Adolescence:
Change and Continuity
Adolescence:
Change and ContinuityJanelle Pattersonjlp175@psu.edu
One out of six families is effected by alcoholism(Crespi,1990). Fifteen million school-aged, American children experience parental alcoholism(Deutsch, 1982). Their feelings, personalities, behavior, educational progress and social interactions are influenced by their parentÕs alcoholism(Deutsch, 1982). The issue of alcoholic families is particularly important to adolescents. Adolescence is a period in life when there is a lot of confusion in a teenagerÕs life and this particular type of family complicates this transition even further.
There are different types of roles that are associated with adolescents who live in alcoholic families. According to Byrski 1987, there are four types of roles. First , is the Hero. These adolescents are often the eldest child in the family. The are also viewed by family members and others as the ÒgoodyÓ of the family. Second, is the Scapegoat. These adolescents are commonly the second child and withdraw from the family. They are always in trouble, which provides the alcoholic with an excuse to drink. Next, is the Lost Child. The Lost Child is usually the third child but could be the second child. They keep a low profile both in and out of the family and have few friends. The adolescent in this role does not give or demand much from others. The last role is the Mascot. The mascot is the youngest child in the family. These adolescents are popular among peers. He or she keeps everyone happy and serves as a distracter from the truth. At a young age these adolescents learn how to manipulate others.
In addition to the roles Bryski mentioned Laybourn 1996 suggests that alcoholic families impose certain responsibilities on adolescents. Adolescents often have to look after their parents, siblings and or the home. This responsibility is usually taken by the eldest child. Adolescents also find themselves being family mediators and protecting both parents from each other. This could range mediating family arguments and or fights to justifying the actions of one parent to the other. Often times an adolescent will become the non-alcoholic parent's confidant. The parent will turn toward his or her adolescent when they are afraid, in need of advice or just to have someone to talk to about problems or about how their day was.
There are many effects that adolescents must have to battle for most or all of their life. Byrski 1987, suggest some of these effects include: fear; confusion; depression; suppression of feelings and low self-esteem. Many adolescents live in constant fear of the unknown. An alcoholic family is unpredictable from minute to minute. The non-alcoholic family members, particularly adolescents, are constantly fearing the arrival of the alcoholic parent because their mood is so unpredictable. Adolescents have confusion over their feelings toward the alcoholic parent. They love the person but hate their behavior and what it does to the family. Depression is something that teenagers with alcoholic parents encounter frequently. Most of the time their home life is depressing and frightening that they often fall into depression because they see no escape from alcohol. A problem many teenagers who live in this environment find is that it is extremely hard to express emotions and/or feelings. This is due to the fact that alcoholic families do not encourage expressing feelings or emotions. Adolescents living in this environment usually have low self-esteem. Alcoholic families relay the message that you are not worthy of anyone to love you or become a friend and soon an adolescent start to believe what is implied by the family.
References
For Further Reading
Helpful websites
Michelle Mayton mlm215@psu.edu
Adolescents and death
Death is a hard concept to try and grasp for an adolescent. One of the most extreme cases of loss is that of a parent. Parental death due to illness, accidents, homicide or suicide is a challenging period for adolescents. The survivors must cope with the loss while trying to rearrange the dynamics of the family. How does the adolescent and his or her family manage to overcome the death of one of the parents
Adolescents and coping
According to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, a researcher in death and dying, the adolescent and the family members move through five stages of grief. The stages are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Kubler-Ross (1974) believes that, "not everyone goes through all of them, at the same rate or progresses through them in the same order," (p.100).
Tasks for the adolescent and the family
J. W. Worden (1991) presents a task-based model for the grieving teen and his or her family (p.277). He suggests four tasks they can use to heal. Like Kubler-Ross, Worden believes that these tasks are individualistic and have no time constraints on them. His four tasks are:
1. To share acknowledgment of the reality of death.
The adolescent and the family must accept the reality of death and communicate openly about it. Worden finds that rights and rituals are often associated with this task because it allows the family to openly express itself.
2. To share experience of the pain or grief.
When the adolescent and the family share pain and grief, they begin to accept a wide range of emotions (Worden, 1991, P. 45). The teen and the other family members should begin to partake in feelings with each other concerning the loss.
3. To reorganize the family system
Worden (1991) states that the adolescent and his or her family must, "delineate new role functions and realign old relationships," (p.46). The family members and the adolescent must cope with the imbalance of the family unit.
4. To redirect the family's relationships and goals
During the final task, the adolescent and the family must, " imagine a future without the deceased," (Worden, 1991, p. 46). Worden believes that the family must allow for flexibility within the unit. This task is a never ending process for the adolescent the family members.
