Perspectives on Adolescents

7/28/2019 Perspectives on Adolescents

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The 2nd Decade: Debates and Perspectives on Adolescents

Dr. BhagbanprakashHRD Lead Officer

CYP Asia Centre


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Adolescence: The Facts

There are about 1.2 billion adolescents in the worldbetween ages 10-19

500 million of them are not in schools

There are atleast 73 million adolescent workers between

the ages 10-14 Each year 1 in 20 adolescents contracts an STI

Each year upto 4.4 million young women in age group of 15-19 undergo unsafe and induced abortions often carried outby unqualified practitioners

Half of all HIV infections take place among people under25 years of age


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The suicide rate of adolescents has increased more than

200 times in five decades

Recent studies show that more than 20% of adolescentsundergo emotional turmoil

One third of the attending psychiatric clinics suffer from

depression And by the age 18 the rate of depression among girls is

twice as high as that among boys

Every year an estimated 3 million adolescents are reported

to be sexually exploited


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Adolescence : Issues

Adolescent live and grow in the families familysbonding getting weaker

Adolescent are demanding changes in family rules androutine

Consumption patterns assumes more importance thanproduction patterns

Peer groups more than parents dictate personal

behaviour

Social and economic freedom weakens Adolesce

ntsconnections with family


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Female adolescent are taking traditional male roles not vice-versa

Adolescent attitudes to achievement to motivationchanging

Effects of maternal employment on adolescents lessmaternal supervision

Adolescents attitude to authority figures changing

More skill - less experience versus less skill moreexperience

Sexual equality and freedom in relationships beingprojected as a social and political value


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Adolescent Questions Is it really a decade long drama ?

Is adolescent a rapid traveller left one station oflife and not yet reached the next ?

Is it an ambiguous and awkward age ?

Or just a repetition and prolongation of infancy ?

An impulsive period of defiance and rebellion ?

A high tide of puberty and destructive passion ?

A turbulent journey of transition from childhood to adulthood ?


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Or an emotional battleground on which past and future strugglefor supremacy ?

A second birth in the Second Decade of Life ?

Is it an arbitrary academic invention to segregate a passiveperiod for active study and research ?

Is it not a myth generated by an outdated generation ofpsychoanalysts ?

Or a time of active deconstruction, construction andreconstruction ?

A period in which past, present and future are rewoven andstrung together on the threads of fantasies and wishes ?


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Is compulsory mass education of children from six to sixteen createdadolescence ?

Or child labour laws designed to protect youngsters from adultresponsibility ?

Why do we need to banish children from a natural and real life tostifling confines of a class room and the family cocoon ?

From open spaces and freedom of medieval age to closed fortress likeseparation of modern education system ?

Are todays mass education, democracy, individuality and self actualisation desirable social values ?

Or is it preparatory to assume the sexual and moral responsibilities ofadulthood ?( J.J. Rousseau)

Is an Adolescents desire to be loved stronger than the capacity to love?

( Ernest Jones )


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A Bloody Fluid Break with the past

Puberty Defined as biological condition of acquiring maturegenitals & functional capacity to reproduce

Girls menstruate and produce the fertile ova

Boys begin to ejaculate semen and produce sperm

These two important body fluids signify physical rupturewith the past

Menstruation separates girls from a sexual world ofchildhood to a new world of sexual identity.


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Societies and cultures respond differently to this newfeminine status

Puberty also brings in issues of sexual morality

In some societies the socio-physical response isreflected in :

Mutilation of body

Tattooing the face, legs, arms andback

Perforating the hymen

Circumcising the penis, cutting offoreskin

Pulling out a tooth

Piercing the earlobe on nasalseptum


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In some cultures Girls are bound to domesticsphere

Boys initiated to outdoor tasks

Girls focus on issues on relating to others

These differences persists beyond adolescence leading totraditional sex role stereotypes

Boys focus on individual competence and knowledge


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Why Adolescence is Challenging

Humans, unlike other primates, undergo an intenseparental care

They have a longer life span

Late sexual maturity

A complex social life

Protracted biological and psychological helplessness


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Thank you

Perspectives on Adolescents

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