Adolescent Development

With clarity and elegance, Bay-Cheng (2015) has
provided a solid articulation of how neoliberalism has infiltrated
the sexual lives of many girls and young women.
Without question, research in the U.S. and the Anglophone
West, as well as current trends in popular culture and the
media in these locales, warrant recognizing neoliberal
sexual agency and understanding the variety of ways it
interacts with the slut/prude/virgin continuum. While
some research has evidenced the salience of neoliberal
sexual agency for some adolescent girls, we depart with
Bay-Cheng’s (2015) assertion that developmental and
age differences not be taken into account and question
the primacy of neoliberal sexual agency as a new and
comparable hegemony to the slut/prude/virgin continuum.
We suggest that there remain other forms of sexual
agency that should not be displaced or disregarded and
wonder whether a paradigm shift from model to metaphor
may be helpful for capturing the complexity, contradictions
and contexts that constitute girls’ and young
women’s sexuality.

Theory of mind, the ability to understand mental states, involves inferences about others' cognitive (cognitive theory of mind) and emotional (affective theory of mind) mental states. The current study explored the role of executive functions in developing affective theory of mind across adolescence. Affective theory of mind and three subcomponents of executive functions (inhibition, updating, and shifting) were measured. Affective theory of mind was positively related to age, and all three executive functions. Specifically, inhibition explained the largest amount of variance in age-related differences in affective theory of mind.

WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Rehabilitation of people with cerebral palsy aims to achieve and maintain optimal performance in mobility and daily activities. Although insight into the developmental trajectories of activities from childhood into adulthood is important, little is known about long-term development.

Adolescence is a challenging stage due to the multiple and rapid changes that occur. In this paper, we present a clinical case of a teen with anxiety and hypochondriac symptoms. The therapeutic treatment, ongoing, was provided in 16 sessions. The intervention was based on the assumption that health anxiety results from processes that maintain catastrophic interpretations that for itself increases anxiety. The principles of cognitive–behavioral and narrative therapy were applied in the intervention. The therapy involved providing psychoeducation, reducing the excessive focus given to the body, learning and training strategies to cope with anxiety, and constructing a life project. The case study shows the value of using metaphors as tools in the therapeutic process, and when facing life’s challenges. Also, it shows the importance of using reading and writing exercises to promote change and adjustment.

Keywords: Adolescence; anxiety; case study; cognitive–behavioral therapy; health; hypochondriac symptoms; metaphor; narrative therapy

This chapter provides an international perspective on the promotion of positive development and the prevention of risky behavior among youth. We discuss some of the specific challenges that youth face in low-and middle-income countries and identify six key evidence-based policies and programs that aim to promote positive youth development and prevent risky behavior. We also propose a set of practical recommendations for policymakers and other stakeholders on how to develop and implement an effective youth portfolio in the context of limited financial resources.

Background: Laboratory drug testing programs may be effective in reducing substance use by adolescents, but developmentally appropriate programs have not been described, and it is unknown if adolescents would be willing to participate in drug testing. Objective: To describe a drug testing protocol for adolescents and report on acceptance rate by patients participating in an outpatient adolescent substance abuse program. Methods: Eligible adolescents participating in an outpatient substance abuse treatment program were offered a random laboratory drug testing program that is described in detail in this manuscript. We recorded whether they accepted and, if not, the reason for refusal. Results: Of the first 114 eligible patients, 67 (59%) agreed to participate in a drug testing program (PDT). Conclusions: A majority of adolescents participating in an outpatient drug treatment program agreed to participate in a drug testing program that requires frequent urine specimens and reports results to parents. Future studies should determine how this program affects treatment outcomes and whether this program is feasible in primary care.

