Chapter 2

YOUTH DEFINED

Youth Defined
Definition of Youth: The quality or state of being
young; Youthfulness Or
Youth can also be defined as Time when some
body is young: The period of human life between
childhood and maturity.

Rites of passage

A rite of passage is a ritual that marks a change in a persons social or sexual status. Rites
of passage are often ceremonies surrounding events. Such as child birth, menarche, or
other mile stones with in puberty, coming of age, marriages, weddings and death. As first
outlined by Van Gennep Rites of passage have three phases:
separation,
Limitation and transition
re-incorporation
In the first phase, people withdraw from the group and begin moving from one place or
status to another. There is often a detachment or cutting away from the former self in this
phase, which is signified in symbolic actions and rituals. For example, the cutting of the
hair for a person who has just joined the army. He or she is 'cutting away' the former self the civilian.
The second phase, is the period between states, during which people have left one place
or state but haven't yet entered or joined the next.
In the third phase they reenter society, having completed the rite and assumed their 'new'
identity. Re-incorporation is characterized by elaborate rituals and ceremonies, like
debutant balls(Originally, it meant the young woman was eligible

to marry, and part of the purpose was to display her to

eligible bachelors and their families with a view to marriage
within a select upper class circle. Dbutantes may be
recommended by a distinguished committee or sponsored
by an established member of elite society. and college graduation.

 In the third phase they reenter society, having

completed the rite and assumed their 'new'
identity. Re-incorporation is characterized by
elaborate rituals and ceremonies, like debutant
balls (Originally, it meant the young woman was
eligible to marry, and part of the purpose was to
display her to eligible bachelors and their families with
a view to marriage within a select upper class circle.
Dbutantes may be recommended by a distinguished
committee or sponsored by an established member of
elite society) and college graduation.

Types and examples

Some examples of rites of passages in contemporary society
are given below:

Coming of age rites of passage

First hair cut
Graduation
Scarification: Scarifying involves scratching, etching, or
some sort of superficial cutting or incision as a permanent
body modification, etching designs, pictures, or words into
the skin. In the process of body scarification, scars are
formed by cutting or branding the skin. Scarification is
sometimes called cicatrisation (from the French equivalent).
Turmeric ceremony in South India to mark menarche
Obtaining a drivers license
The age for voting
The age for drinking

Religious initiation rites

Baptism: A religious sacrament marked by the symbolic application of

water to the head or immersion of the body into water and resulting in
admission of the recipient into the community of Christians.
Confirmation: Public ceremony in which young people in their teens
affirm their commitment to Judaism and the Jewish community;
Circumcision: mainly in Judaism and Islam: The surgical removal of the
foreskin of the penis, or prepuce of the clitoris.
The Quinceaera, or Quince aos ("fifteen years" in English), in
Latin American culture, is a coming of age ceremony held on a girl's
fifteenth birthday. The term Quinceaos refers to the birthday of the
celebrant, and the term Quinceaera refer to the celebrant herself. Like
many other coming-of-age ceremonies, the Quinceaos is associated
with the Quinceaera "becoming a lady".

Other initiation rites

Black Belt Grading in Martial Arts, The rank of expert
in a martial art such as judo or karate.
Secular coming of age ceremonies, sometimes
called "civil confirmations", are ceremonies arranged
by organizations that are secular, i.e. not aligned to
any religion. Their purpose is to prepare adolescents
for their life as adults. Secular coming of age
ceremonies originated in the 19th century, when nonreligious people wanted a rite of passage comparable
to the Christian Confirmation. Nowadays non-religious
coming of age ceremonies are organized in several
European countries.

Academic groups
Some academic circles such as dorms, fraternities,
teams and other clubs practice
Ragging is a form of abuse on newcomers to
educational institutions in Australia, Britain, India,
Sri Lanka and in many other Commonwealth
countries. It is similar to the American form, known
as hazing, but is commonly much more severe.
Fagging was a traditional educational practice in
British boarding private schools (nearly all "public
schools" in the English sense) and also many other
boarding schools, whereby younger pupils were
required to some extent to act as personal servants
to the most senior boys.

