents report for themselves in six different cultures in Western Europe and the United States. (Author)