Adolescents And Their Families

This book provides an in-depth examination of adolescents’ social development in the context of the family. Grounded in social domain theory, the book draws on the author’s research over the past 25 years Draws from the results of in-depth interviews with more than 700 families Explores adolescent-parent relationships among ethnic majority and minority youth in the United States, as well as research with adolescents in Hong Kong and China Discusses extensive research on disclosure and secrecy during adolescence, parenting, autonomy, and moral development Considers both popular sources such as movies and public surveys, as well as scholarly sources drawn from anthropology, history, sociology, social psychology, and developmental psychology Explores how different strands of development, including autonomy, rights and justice, and society and social convention, become integrated and coordinated in adolescence

First published in 1999. The adolescent period is marked by changes in the biological, psychological, cognitive, and social dimensions of the individual, as well as by changes in the adolescents' multilevel context (i.e., the peers, family, school, and other institutions in his or her ecology). Adolescence is a dynamic period, one which exemplifies the importance of understanding the relations between the developing individual and his or her changing context. The articles included in this volume represent the current range of scholarship pertaining to adolescents and their families, and exemplify the use of such an approach. The articles underscore the continual importance of the family across adolescence.

Adolescenceâ€"beginning with the onset of puberty and ending in the mid-20sâ€"is a critical period of development during which key areas of the brain mature and develop. These changes in brain structure, function, and connectivity mark adolescence as a period of opportunity to discover new vistas, to form relationships with peers and adults, and to explore one's developing identity. It is also a period of resilience that can ameliorate childhood setbacks and set the stage for a thriving trajectory over the life course. Because adolescents comprise nearly one-fourth of the entire U.S. population, the nation needs policies and practices that will better leverage these developmental opportunities to harness the promise of adolescenceâ€"rather than focusing myopically on containing its risks. This report examines the neurobiological and socio-behavioral science of adolescent development and outlines how this knowledge can be applied, both to promote adolescent well-being, resilience, and development, and to rectify structural barriers and inequalities in opportunity, enabling all adolescents to flourish.

Adolescence can be a difficult time for all concerned. Issues such as high youth unemployment, sexual behaviour and drug abuse have made it a matter of great concern for the community at large, whether as parents, politicians or those working with adolescents in education and welfare. In addition, many parents fear that these problems could affect their own families. Originally published in 1991, the authors explore the complex needs of adolescents emphasising the importance of the family environment in helping adolescents cope with the many difficulties and changes they face during this period of their lives. The central theme is that adolescents, through conflict and negotiation, establish new but different relationships with their parents, relationships that can endure for a lifetime. The authors provide wide coverage of the key issues of adolescence, such as identity, separation from the family, and conflict, and look closely at the difficulties produced by events such as the divorce and re-marriage of parents, and social problems such as long-term unemployment. With its positive approach to the family and adolescents, this clear, concise and helpful book will be invaluable both to parents and to the many professionals whose work involves them with adolescents.

Introduces and integrates adolescent developmental themes and family system theory into a coherent assessment and intervention model. Worden views the adolescent as active in shaping the family interactions as much as the family is influential in shaping the adolescent's behavior. He takes a pragmatic approach for therapy, emphasizing what best explains the clinical phenomena and what works best for change. Paper edition (102-0), $17.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

What Works with Children and Adolescents? fulfils the need for a concise, empirically-based study of the types of psychological treatments that may be effective for common psychological problems in childhood and adolescence. Providing a solid foundation for evidence-based practice in the treatment of children and adolescents, the book offers evidence from over 150 rigorously conducted research trials. Examining problems which are of central concern to practising clinicians - including child abuse, enuresis and encopresis, ADHD, childhood conduct problems, adolescent violence, drug abuse, anxiety and depression, anorexia and bulimia nervosa, paediatric pain, and post-divorce adjustment problems - it also highlights priority areas for future research on the treatment of children and adolescents' psychological problems. What Works with Children and Adolescents? complements The Handbook of Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology (Carr, 2006), and will be valuable to professionals in training.

Many parents fear the time when their beautiful happy children will become unmanageable adolescents continually engaging in risky or destructive behaviour. Unfortunately, this view of adolescents is the focus of the media, even though it relates to just a small proportion of young people. As the large amount of research we report shows, most adolescents are responsible young people who care about their families and crave the support of their parents. It is also true, however, as much research indicates, that the quality of the relationship parents have with their adolescents is crucial to the wellbeing of those young people. We discuss the need for parents to set reasonable limits on their adolescents and to expect appropriate behavior. We also show, on the basis of research, that children who have experienced positive, caring relationships with their parents are more likely than other adolescents to behave responsibly. In other words, behavior in adolescence does not ‘come out of nowhere’ but builds on earlier experiences in the family. Because of the large amount of research reported in this volume, we expect that it will be useful to practitioners from a range of professions that are likely to focus on adolescents: social workers, youth leaders, welfare workers, religious leaders, psychologists and psychiatrists and contribute to a better understanding of young people and their development, and the importance of families to that development.

While insights sometimes are slow in coming, they often seem obvious when they finally arrive. This handbook is an outcome of the insight that the topics of social support and the family are very closely linked. Obvious as this might seem, the fact remains that the literatures dealing with social support and the family have been deceptively separate and distinct. For example, work on social support began in the 1970s with the accumulation of evidence that social ties and social integration play important roles in health and personal adjustment. Even though family members are often the key social supporters of individuals, relatively little re search of social support was targeted on family interactions as a path to specifying supporter processes. It is now recognized that one of the most important features of the family is its role in providing the individual with a source of support and acceptance. Fortunately, in recen t years, the distinctness and separateness of the fields of social support and the family have blurred. This handbook provides the first collation and integration of social support and family research. This integration calls for specifying processes (such as the cognitions associated with poor support availability and unrewarding faIllily constellations) and factors (such as cultural differences in family life and support provision) that are pertinent to integration.