The Promise of Adolescence Realizing Opportunity for All Youth (2019) / Chapter Skim
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5 Introduction
5 Introduction
Pages 149-158
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From page 149... ...
The social ecosystems within which today's youth are maturing reflect sweeping social changes, many of which were touched on in the preceding chapters. The committee's charge directs us to help child-serving systems apply the accelerating knowledge about adolescent development to their own work.
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From page 150... ...
In many ways, these increasingly complex challenges have altered what it means to be an adolescent today. Systems and organizations that were created for prior generations to guide and support adolescents -- especially their schools -- in many ways have not kept pace with the changing contexts and needs of today's adolescents.
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From page 151... ...
As discussed in Chapter 4, one of the vexing problems facing adolescents and their families today is growing inequality in income and wealth and the compounding impacts of growing up poor in this country. Thus, one might envision a set of policies and programs that combat economic inequality through provisions in the tax code or the implementation of a universal basic income, which may in turn reduce rates of child and adolescent poverty and lead to better outcomes for youth.
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From page 152... ...
A few current trends are especially salient for current parents of adolescents. First, earlier onset of puberty and later transitions to adult roles have lengthened the adolescent period, which may mean protracted parental involvement and a need for flexibility as youths' needs change (Steinberg, 2014)
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From page 153... ...
. While there is no prescription for being the "perfect parent" to an adolescent, decades of research suggest a few practices that are consis tently associated with positive youth outcomes across contexts (Lansford et al., 2018; Steinberg, 2014)
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From page 154... ...
Improving access to resources accessibility -- for example, by mini mizing technical jargon, complicated enrollment processes, and extraneous restrictions and maximizing geographic and temporal availability and "one-stop" access -- may increase the cognitive and emotional bandwidth parents need to support adolescents more effectively, as will enacting policy changes that lower structural
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From page 155... ...
As Chapter 4 discusses, parents differ widely in all the domains of resources that they can bring to bear in rearing their children, including their own time and energy. The least advantaged parents need resources through social assistance to effectively support adolescents during this period of opportunity, so investing in youth also requires investing in the adult caregivers who support them.
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From page 156... ...
. In a small qualitative study of Black youth ages 12 to 20 in East Oakland, California, young people reported using faith, prayer, and religious practices to cope with stressors in their environments and family lives (Dill, 2017)
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From page 157... ...
In adolescence, these developmental changes heighten reward sensitivity, a willingness to take risks, and the salience of social status, necessary propensities for exploring new environments and building non-familial relationships. By exploring and taking risks, adolescents build cognitive, social, and emotional skills necessary for productive contributions in adulthood.
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From page 158... ...
Disparities in family and neighborhood resources and supports, biased and discriminatory interactions with important social systems, and resulting inequalities in opportunity and access severely curtail the promise of adolescence for many youth. Potent structural inequalities and other societal determinants shape adolescents' life trajectories, reducing access to the opportunities, services, and supports as well as exposing youth to risks, stresses, and demands that "get under the skin," adversely affecting the body and brain during this critical developmental period.
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