Risks and Opportunities Synthesis of Studies on Adolescence (1999) / Chapter Skim
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6 Implications for Research and Linking Research to Policy and Practice
6 Implications for Research and Linking Research to Policy and Practice
Pages 51-68
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From page 51... ...
These include the implications of a changing adolescent population; new research methodologies and approaches needed to further advance understanding of adolescent health and development; strategies to strengthen and support relationships between teenagers and their parents; the continued development of indicators of adolescent well-being; approaches to integrating frameworks for preventing risk behaviors and promoting positive developmental outcomes among youth; the delivery of developmentally appropriate health care services to youth; and ensuring adolescents' safe and productive use of new technologies.
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From page 52... ...
Yet there is growing evidence to suggest that white youth and youth from ethnic minority groups hold deeply divergent views on how to relate to each other. The harmful results of this racial divide among youth are becoming more apparent as demonstrated by an alarming increase of adolescent hate crimes, organized hate groups, and overt expressions of racial intolerance.
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From page 53... ...
For example, the development of radioimmunoassay methodology in the late 1960s, and the considerable refinement of that process over the decades, have made it possible to study the hormones that control reproductive maturation. The development of neuroimaging technology in the 1 970s created exciting new opportunities for studying brain development; these techniques include more sensitive, easy-to-use hormone assay technology and new brain-imaging technologies, allowing insight into brain development and function.
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From page 54... ...
There is now a growing appreciation, however, that new research is needed, including research that employs longitudinal designs; characterizes developmental changes associated with the onset of puberty well before the age of 8; and seeks to characterize growth and development across the life span i.e., from infancy to adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, and the senior years. Studying these developmental stages in isolation from one another provides only a partial and incomplete picture.
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From page 55... ...
These considerations need to be further explored by research. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN TEENAGERS AND PARENTS Adolescence is not just a time of major developmental changes in children; it is also a time of significant transformations and realignment in family relations.
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From page 56... ...
The authors concluded that feeling loved, understood, and paid attention to by parents helps teenagers avoid high-risk activities, regardless of whether they come from a one- or a two-parent household. At school, positive relationships with teachers were found to be more important in protecting teenagers than any other factor, including classroom size or the amount of training a teacher has.
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From page 57... ...
Between 1985 and 1996, the number of teen deaths due to accidents fell from 8,202 in 1985 to 6,756 in 1996, while the number of teen homicides increased from 1,602 to 2,924 during the same period. However, between 1994 and 1996, the number of Deaths per 100,000 adolescents ages 15-19 100 80 60 40 20 To All causes Motor vehicle injuries F
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From page 58... ...
SOURCE: Data from National Center for Health Statistics. teen homicides fell by 18 percent, which may signal a change in long-term trends.
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From page 59... ...
In 1997, almost 1 in 3 12th graders, 1 in 4 10th graders, and more than 1 in 10 8th graders reported heavy drinking (Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, 19971. According to data reported by the Monitoring the Future study, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin use bottomed out in the early 1990s but has since risen among children at all grade levels (see Figure 6-3)
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From page 60... ...
. volunteering, religious practice and activities, exercise and sports, activi ties in school clubs, civic engagement, reading and participation in cultural affairs, family activities, and work done in the home.
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From page 61... ...
Others are using measures of youth potential and connectedness to examine positive aspects of youth development (such as indicators of personal and family responsibility, civic engagement, and community service) that are often overlooked in datasets focused narrowly on the presence or absence of problem behaviors.
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From page 62... ...
This has prompted new research inquiry designed to explore how individual, family, and peer relationships and outcomes are influenced by factors such as physical environment, economic opportunity structures, and ethnic and social networks, especially in urban areas characterized by concentrated poverty (see Duncan and BrooksGunn, 19971. Scholars are also investigating relationships between types and density of social interactions, youth perceptions of positive and negative influences within their social and physical environments, and ways in which these relationships and perceptions are associated with the emergence of problem behaviors within communities (such as crime, gangs, substance abuse, child maltreatment, and unintended teen pregnancy)
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From page 63... ...
This research on settings suggests that certain implicit social norms, behaviors, resources, and networks in affluent or higher resource settings that are often taken for granted (such as good schools; recreational and sports programs; safe homes and social centers; private health care; attitudes toward the value of work, education, community service, and parenting; and beliefs about future career and employment opportunities) constitute positive assets that have profound impact on the ways in which youth prepare themselves for their adult lives.
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From page 64... ...
Program participants are also keenly interested in knowing how the impacts of broader types of youth development initiatives compare with other, more narrowly focused problem prevention interventions such as teen pregnancy, substance abuse, and violence prevention efforts. Community-based youth programs can provide enriching and rewarding experiences for young adolescents, and many do: their young members socialize with their peers and adults and learn to set and achieve goals, compete fairly, win gracefully, recover from defeat, and resolve disputes peaceably.
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From page 65... ...
DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE HEALTH CARE SERVICES During the past decade, the health status of adolescents and young adults has been the subject of growing concern among policy makers, researchers, clinicians, and advocates interested in youth issues and adolescent health. Poor health outcomes caused by health-damaging behaviors, compounded by inadequate use of available health resources, have led to a number of national efforts to study the special health, social, economic, and legal needs of adolescents.
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From page 66... ...
Barriers to adolescents receiving care include lack of experience in negotiating complex medical systems; reticence in seeking care for potentially embarrassing needs, such as reproductive or mental health concerns; concern about confidentiality and parental consent laws; fragmented care; and distance from medical facilities. However, access to health services, especially for ambulatory care, depends in large part on the ability to pay for services, and adolescents and young adults are less likely to have health insurance than other age groups (Newacheck et al., 19901.
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From page 67... ...
Indeed, recent advances in media and computer technology, including satellite transmission, remote control, the video cassette recorder, computers, and the Internet, have exponentially expanded the number and kinds of media, and have given teens more control over when and where they use them. Advances in various forms of media and computer technology, including the Internet, has changed the ways in which children and adolescents access information in both their home and their classrooms.
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From page 68... ...
Finally, research is needed to explore how the various forms of the media and social marketing strategies can be used to encourage or reinforce health-promoting behaviors among adoles cents. ROLE OF THE FORUM The forum undertook this report to inform its future work.
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