 Entrance into Medicine and Pharmacy (University)

The white coat ceremony (WCC) is a relatively new
ritual in some medical, chiropractic, dental, pharmacy,
veterinary medical, physical therapy, pediatric, and
optometry schools that marks the student's transition
from the study of preclinical to clinical health sciences.
At some schools, where students begin meeting
patients early in their education, the white coat
ceremony is held before the first year begins.
WCCs typically involve a formal "robing" or "cloaking"
of students in white coats.

Time Use

In 2003-2005, adolescents averaged more than 6 hours per day in

leisure activities with approximately two thirds of their leisure time spent
in passive activities and less than one third spent in leisure pursuits that
have a high probability of promoting personal growth.
Adolescents in small hunter and gatherer culture in Africa spend much of
their time in different ways than American adolescents do. Kikuyu
adolescents in central Kenya spend two third of their waking hours in
chores and family maintenance tasks. (Munroe & others, 1983).
Girls in rural India spend a similar two-thirds of their time in maintenance
tasks, including 1 hours fetching water, while boys spend two-thirds of
their time in leisure (Saraswathi & Dutta, 1988).
Contemporary Japanese adolescents spend well over half of their
waking hours doing school work. How adolescents spend their waking
hours provides insight into the nature of their developmental experiences
in a culture and the circumstances that influence what women and men
they will become. (Larson & Richards, 1989).

 In a study of, a heterogeneous sample of 75 ninth-through

twelfth-graders, approximately half boys and half girls and
approximately half from a lower-middle class and half from
an upper-middle-class background, in urban and suburban
areas near Chicago, it was found that the paths of the
adolescents lives passed through three main social contexts

home, school, and public settings, such as parks, buses,

supermarkets and friends homes.
They spent 29 percent of their time in productive activities,
mainly involving schoolwork. They spent the remainder of
their time in other activities, such as talking, engaging in
sports and reading, which can be classified primarily as
leisure. By far the largest amount of time spent in a single
activity was studying, which took up 13 percent of the
adolescents waking hours.

Decision Making
Adolescence is a time of increased decision making about
the future, which friends to choose, whether to go to college,
whether to buy a car, and so on .In some reviews, older
adolescents are described as more competent than younger
adolescents, who, in turn, are more competent than children
(Keating, 1990)
Compared to children, young adolescents are more likely to
generate options, to examine a situation from a variety of
perspectives, to anticipate the consequences of decisions,
and to consider the credibility of sources. One study
documents that older adolescents are better at decision
making than younger adolescents are (Lewis, 1981). But
some researchers have recently found that adolescents and
adults do not differ in their decision making skills (Quadrel,
Fischoff, & Davis, 1993).
Adolescents need more opportunities to practice and discuss
realistic decision making. Many real-world decisions occur in
an atmosphere of stress that includes such factors as time
constraints and emotional involvement.

 One strategy for improving adolescent decision making

about real world choices involving matters as choice of
careers, whether to take drugs or not and driving, is for
schools to provide more opportunities for adolescents to
engage in role playing and group problem solving related
to such circumstances.
Another strategy is for parents to involve their
adolescents in appropriate decision making activities. In
one study of more than 900 young adolescents were
more likely to participate in family decision making when
they perceived themselves as in control of what happens
to them and if they thought that their input would have
some bearing on the outcome of the decision making
process (Liprie, 1993)

Adolescent Groups
During adolescent years, people are a member of both formal
and informal groups. Examples of formal groups include the
basket ball team, the Girl Scouts or Boys Scouts, the student
council, and so on. A more informal group could be a group
of peers, such as a clique (A clique is an inclusive group of people
who share interests, views, purposes, patterns of behavior, or ethnicity

Our study of adolescent groups focuses on the functions of

groups and how groups are formed, differences between
children groups and adolescent groups, cultural variations,
cliques and youth organizations.

