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Youth issues 2004-05
Here is a mixture of views. According to the socialists (Socialist Worker, 25 May 02), working class kids are the most policed, preached at and controlled in society. Working class youth gangs are seen as threatening. Middle class kids have less reason to steal and hang out on street corners. Youth gangs have to make up their activities because they have less common space, few facilities and outlets for their energy. The whole point of youth culture is to create something of their own when they have so little else. Graffiti, joyriding, drugs and illicit sex are all about countering boredom with excitement and trying to feel a bit important. Many working class youngsters feel completely alienated from a school system that will test them 105 times in their school times. Irrelevant facts are ground into them and they are all too often failed and rejected. Most of the young people convicted of crime have been excluded from school under New Labour policies of punishing those most in need. All teenage gangs have the same roots – anger, boredom, alienation and a desire to hit back at the oppressive system.
According to Cristina Odone (New Statesman 16June03), we have debased sex Cert 15 films sizzle with explicit sex scenes; TV programmes regularly ignore the 9 pm watershed with gross sexual activity in every thing from soaps to adverts. Girls aged 9 wear thongs, Lycra tops and make-up that a street walker might use. All this is just seen as a naughty game rather than an emotional turning point. No wonder school kids snog at 11, bonk at 13 and go anal at 16.
Is it any wonder that predatory adults (not just paedos) find teeny-boppers and younger ones with their come-hither looks an irresistible turn-on? We have done the damage – divorcing sex from any feeling or censure. We cannot allow the corporations, film-makers, fashion designers, tabloids to bombard us daily with titillating images – and then censor under-16s for bonking.
The Ecologist April 03 noted that in the US there are now 10 million children on the hyperactivity drug Ritalin. UK is heading that way with close to 300,000 prescriptions last year. Structurally and pharmacologically close to cocaine, Ritalin has a similar dependency profile and may be even more potent. The only reason Ritalin has not produced an army of addicted schoolchildren, is because it takes about an hour for its pill form to raise dopamine levels in the brain. Smoked or injected cocaine does this in seconds. There are now growing reports of teenagers (and others) abusing Ritalin by snorting or injecting it to get a faster rush. But it seems that Ritalin may initiate changes in brain structure and function that remain long after the drug’s therapeutic effects have dissipated..
What is the matter with teenagers?
Boys are more likely to exhibit behavioural problems and girls are more likely to suffer emotional problems. The rate is higher for emotional problems, now running at one in five of 15-year-old girls. The study Time Trends in Adolescent Mental Health looked at three generations of 15-year-olds, in 1974, 1986 and 1999 and was published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry in Nov 2004. The increases cannot be explained by the rise in divorce and single parenthood, argues the team of researchers, because they found comparable increases in all types of families, although there is a higher rate of adolescent mental health problems in single-parent families.
Nor can growing inequality over the 25 years explain the rise in problem teenagers because rates of increase were comparable in all social classes. There was no difference between white and ethnic minority teenagers. The research found that the rising rate of 15-year-olds with behavioural problems correlated to their increased chances of experiencing a range of poor outcomes as adults, such as homelessness, being sacked, dependency on benefits and poor mental and physical health. This indicated that the rise in problems cannot be attributed to a greater likelihood to report them.
The research conducted by a team from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, and the University of Manchester, provides evidence for Britain which is in line with the World Health Organisation's warning in 2003 that the fastest-growing mental health problem in the world, and particularly in the developed world, was among adolescents.
There are two broad categories of views on teen problems. The first is market based: - the education system is unsatisfactory and does not prepare the teens adequately for the jobs available. At the same time. their self-esteem is undermined by a competitive environment and a media culture that focuses on consumer values and success. The second view is that today's society hooked onto consumerism breeds children who have not received enough emotional support from their parents. The result is a deterioration of mental health which shows in their unruly behaviour. Children from tots to teens seem to be troubled and their behaviour diagnosed as depression. Parents seem increasingly unable or unwilling to provide the emotional nurturing to ensure a resilient child. A growing number of us simply aren't bonding sufficiently with our babies.
Childhood has been disturbed by excessive supervision and techno-schemes loaded with targets and statistics - developmental outcomes, tests, league tables. All this may prepare the children for the market but it doesn't make them happy as in the old days. The government (New Labour) is only concerned that adolescents achieve academically and be law-abiding. New Labour expects 15-year olds to be independent and yet cut off all financial means of being so. Growing to adulthood has become much more difficult with the pressure on for qualifications. Are a clutch of exam certificates for the market enough? What about their emotional resilience to deal with what life will throw at them?
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