Overcoming the Loss
Though adolescence is a period of time when death, especially parental death, seems incomprehensible, thousands of teens experience it. Using Worden's tasks, the adolescent and the rest of the family learns to cope effectively. If they are able to do so, then the adolescent and the family can and will heal itself (Grollman, 1990)
Helpful websites
The Effects On Adolescents When They Have A Sibling With A Handicap
Eli Shapiro ers121@psu.edu
When a child with a handicap is in a family, the siblings sometimes gets overlooked. The focus of families' needs may be more concentrated on that of the child with a handicap. The siblings' individual needs may take a backseat in comparison with the needs of their handicapped sibling. What developmental affects would this have on siblings of a handicapped child? What can be done for siblings in the family context during the time of adolescence? Answers to these questions are important because experiences during adolescence help determine future relationships between siblings. Often, as adults, the healthy siblings are left to care for their handicapped brother or sister.
How do siblings display anger?
Often non-handicapped adolescents who have difficulty communicating with their siblings will display provoked anger, such as name-calling and hitting, as a means of coping. However, when the same adolescents become angry at a sibling with a handicap, they are more likely to walk away from the situation than to display anger. (Lively, Friedrich, and Buckwalter, 1995). Therefore, when an adolescent has a sibling with a handicap, it can alter the way they interact during the adolescent period.
Where does play come into the picture?
During the period of adolescence, siblings serve several roles. One main role is playmate. To enhance personal development of each sibling, it is crucial to encourage interaction between the healthy and handicapped siblings. (Schreiber, 1984) The more the adolescent interacts with their sibling, the more significant their relationship becomes. A study was done by researchers who asked 34 non-handicapped adolescents (average age being 12.6 years) about their play interactions. The response was these adolescents felt they would be punished more for not playing with their handicapped sibling than for not playing with their healthy sibling. (Vadasy, Fewell, Meyer, and Schell, 1984)
What are the effects of living with a handicapped sibling?
It has been shown by researchers that when adolescents have a sibling with a handicap several things within an adolescent increases.
Adolescents tend to become:
What helps adolescents adjust when a handicap is present?:
It is necessary that adolescents without a handicap be assisted in coping with the news that their brother or sister has a handicapping conditions as early as possible. This will help elevate attempts of physical and verbal aggression towards their handicapped sibling. (Lively, et. al., 1995) If the sibling is informed at an early age and the children interact together, then both siblings will experience higher self esteem. (Bagenholm and Gillberg, 1991) By using these guidelines, the overall outcome will be a greater ability to cope with feelings and better understanding and maintenance of the sibling relationship during
Helpful Websites
Tina Hyatt tmh137@psu.edu
The number of adolescents in foster care is steadily increasing. It is important to understand the positive and negative effects foster care has on adolescent development.
What is foster care?
Foster care is a component of Child and Youth Services. Adolescents are placed in a new home setting to escape a stressed or dangerous living situation. The reasons adolescents reside in foster care include:
The goal of foster care is to provide healthy parents to children who have been subjected to an unsafe and unstable environment. The child is removed from the present negative living situation and placed in an arranged new environment. Through positive identification with the foster parent the adolescent will grow and change (Schor, 1993). The age of children in foster care range from birth to the age of eighteen, but primarily they are adolescents.
How does living in foster care negatively influence adolescents?
The answer to this question is dependent upon how long the child has been in care, the nature of the child, and the severity of the situation. Many studies have shown negative maladjustment of children during foster care and after removal from the foster home. Some of these problems include:
Many of the problems are due to the government being incapable of overseeing all the foster care homes of private agencies. In some cases, further abuse or neglect occurs within the foster care home. This can lead to further maladjustment and lack in self esteem (Thoburn, 1990). Many children have been through ten to seventeen different foster care homes in two to three years.
How does living in foster care positively influence adolescents?
Many children leave their foster care environment with positive attributes. Examples of successful outcomes include:
Positive factors are correlated with length
of time living in a particular foster home. If a child is able to remain
with the same family, then a stable family environment is promoted and positive
development is fostered for the adolescent. (Thoburn, 1990)
Conclusion
Although some adolescents may leave foster care without total positive experiences, a majority of foster care homes provide a healthy environment that promotes successful development in adolescents. This is an important issue that needs to focus on strengthening the positive aspects of care and fixing the negative situations.
References:
Christine Anglin cea109@psu.edu
What is enmeshment?
Many therapists use the term enmeshment to describe a type of dysfunctional family. The typical structure of the enmeshed family is the enmeshed mother, disengaged father and a symptomatic child. "Enmeshed families, ... are characterized by blurred boundaries and low interpersonal distance leading to over involvement, extreme sensitivity and acute reactivity between family members"(Bograd, 1987).