Group Formation
Any group to which adolescents belong has two things in
common with all other groups:
Norms and Roles.
Norms are rules that apply to all members of a group. An
honest society, for example, might require all members to
have a 3.5 grade point average. A school might require its
male students to have their hair that does not go below the
collar of their shirt. A football team might require its members
to work on weight lifting in the off season.
Roles are certain positions in a group that are governed by
rules and expectations. Roles define how adolescent should
behave in those positions. In a family, parents have certain
roles, siblings have other roles, and grandparents have still
other roles. On a basket ball team, many different roles must
be filled: center, forward, guard, defensive specialist and so
on

Group Function
Groups satisfy adolescents personal needs, reward them,
provide information, raise their self esteem, and give them
an identity.
Adolescents might join a group because they think that
group membership will be enjoyable and exciting and satisfy
their needs for affiliation and companionship.
They might join a group because they will have the
opportunity to receive rewards, either material or
psychological. For example, an adolescent may reap
prestige and recognition from membership on the schools
student council.
Groups also are an important source of information. As
adolescents sit in a study group, they learn effective study
strategies and valuable information about how to take tests.
The groups in which adolescents are members-their family,
their school, a club, a team- often make them feel good,
raise their self-esteem and provide them with an identity.

The Sharifs (1961) found that in each group of adolescents they studied,
much time was spent just hanging around together, talking and joking.
In addition, many of the groups spent a great deal of time participating in
games and discussing or attending athletic events. The only exceptions
were groups from lower class neighborhoods.
Cars occupied the minds of the many of the groups members. Whether
they owned car or not, the adolescent boys discussed, compared, and
admired cars. Those who did not owned cars knew what kinds they
wanted. The boys also discussed the problems having access to a car so
they could go somewhere or take a girl out. They adolescents who did
have cars spent tremendous amount of time in and around cars with their
buddies..
Discussions about girls frequently infiltrate the adolescent boys
conversation. As part of this talk they focused extensively on
relationships. They planned, talked about, and compared notes on girls.
Much time in every group was spent reflecting on past events and
planning for games, parties, and so forth. Thus, despite the fact that the
boys just hung around a lot, there were times when they constructively
discussed how they were going to deal or cope with various events.

Ethnic and Cultural Variations

As Ethnic minority children move in to adolescence and
enter schools with more heterogeneous school populations,
they become more aware of their ethnic minority status.
Ethnic minority adolescents may have difficulty joining peer
groups and clubs in predominantly White schools.
Similarly, white adolescents may have peer relations
difficulties in predominantly ethnic minority schools.
However, schools are not only one setting in which peer
relations take place; they also occur in the neighborhood and
in the community (Jones & Costin, 1997).
Ethnic minority adolescents often have two sets of peer
relationships, one at school, and the other in the community.
Community peers are more likely to be from their own ethnic
groups in their immediate neighborhood..
The desire to be accepted by the peer group is especially
strong among refugee adolescents, whose greatest threat is
not the stress of belonging to two cultures but the stress of
belonging to none (Lee, 1988).

Cliques
Most peer relations in adolescence can be categorized in one of three
ways: individual friendships, the crowd and cliques.
The crowd is the largest, most loosely defined and least personal unit of
the adolescent peer society. Crowd members often meet because of
their mutual interest in an activity. For example, crowds get together at
large parties or intermingle at school dances.
Cliques are smaller in size, involve more intimacy among members
and are more cohesive than crowds. However, they usually are larger in
size and involve less intimacy than friendships. In contrast to crowds,
the members of both friendship and cliques come together because of
mutual attraction. Allegiance to cliques, clubs, organizations and teams
exerts powerful control over the lives of many adolescents.
Labels like brothers and sisters sometimes are adopted and used in
group members conversations with one another. These labels
symbolized the intensity of the bond between the members and
suggest the high status of membership in the group.
Clique membership is also associated with drug use and sexual
behavior. In one study, five adolescent cliques were identified: jocks
(athletes), brains, burnouts, populars, nonconformists as well as a
none/average group. Burnouts and nonconformist were the most likely
to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and use marijuana; brains were the
least likely.

