Answer these Questions What does it mean to be an adolescent? What are your greatest fears at this stage of your life? How important is dating to you, and why? What are the most significant social problems facing teenagers today?

The Adolescent in Society Chapter Six Vocabulary Adolescence – The period between the normal onset of puberty and the beginning of adulthood Puberty – The physical maturing that makes an individual capable of sexual reproduction Anticipatory Socialization – Learning the rights, obligation, and expectations of a role at a future date. Homogamy – The tendency for individual’s to marry people who have social characteristics similar to their own Drug – Any substance that changes mood, behavior, or consciousness

Adolescence In our Society The factors that have led to the development of adolescence as a distinct stage of the life cycle in the United States. Education: * by law kids have to stay in school till they are 16 * kids in school are still dependent on others * while in school kids don’t have to take on adulthood roles ex: parent, spouse, and so on

Labor Force: * kids can not be in the labor force until they are 16 * Today kids only work part- time and they continue going to school The development of the Juvenile Justice System: * Our society has created a separate legal status for young people

1. Biological Growth and Development Puberty – the only one aspect of adolescence that is found in every society. Spurts in height and weight, changes in body proportions Acne is formed

2. Undefined Status: Teenagers have a vague expectations (some are treated as kids while others are treated as adult) 3. Increased Decision Making: * Teenagers begin to make decisions on which classes to take, sport to join, school clubs, and either start to make a choice on their careers. 4. Increased Pressure: * Pressure comes from many directions Ex: parents, school, but the greatest comes from their peers.

5. The Search For Self * Adolescences' are mature to think about themselves and what they want out of life * Teenagers begin to create their own values and personal norms. * They are preparing for their future roles in society.

Teenagers and Dating: Dating: 1. it emerged as a form of social interaction between the sexes until just after WWI, in the past 60 years that sociologists taken an interest in dating as a topic of study. Courtship- its purpose is eventual marriage. Dating, on the other hand, may eventually lead to marriage, but not necessarily.

The Emergence of Dating: 1. The rise of industrialization: The timing of marriage was determined by the age at which a man acquired the property necessary to support a family. Industrialization caused people to move away from the farms into the cities. In these cities labor laws created a lot of free time for kids. Because the parents had to work it left these kids unsupervised quite often. Free public education also help pave the way for dating. The public schools were coeducational. This meant that young men and women spent a good portion of day together.

Willard Waller: 1. Sociologist who studied students’ dating habits at Pennsylvania State University in the early 1930’s. 2. He felt dating was a form of recreation and it played little part in mate selection. 3. He found that dating was limited to sororities and fraternities. The object was to be seen with the right people.

Why Date: Mate Selection is the ultimate function of dating. Other functions of dating include: A form of Recreation A mechanism for socialization Fulfills certain basic psychological needs such as: conversation, companionship, and understanding. Attain Status Traditional Dating Patterns: The male arranges the whole date: ex - contact and set-up a time and place -select the activity and pay for it all

Contemporary Dating Patterns: - today young people are spontaneous - not prearranged - both males and females initiate dates

Problems of Adolescence: Teenage Sexual Behavior: 1. other societies permit adolescents to engage in sexual behavior before marriage. 2. Until the 60’s traditional sexual values had the support of the vast majority of Americans at least in principle. The development of the birth control pill, a large youth counterculture. Began what people call the “sexual revolution” 3. It created a society that talked openly about sexual behavior. It was being used in television commercials and other form of advertisement. 1970 29% of unmarried females ages 15 – 19 were sexually active, 1990 that number has risen to 48% that number has

Influences of Early Sexual Activity: 1. Focus on social and economic factors or on subcultural factors. Family income, parents’ marital status, and religious participation. The subcultural factors include their friends they hang out with. Sexual behavior also is associated with other risk-taking behaviors such as drug use and delinquency. The Consequences of Early Sexual Activity: 1. pregnancy

2. Sexual diseases - Aids: a fatal disease caused by a virus that attacks an individual’s immune system, leaving the person vulnerable to a host of deadly infections. Teenage Drug Use: 1. Harrison Narcotics Act out lawing heroin and cocaine nonmedical use in the U.S. 2. Crack cocaine has been the principle cause of the dramatic increase in gang violence. Drug use look at the chart on page 139

Influences on Teenage Drug Use: 1. friends who regularly engage in drug use 2. social and academic adjustment problems 3. living in a hostile and rejecting family setting Teen Suicide: 1. ranked 3rd in cause of death among people aged 15 to 24

The Sociological view of suicide 1. Emile Durkheim: 1897, study of the social causes of suicide still is the most comprehensive sociological analysis of suicide to date. He looked at the degree of attachment. Social Integration – the degree of attachment people have to social groups or to society as a whole. 2. predictors of Teenage suicides: page 142