Who does it affect?
The label enmeshment is mostly used to describe women's behaviors.
How does it affect the adolescent?
Overall, enmeshment hinders the adolescent's independent identity. Developing into an adult requires the disengagement from parental beliefs and adopting independent, abstract thoughts. An enmeshed family does not allow for the adolescent to develop into individuals because they are preoccupied with keeping the parents happy. Becoming an individual is a part of developing into an adult and what an adolescent needs most during their transition is support.
Helpful Websites
Rebecca Frye raf187@psu.edu
Death of a child has generally been considered one of the most stressful events encountered by a family in our society. There are many effects on an adolescent from the death of a sibling, which often last throughout the adolescent's life. These effects can be directly related to the death or can develop through the sibling's own understanding of the death and grieving process. The adolescent's maturity level and developmental capacity to interpret and mourn their sibling's death determine this. A possible indirect effect is the parents' inability to successfully mourn and continue to provide a healthy and nurturing environment for the surviving adolescent. Grief robs the parent of energy and vitality in the care of the surviving adolescent. Major family reorganization must occur in this situation. (Fanos and Nickerson, 1991)
Common Symptoms of the Adolescent:
What can help you do when a sibling dies?
The number of siblings lost, birth order and gender, or family size does
not seem to effect the adaptation process of the surviving child. The age
of the surviving sibling does effect the reaction, 13-17 year-olds being
the most troubled. This may be a result of the conflict between the developmental
needs of the adolescent for emotional separation from parents and the parent's
need for nurture and support following thedeath. (Fanos and Nickerson)
Group therapy is very helpful to adolescents
facing the death of a sibling for two reasons; it stresses the reality of
the death and prevents the adolescent from ignoring or postponing the grieving
process, and it provides other individuals who struggle with similar issues
and can provide understanding and support. (S.M. Janowiak et al., 1995)
It is also important for the parent in this situation to cope with the death
and continue to provide nurture while continuing to support the adolescent's
independence. (Davies, Betty 1991)
References:
Kevin Considine kjc164@psu.edu
Depression is an illness that has come to be more recognized in the recent past. It is more than just feeling down it is a more intense and prolonged experience of negative feelings or behavior. Loss of interest in hobbies and lowered self-image are just a couple of many symptoms (DePaulo and Ablow, 1989). If you do not feel this way, can you imagine a brother or sister feeling this way and how this would effect the family as a system? My older brother Greg, who is one year older than me, suffers from chronic depression. I believe this gives me a better insight to what goes on in a household with depression.
Depression is an illness that causes changes in the family context. Because the fact that a large number of today’s adolescents are suffering from this illness I am sure that siblings of depressed teenagers would, also, take up a significant fraction of today’s adolescents. These teenagers are dealing with very different views of depression; siblings of sufferers not only see the damage it does to individuals in the family, they see damage that is done to the family as a whole. For example, someone might ask an adolescent whose sibling is ill, “’what does you father do when you mother goes upstairs to awaken your brother?’” “ He goes down stairs to his wood working.” The father may be frustrated because of his son’s illness, alienating himself from the problem. By being removed from this situation, the girl has a third person perspective (Kahn and Lewis 1988). Some of the personal issues the teen is dealing with is an increase of negative emotions. Common feelings a sibling of a patient has are fear, guilt, shame, and anger (Kahn and Lewis 1988). Many fears arise in the sibling of chronic youths. They often fear they have, somehow, caused the illness by, excluding him/her, fighting, or criticism. They may also fear that their brother/sister will commit suicide. From my personal experiences I know that this causes severe anxiety and increased fear of hurting the sibling.
Guilt is another emotion that may be a common theme in their lives. Guilt might cause someone to wonder, “why”. “Why me, why am I okay and my brother/sister is not?” It may prove to be difficult for this person to enjoy their experiences in life without a sense of guilt. Siblings might also feel bad because they did not notice warning signs, or kept suspect behavior to themselves. Well siblings sometimes feel shame, wondering, “what will my friends think”. Anger may be experienced at the change of roles in the family they might be forced to undergo (Kahn and Lewis 1988).
It is more difficult than it may seem to convince a parent who is caring for a depressed child to consider therapy for the healthy children in the family. By keeping them away from therapy, they may be producing a false sense of security by believing that the healthy children in the family are protected or shielded from problems that could possibly hurt the level of success they are enjoying. Also, a parent might fear that sending a child to therapy would acknowledge that the child had a part in the cause of the family crisis (Kahn and Lewis1988).