Using a person-focused approach, the present study sought to identify meaningful constellations of contextual factors that led to predominantly high and low levels of sense of coherence (SOC). Specifically, the contributions of the quality of parent-child relationships, teacher and classmate support, models of behaviour in the peer group, and neighbourhood assets were examined in a representative sample of Spanish adolescents aged 13 to 18 that had taken part in the 2010 edition of the study Health Behaviour in School-aged Children. The quality of parent-child relationships emerged as the main predictor of SOC for the whole sample, but the remaining factors also made significant contributions, which underlines the importance of the simultaneous analysis of the main contexts in adolescents' lives. Additionally, the identified constellations usually included compensatory effects, so no factor should be considered to be completely determining. Interestingly, the role of support at school was different depending on contextual profiles. Ó

Background: While studies on reproductive health issues are discussed widely, until recently early marriage among adolescent has not received enough attention across stakeholders in Indonesia. This research aims to analyze the determinants of early marriage among female adolescents in Indonesia. Methods: This study employs data from the Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS) 2012 on females aged 15–19 years (n = 7207). The analytical methods used to determine factors of early marriage were chi-square and multiple logistic regression. Results: The results from this research revealed that four determinants are significantly related to early marriage among female adolescent. Females who have not completed primary school tend to be involved in an early marriage more often than those who graduated from high school. Furthermore, underprivileged females tend to get married earlier than those with a high socioeconomic status. Additionally, females living in rural areas are more prone to early marriage than those living in urban areas. Finally, well-informed females tend not to get married as early as females who do not have access to media information. Conclusion: A stakeholder policy is required that promotes the status of females by improving access to national education, particularly for females in rural areas and those who live in poverty. Marketing and advertising media campaign targeting adolescent are needed to ensure greater access to information.

A developmental framework for understanding and addressing the problem of underage alcohol consumption is presented. The first section presents the rationale for a developmental approach, including striking age-related data on patterns of onset, prevalence, and course of alcohol use and disorders in young people. The second section examines the fundamental meaning of a developmental approach to conceptualizing underage drinking. The third section delineates contemporary principles of developmental psychopathology as a guide to future research and intervention efforts. Strategic, sensitive, and effective efforts to address the problem of underage drinking will require a developmentally informed approach to research, prevention, and treatment. D EVELOPMENTAL APPROACHES TO understanding and addressing the problem of underage drinking are essential, not only because this problem occurs in a developing organism but also because accumulating evidence strongly implicates the role of development in promising theories and interventions concerning this problem. It is increasingly clear that the emergence and progression of drinking behavior are influenced by development, that underage drinking has developmental consequences, that alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are developmental in nature, and that efforts to prevent or to reduce underage drinking behavior must be developmentally informed to be strategic, sensitive, and effective. Our goals in this article are to summarize the case for a developmental perspective on underage drinking and to outline a developmental framework for underage drinking, to guide future theory, research, and practice. This framework emerged from the collaborative work of an advisory group assembled by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in 2004 as part of the Underage Drinking Research Initiative.

To better measure physical activity (PA) in outdoor environments, McKenzie and colleagues developed the System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities (SOPARC). However, previous SOPARC research has focused on adults, seniors, teens and children. One avenue for extending this work is to expand the child age group code to capture important nuances that can influence children's PA and their environments. This study reports on the reliability of a measure designed to account for PA in parks among children in different childhood age groups. Three groups were developed: 0 to 5-years-old (Young Children); 6 to 12 (Middle Childhood) and 13 to 18 (Older Children) based on Erikson's stages of child development. Data were obtained by direct observation in 3 neighborhood parks in Raleigh, NC and 20 neighborhood parks in Durham, NC. Kappa coefficients showed high agreement for all age group, gender, and PA codes. For the 3 assessments, the results show that the 3 age group cate...

This research examined adolescents surfing characteristics and their behavior in the internet environment. A questionnaire relating to the subject was distributed among 1,048 high schools students in the 7th – 11th grades in secular and religious public schools in the north, center and in the south. The questionnaire examined immoral behavior on the internet, such as harassment, downloading of prepared papers, downloading of movies and falsifying personal information, differences were found relating to gender, religious definition, years of surfing experience and daily surfing time. About half of the youth who answered the questionnaire reported exposure to pornography, a quarter of them accidently and most of them over the internet. A clear dependency was found between internet pornography exposure to gender, religious definition and internet experience. Most of the net surfing is done from the home or friends homes on computers without sieve programs. Many of the youth report high involvement in immoral behavior over the net. The parents and the educational system must be provided with tools to enable them to instruct the children on proper internet behavior.