. 8-1 Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human...

. 8-1Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development

Chapter 8

Youth

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Markers of adulthood

• Differing cultural expectations and roles, e.g.– Taking responsibility for care of younger siblings– Taking financial responsibility for oneself– Entering into a marriage-like (committed) relationship– Going out to work, getting a job

• How do we know we have become an adult?

• Is there a list that we tick?

8-2Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPTs to accompany Claiborne & Drewery, Human Development

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Social changes affecting youth

• Relevant changes over several decades– Fewer full time jobs available for school leavers– Youth have greater awareness of the wider world– More youth engagement in part time work– Later school leaving age

• Implications:– Lengthening period of economic dependency– Expectation of tertiary education– Starting a career begins much later


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‘Emerging’ adulthood: Arnett

• 18-25 years• Characterised by experimentation and exploration• ‘In between’: not adolescence, and not quite

adulthood• Moving house a lot• Holding off commitment to:

– Long-term relationship– Paid work career


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Is there a ‘transition’ to adulthood?

• ‘Transition’ implies a psychological shift through instability to stability

• Is the shift about individual psychology, or inter-generational (historical) expectations?

• Is it about the complexities of adapting to social changes?

• Are the issues more about individual adaptations, or more about what society enables?

• Are young people in this period incapable of taking individual responsibility?


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Major challenges for young people

• Managing impoverishment

• Negotiating new relationships

• Navigating boundaries


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Managing impoverishment

• Economic independence is both a marker of maturity and a challenge for young people

• Post-industrial society is characterised by:– Rapid changes in job market– More part-time jobs in service industries– Shrinking job market– Short term contracts– Challenges to unionisation of workplaces– High youth unemployment

• Having a well-resourced family helps (Wyn & White, 1997)

– Many young adults choose independence anyway


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How do young people find their way?

• Look for reference groups

• Try out new identities which affirm them

• Experiment with jobs and educational pathways– The cost of this experimentation can be significant


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Negotiating new relationships

• Negotiating new relationships and status with parents is a major challenge

• New friendship groups may be developed – or not– Young people moving away from home to college

• Couple relationships become more common– Most young people have their first experience of

intercourse around 18-20 years– Committed partnership usually begins a little later

• Do young people tend to drift into becoming sexually active, or do they do it intentionally?

• Use of contraceptives may be difficult to plan early in a developing sexual relationship


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Unplanned pregnancy

• There are significant misrepresentations of the incidence of adolescent pregnancy in NZ media

• Births to women under 20 are less than half the peak rate of 1971

• Legal marriages of persons under 20 are much less common

• The rate of ex-nuptial births has increased due to – Fewer ‘shot-gun’ weddings– More births to older women who have not married (but

may be in long-term committed partnerships)


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Alcohol use

• Youth aged 18-24 have been found to drink more alcohol per week than any other age group– They drink more in a sitting – They get drunk more regularly– Binge drinking is a concern in this age group

• Increase in alcohol consumption by young women• Associated concerns include:

– The relatively large number of car accidents involving alcohol where a young person is killed or injured

– Possibility of alcohol dependence– Violence and anti-social behaviour


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Mental health of young people

• One in five adolescents shows evidence of significant emotional and behavioural disturbance

• One in seven young people are estimated to have experienced depression in the last year

• A bout of depression can last 7-9 months

• Regular exercise and social connectedness protects young people from depression

• Depression is treatable


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Suicide and self harm

• Rates of suicide among youth have fallen 31.5% since 1995

• In 2006 the rate for males was almost four times higher than for females

• The rate of hospitalisation for self-harm was 2.4 times higher for females

• Those at higher risk include:– Children and young people in welfare care– Those incarcerated– Those who are culturally or socially isolated

• Young Maori and Pacific women are most likely of any group to be hospitalised for self-harm


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Protective factors

• Good social skills

• Positive beliefs and values

• Supportive cultural identification

• Recognition by others that young people are a valued resource for the future

• Ensuring young people have a valued place in social life


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Cannabis use

• Many sources suggest cannabis is widely available to young people in New Zealand

• Concerns related to cannabis use include:– Possible development of substance addiction– Transition to hard drugs– Long-term developmental changes due to regular use

Interference with brain function (e.g. schizophrenia) Changes to biology of the body

• Frequent use is associated with:– Memory loss– Loss of motivation– Financial problems


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Young (criminal) offenders

• Rates of offending in the general population are highest around age 17 but decrease after that

• Estimated 5% of all males in the population are persistent offenders

• Anti-social behaviour, including drug use, fighting and inappropriate sexual activity appear to emerge around puberty in a limited section of both the male and female adolescent population

• Very small numbers of children aged 10-13 commit serious offences. These are linked with:– Severe relationship trauma in the family– Alcohol abuse or a criminal history in the family


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Resilience

• Qualities that enable a person to come through adverse conditions with little adverse effect– Stanley (2009) found that friends, culture, work, sport and

religious faith can support young people through adversity

– Moltzen (2005 – see text pp.334-6) found that many outstanding adults had experienced adversity in their childhood

• These newer ideas challenge the assumption that poor experiences in childhood inevitably result in poor adult outcomes.


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Complex constructionist ecology

• Developmental outcomes are the result of complex interactions

• Complexity: there is almost never a single cause for a developmental outcome

• To think ecologically is to consider the person in a complex situation or set of situations

• The quality of the interactions and the environment produce developmental outcomes

• Development is constructed. That is, it is a product of multiple interactions; it is not inevitable or ‘natural’

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