THE ADOLESCENT IN SOCIETY Chapter 6 Adolescence in

THE ADOLESCENT IN SOCIETY Chapter 6

Adolescence in our society ■ Adolescence is not a universal phenomenon. ■ It is an invention of modern society. ■ Adolescence is defined as the period between normal onset of puberty and the beginning of adulthood. ■ Puberty is the physical maturing that makes an individual capable of sexual reproduction.

Adolescence in our society ■ In American society adolescence is considered to run from age 12 to 19. ■ In pre-industrial societies, people go directly from childhood to adulthood. – They typically have ceremonies to celebrate this known as puberty rites. – This usually occurs around 1314 – Ceremonies include tattooing, filing of teeth, FGM, ect…signify adulthood – They then take on roles of an adult

Adolescence in our society ■ In the US adolescence did not exist prior to the Civil War. ■ Before the Civil War, children were treated like small adults. ■ Three factors in the development in adolescence. – Education – Exclusion from the workforce – Juvenile- justice system

Adolescence in our society ■ There are 5 main characteristics of adolescence: – Biological growth & development – Undefined status – Increased decision making – Increased pressures – Search for self

Adolescence in our society Biological Growth and Development ■ The onset of puberty is found in every society – This means it is universal ■ We see physical growth in height and weight ■ Development of primary and secondary sex characteristics

Adolescence in our society Undefined status ■ Expectations for adolescence is usually vague. ■ Some adults treat adolescents as adults, while others treat them as children. ■ For example you can get married at 16 with parental consent, but you cannot vote until you are 18.

Adolescence in our society Increased decision making ■ Unlike children who have all their decisions made for them, you start making your own decisions. ■ You get to decide what courses to take in school. ■ What sports/clubs you participate in. ■ Whether or not you want to go to college.

Adolescence in our society Increased Pressure ■ Typically adolescents are caught between parental pressure and peer pressure. ■ Adolescents also have pressure to do well in school. ■ Adolescents also have pressure to go along with the latest fashions and fads ■ There is pressure to form relationships ■ Some adolescents have the pressure of having a job.

Adolescence in our society The Search for Self ■ Adolescents are old enough to think about themselves and what they want in life. ■ Anticipatory socialization is learning the rights, obligations, and expectations of a role to prepare for assuming that role in the future. – Jobs – Dating – Club membership

Teenagers and Dating ■ Dating is the meeting of people as a romantic engagement. ■ Dating is found in societies that allow someone to choose their marriage partners. – Some countries still arrange marriages ■ Dating did not emerge in American society until around WWI.

Teenagers and Dating ■ Prior to the rise of dating in the US, interaction between men and women was restricted to courtship. ■ Courtship differs from dating in that courtship’s express the purpose of marriage. ■ The main goal of dating is entertainment and amusement. – Dating sometimes leads to marriage

Teenagers and Dating ■ The rise of industrialization contributed greatly to the development of dating in the US ■ Moving away from farms to cities meant that men did not have to have land to marry. – This made people less dependent on their parents for economic security. ■ Free public secondary education also helped pave the way for dating. – Most public schools were coed.

Teenagers and Dating ■ The trend towards dating also emerged due to the rise of technology that gave young people more freedom – Automobiles – Telephones ■ The emergence of women in the work force also helped in dating. – Single men and women were in closer proximity.

Teenagers and Dating ■ Willard Waller conducted a sociological analysis of American dating patterns. ■ He concluded that casual dating was a form of entertainment, status attainment, and had little to do with mate selection. – Partners are picked based on looks, clothing, and popularity

Teenagers and Dating ■ Waller also found that status attainment is a form of homogamy. ■ Homogamy is the tendency of individuals to marry people who have social characteristics similar to their own.

Teenagers and Dating Why Date? ■ Dating serves several important functions in adolescence. – Entertainment – Socialization – Role behaviors – Basic psychological needs – Status attainment – Spouse selection

Challenges of Adolescence ■ Teenagers face important developmental tasks. ■ These tasks include: – Carving out an identity – Planning for the future – Becoming more independent – Developing close relationships ■ Most teens accomplish these tasks, while others do not. ■ Most sociological research on teenagers focus on issues such as – Teenage sexual behavior – Drug abuse – Suicide

Challenges of Adolescence ■ Teenage sexual behavior varies widely from society to society. ■ Some preindustrial societies allow adolescents to engage in sex before marriage. – Ex: Trobianders of the South Pacific ■ In most Western societies, most follow traditional sexual norms and have norms against premarital sex. – Many of these are beliefs are an outgrowth of Victorian and Puritan views of sexual morality. – These beliefs held up until the 1960’s

Challenges of Adolescence ■ In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the development of the birth control pill caused the development of a youth counterculture. – The Feminist movement – Aka the “sexual revolultion” ■ This also led to the increase of in adolescent sexual behavior due to changing norms.