Youth Organizations

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Youth organizations can have an important influence on the

adolescents development (Snider & Miller, 1993). There are some
youth organizations that are playing important role in adolescents/
youth development in Pakistan. The organizations are mentioned
below:
Youth Engagement Services (YES) Network Pakistan (Youth as a
Solution, not as a Problem),
Pakistan Youth Alliance
Pakistan National Youth Council
NAUJAWAN MAHAZ PAKISTAN (YOUTH FRONT PAKISTAN)
Pakistan Lions Youth Council (PLYC)
All-Pakistan Youth Federation
Youth Development Foundation-Pakistan (YDF)
Pakistani Youth Organization
Pakistan Youth Revolution

Exploring Adolescents Problems

The Bio-psycho-social Approach emphasizes that biological,

psychological and social factors interact to produce the problems that
adolescents and people of other ages develop. Thus if an adolescent
engages in substance abuse it may it may be due to a combination of
biological (heredity or brain processes), psychological (emotional
turmoil or relationship difficulties) and social (Poverty) factors (Draguns,
1990; Tanaka-Matsumi, 2001).

The Developmental Psychopathology Approach focuses on

describing and exploring the developmental pathways of problems.
Many researchers in this field seek to establish links between early
precursors of a problem (such as risk factors and early experiences)
and outcomes (such as delinquency or depression) (Egeland, Warren &
Aquilar, 2001; Harper, 2000). Adolescent problems can be categorized
as internalizing or externalizing:
Internalizing problems occur when individuals turn their problems
inward, Examples of internalizing disorders include anxiety and
depression.
Externalizing problems occur when problems are turned outward. An
example of an externalizing problem is juvenile delinquency.

Characteristics of Adolescents Problems

The spectrum of adolescent problems is wide. The problems
vary in their severity and in how common they are for girls
versus boys and for different socio-economic groups.
Some adolescent problems are short-lived; others can
persist over many years. One 13-year-old might show a
pattern of acting out behavior that is disruptive to his class
room. As a 14-year-old, he might be assertive and
aggressive, but no longer disruptive.
Some problems are more likely to appear at one
developmental level than at another. For example fears are
more common in early childhood, many school related
problems surface for the first time in middle and late
childhood and drug-related problems become more common
in adolescence (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1981).
In one study, depression, truancy and drug abuse were
more common among older adolescents, while arguing,
fighting, and being too loud were more common among
younger adolescents (Edelbrock, 1989)

 Many studies have shown that factors such as poverty,

ineffective parenting and mental disorders in parents
predict adolescent problems. Predictors of problems are
called risk factors. Risk factor means that there is an
elevated probability of a problem outcome in groups of
people who have that factor. Children with many risk
factors are said to have a high risk for problems in
childhood and adolescence, but not every one of these
children will develop problems.

Resilience
Even when children and adolescents are faced with
adverse conditions such as poverty, there are
characteristics that help buffer and make them resilient to
developmental outcomes (Compas, 2004). Ann Masten
(2001) analyzed the research literature on resilience and
concluded that a number of individual factors (Such as
good intellectual functioning), family factors (close
relationship to a caring parent figure), and extra familial
factors (bonds to prosocial adults outside the family)
Characterize resilient children and adolescents.

Problems and Disorders

Drug Use
Depression and suicide
Juvenile Delinquency

Index offences
Status offences

Eating Disorders

1.
2.
3.

Obesity
Anorexia Nervosa
Bulimia Nervosa

Drug Use
Why do Adolescents Take Drugs?
Since the beginning of history humans have
searched for substances that would sustain and
protect them and also act on the nervous system to
produce pleasurable sensations.
Risk Factors in Adolescents Drug Abuse: are
heredity, family influences, peer relations and
certain personality characteristics.
Drugs used by adolescents is as following:
Depressants (Alcohol, Barbiturates & tranquilizers)
Hallucinogens (LSD & Marijuana)
Stimulants (Cigarette smoking, Cocaine,
Amphetamines, Ecstasy)
Anabolic Steroids