The adolescent themselves also may object to therapy. One very strong reason is that they do not want to ask for emotional help in a family that is already dealing with emotional problems (Kahn and Lewis, 1988). At first I was very reluctant to talk to a counselor about some of the feelings that I was experiencing. It felt selfish of me to need someone to talk to, my brother was suffering from a diagnosable illness; I was not. Would I be thought of as “stealing the attention”? When I finally agreed to have a session with a therapist, I found it very helpful to know that these feelings were normal.
In my opinion, group therapy is the best solution for an adolescent with a depressed sibling. In this atmosphere, brothers and sisters of chronic patients can hear what other kids their age are going through. Without family members present, they will feel less guilty about their fear, anger, or shame, realizing that it is common and there are other people who are going through the same thing (Kahn and Lewis 1988). Another tactic that could help these kids is through acknowledging their new roles in a positive light. If they are taking care of the sick sibling or helping them through this time of chaos, their actions should be verbally appreciated. Although it may seem to be a given, these teenagers should be told that there actions are admirable, loyal, helpful, and appreciated (Kahn and Lewis, 1988).
Testimonials by families of the mentally ill illustrate: “The survival-oriented responses siblings often make are to shut down parts of their emotional lives, to become over responsible or to disengage from the ill member or family as a whole. In light of these factors the problems of sisters and brothers have been frequently ignored - and so have their potential contributions to helping the family and the ill person cope with chronic mental illness” such as depression (Kahn and Lewis, 1988, p. 324).
There is an obvious lack of information about adolescents with siblings who have such debilitating crisis. Many say it is hard to examine these situations because of variability in families’ gender, birth order, parenting styles and other reasons. I think it is worth while for researchers to spend time on this group of adolescents who are dealing with major life changes with no where to turn.
REFERENCES
Meryl Reist mbr136@psu.edu
It is unquestionable that abuse has many consequences that are seen throughout an individual’s entire lifetime. Many studies have been done to research the impact of abuse on adolescent development. Abuse, whether it is physical, sexual, emotional, or negligence, has effects on the biological, cognitive and social development of adolescents.
Perhaps the most obvious effects of abuse are biological. Researchers report that abused adolescents tend to be underweight, malnourished, appear dirty and unkempt, are fatigued and easily fall asleep. According to a study performed by Elizabeth Elmer during the 1960’s, eighteen of the twenty-nine children in the experiment showed poor physical development, such as low height and weight in proportion to their peers (Elmer, 63). As children age many of the physical affects of the abuse fade with years.
Although the physical consequences of abuse tend to slowly disappear, this is not the case with the effects on cognitive development in adolescents. Youth who have been abused experience difficulty concentrating in school or keeping their attention on the task at hand. This is most likely the result of a lack of structure in their home environment (Iverson, 90). Depending on the degree to which the child is abused, retardation is a possibility. Again referring to the studies done by Elmer, retardation, due to injury to the head, was strikingly high among the victims of physical abuse. The older the child is when the abuse occurs, the less likely that retardation will result. Because brain damage is permanent, the child will be prevented from experiencing a normal transition into adolescence. Speech problems, such as stuttering, poor sentence structure, poor grammar, and word reversal are seen in abused children, along with a slowed progress in school. Studies have shown that abused children have a lower performance on IQ tests. It is likely that the child who scored low on the IQ test at a young age will not significantly improve on the test as an adolescent or an adult (Elmer, 59-63).
Although the social effects of abuse are very subtle, they are probably the most detrimental and have the greatest potential to be long-term. Because the effects of abuse on social development are very complex, it is difficult to pinpoint the effects of abuse on this aspect on adolescent development. First, abused children are more likely than non-abused children to engage in delinquent behaviors later in adolescence, showing violence and insensitivity to others as well as themselves (Fotana, 56). An adolescent that has been abused typically has a high overall level of distrust, resulting in difficulty forming intimate friendships and romantic relationships (Iverson, 94). Ineffective interaction with others leads to a poorer performance in school due to a lower motivation level, less frequent school attendance, and lower classroom participation. Abused adolescents have a greater rate of teenage pregnancies and are more likely to end up in an unhappy marriage that lacks support, security, and maturity.
In conclusion, there are many effects of abuse on adolescent development, including effects on the biological, cognitive, and social aspects of an individual. Some of these effects diminish with time, while many of the effects are with the adolescent for the remainder of his or her lifetime. Unfortunately, the abused children of today could very easily be the abusive parents in the next generation. Raising our children in a loving and nurturing home is the only solution to breaking this cycle of abuse in America.
REFERENCES:
This site was produced by students taking HDFS 433: The Transition to Adulthood" and HDFS 239: Adolescent Development" at the Pennsylvania State University. Feedback can be sent to the individual authors or to Nancy Darling" (darling@bard.edu).
Last updated 4/16/01. "