Challenges of Adolescence ■ The teenage birthrate is higher in America than in other industrialized societies. ■ Pregnancy rates have fallen among teens due to a push for sex ed in the 1990 s. ■ Social scientists have developed a number of explanations for why adolescents engage in sex. ■ Social, economic, and subcultural factors most often explain this. – Family income – Parents’ marital status – Religious participation

Challenges of Adolescence ■ In general, teens from higher income, two parent households are less likely to engage in sexual activity compared to those from low-income, single parent households. ■ Teens who practice religion are more likely to abstain from sexual activity than those who are not religious. ■ Teens who have friends that engage in premarital sex are more likely to also engage in sexual activity compared to those who have friends that abstain. ■ Early sexual behavior is also tied to risk taking behaviors such as delinquency and drug use.

Challenges of Adolescence ■ Consequences of early sexual activity include teen pregnancy and STDS ■ The CDC found that less than 1/3 of teenagers who are sexual active use birth control on a regular basis. ■ On average, one million teenage girls become pregnant. ■ Teen pregnancy has a number of negative consequences such as: – babies with low birthrates – Teen parents are less likely to finish high school – Teen parents tend to earn less money in their lifetime – Children of teen parents are more prone to learning difficulties – Children of teen parents have an increased risk becoming teen parents themselves

Challenges of Adolescence ■ Drugs use dates back to the written histories of ancient Greece where they smoked opium ■ The Aztecs used hallucinogens ■ Heroin and cocaine use for non-medical purposes was common in the 1800’s and early 1900’s ■ Cocaine was an ingredient in widely used products such as: – Soft drinks (Coke) – Cough medicine – Headache powder

Challenges of Adolescence ■ Every year more violence associated with drug trafficking continue to grow. ■ A lot of the violence is due to turf wars between rival gangs who traffic drugs. ■ Adult criminal gangs control the drug trafficking in the US, but they use children and teens as “foot soldiers”. – Children as young as 9 or 10 are used as lookouts – In time these children rise in the gang hierarchy and eventually become drug dealers

Challenges of Adolescence ■ Crack cocaine is a smokable form of cocaine that is highly addictive. ■ With the introduction of crack, drug related juvenile violence skyrocketed in the mid 1980’s. ■ Heroin is now a rising epidemic in the US.

Challenges of Adolescence ■ The chief factors of teen drug use are: – Having friends who use drugs – Having social and academic problems – Living in a hostile and rejecting family setting

Challenges in Adolescence ■ The use of drugs and alcohol are contributing factors to other adolescent problems such as suicide. ■ The rate of suicide among young people has dramatically increased over the past few decades. ■ Suicide is the third leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15 – 24 – Motor vehicle deaths and homicide are the other two main causes of death for deaths in this age group.

Challenges in Adolescence ■ When you think of the causes and consequences for suicide we tend to think of the individual, we typically associate suicide with depression. ■ However, sociologists are interested in the social causes of suicide. ■ According to Durkheim, social integration or the degree of attachment to social groups or to society as a whole is a major factor in suicide. ■ People with high and low levels of social integration are the groups with high suicide rates.

Challenges in Adolescence ■ Individuals with high levels of social integration sometimes put the needs of the group members needs before their own personal needs. – For example, the Inuit in the Artic will walk into the wild to die once they become a burden on the group. ■ Individuals with low levels of social integration who commit suicide are more common that those with high levels of integration. ■ Low levels of social integration are usually due to periods of social disorganization.

Challenges in Adolescence ■ Social disorganization result from factors such as: – Rapid social change – Increased geographical mobililty – War – Natural disasters – Sudden changes in economic conditions ■ Social bonds that give individuals a sense of group solidarity, such as family ties and religion, tend to weaken during periods of social disorganization.

Challenges in Adolescence ■ Predictors of teenage suicide include: – Alcohol and/or drug use – Triggering events ■ Rejection, pregnancy, family crisis, ect – Age – Sex ■ Females are 3 x as likely to attempt suicide compared to males, but males are more likely to succeed in suicide. – population density ■ Unpopulated areas have higher rates of suicide – Family relations – Cluster effect ■ A well publicized suicide can trigger a “copy-cat” effect