Factors in Adolescents Drug Abuse

Researchers also have examined the factors that are related
to drug use in adolescence, especially the roles of
development, parents, peers, and schools. Most adolescents
become drug users at some point in their development,
whether their use is limited to alcohol, caffeine and cigarettes
or extended to marijuana, cocaine, and hard drugs.
A special concern involves adolescents who begin to use
drugs early in adolescence or even in childhood. There also
is a concern about adolescents who use drugs as a way of
coping with stress, which can interfere with the development
of competent coping skills and responsible decision making.
When they use drugs to cope with stress, young adolescents
often enter adult roles of marriage and work prematurely
without adequate socio-emotional growth and experience
greater failure in adult roles. An analysis of more than 38,000
individuals showed (Jerald Bachman, 2002) that;
Those who dont go to college smoke more.
Singles use marijuana more than married individuals.

 Drinking is heaviest among singles and divorced

individuals. Becoming engaged, married, or
even remarried quickly brings down alcohol use.
Thus, living arrangements and marital status are
key factors in alcohol and drug use rates during
the twenties.
Individual who considered religion to be very
important in their lives and who frequently
attended religious services were less likely to
take drugs than their less religious counterparts.
Parents, peers and social support also play
important roles in preventing adolescent drug
abuse. (Dishion, 2002). Positive relationships
with parents and others are important in
reducing adolescents drug use (Brody& Ge,
2001).

Juvenile Delinquency
The term juvenile delinquency refers to a broad range of behaviors, from
socially unacceptable behavior (such as acting out in school) to status
offenses (such as running away) to criminal acts (such as burglary). For
legal purposes, a distinction is made between offenses and status offenses.
Index offences are criminal acts, whether they are committed by juveniles
or adults. They include such as robbery, aggravated assault, rape and
homicide.
Status offences such as running way, truancy, underage drinking, sexual
promiscuity, and uncontrollability, are less serious acts. They are performed
by youth under a specified age, which classifies them as juvenile offenses.
States often differ in the age used to classify an individual as a juvenile or
an adult. Thus running away from home at age 17 may be an offense in
some states but not others.
Some psychologists have proposed that individuals 12 and under should
not be evaluated under adult criminal laws and that those 17 and older
should be. Conduct disorder is the psychiatric diagnostic category used
when multiple behaviors occurs over a six month period. These behaviors
include truancy, running away, fire setting, cruelty to animals, breaking and
entering, excessive fighting and others. When three or more of these
behaviors co-occur before the age of 15 and the child or adolescents is
considered unmanageable or out of control , the clinical diagnosis is
conduct disorder.

Antecedents of Juvenile Delinquency: Predictors

of delinquency include
conflict with authority,
minor covert acts that are followed by property
damage and other more serious acts,
minor aggression followed by fighting and violence,
identity (negative identity),
self-control (low degree), cognitive distortions
(egocentric bias), age (early initiation), sex (male),
expectations for education (low expectations, little
commitment),
school achievement (low achievements in early
grades), peer influence (heavy influence, low
resistance), socio-economic status (low),
Parental role (lack of monitoring, low support and
ineffective discipline), siblings (having an older
sibling who is delinquent), and neighborhood
quality (Urban, high crime, high mobility).

Violence & Youth:

An increasing concern is the high rate of adolescents violence (Dodge &

Pettit, 2003; Flannery & others,2003). In one school year, 57 percent of
elementary and secondary school principals reported that one or more
incidents of crime or violence occurred in their school and were reported
to law enforcement officials (National Centre for Education Statistics,
1998).
Physical attacks or fights with a weapon lead the list of reported crimes.
The violent youth are overwhelmingly male and many are driven by
feeling powerlessness. Violence seems to infuse these youth with a
sense of power.
The following factors often are present in at risk youths and seem to
propel them toward violent acts (walker, 1998);
a) Early involvement with drugs and alcohol,
b) Easy access to weapons, especially handguns.
c) Association with antisocial, deviant peer groups
d) pervasive exposure to violence in the media
Many at risk youths are also easily provoked to rage, reacting
aggressively to real or imagined slight and acting on them, sometimes
with tragic consequences. They might misjudge the motives and
intentions of others toward them because of the hostility and agitation
they carry (Cofe & Dodge, 1998). Consequently, they frequently engage
in hostile confrontations with peers and teachers.

Depression & Suicide

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

One of the most frequent characteristics of adolescents referred for

psychological treatment is sadness or depression, especially among
girls.
Depression: An adolescent who says Im depressed or Im so down
may be describing a mood that lasts only a few hours or a much longer
lasting mental disorder.
In major depressive disorder, an individual experiences a major
depressive episode and depressed characteristics, such as lethargy and
hopelessness, for at least two weeks or longer and daily functioning
becomes impaired. According to DSM-IV classification of mental
disorder (APA, 1994), nine symptoms define a major depressive
episode, and to be classified as having major depressive disorder, at
least five of these must be present during a two-week period:
Depressed mood most of the day
Reduced interest or pleasure in all or most activities
Significant weight loss or gain, or significant decrease or increase in
appetite.
Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much.
Psychomotor agitation or retardation

6.Fatigue or loss of energy

7.Feeling worthless or guilty in an excessive or inappropriate manner
8.Problems in thinking, concentrating, or making decisions
9.Recurrent thoughts of death and suicide
In adolescents, pervasive depressive symptoms might be manifested
in such ways as tending to dress in black clothes, writing poetry with
morbid themes, or preoccupation with music that has depressive
themes.
Sleep problems can appear as all night television watching, difficulty in
getting up for school, or sleeping during day. Lack of interest in usually
pleasurable activities may show up as withdrawal from friends or
staying alone in the bedroom most of the time. A lack of motivation and
energy level can show up in missed classes. Boredom might be a
result of feeling depressed..
Depression is more common in the adolescent years than the
elementary school years (Compas & Grant, 1993). By about age 15,
adolescent females have a rate of depression that is twice that of
adolescent males. Some of the reasons for this sex difference that
have been proposed are these:

1.
2.
3.
4.

Females tend to ruminate in their depressed mood and amplify it.

Females self-images, especially their body images, are more
negative than males.
Females face more discrimination than males do.
Hormonal changes alter vulnerability to depression in
adolescence, especially among girls.
Other Family factors are involved in adolescent depression
(Graber, 2004). Having a depressed parent is a risk factor for
depression in childhood and adolescence. Poor peer relationships
also are associated with adolescent depression. Not having a
close relationship with a best friend, having less contact with
friends and peer rejection increase depressive tendencies in
adolescents.

Treatment of Depression:
1.
2.
3.

Depression has been treated with drug therapy and psychotherapy

techniques (Blatt, 2004).
Antidepressant drugs reduce the symptoms of depression
Cognitive therapy also has been effective in treating depression
(Beck, 1993).

Suicide:
Suicide behavior is rare in childhood but escalates in
adolescence. Suicide is the third-leading cause of death
in 10 to 19 years old today in the United States (National
Center for Health Statistics, 2002).
Although a suicide threat should always taken seriously,
far more adolescents contemplate or attempt it
unsuccessfully than actually commit it (Serocyzynski,
Jacquez & Cole, 2003). I
n a study, 19 percent of U.S. high schools students said
that they had seriously considered or attempted suicide
in the last 12 months (National Center for Health
Statistics, 2002).
Females are more likely to attempt suicide than males,
but males are more likely to succeed in committing
suicide. Males use more lethal means, such as guns, in
their suicide attempts, where as adolescent females are
more likely to cut their wrists or take an overdose of
sleeping pillsmethods less likely to result in death.

 Risk factors in Suicide: The adolescents might have a long

standing history of family instability and unhappiness.

The adolescents might also lack supportive friendships.
Just as genetic factors are associated with depression, they are also
associated with suicide.
Another factor is previous attempts, with the risk of actual suicide
increasing with prior attempt.
Suicidal adolescents often have depressive symptoms. Although not
all depressed adolescents are suicidal, depression is the most
frequently cited factor associated with adolescent suicide. A sense
of hopelessness, low self-esteem and high self blame are also
associated with adolescent suicide (Serocyzynski, Jacquez & Cole,
2003).
In some instances, suicides in adolescents occur in clusters. That is
when one adolescent commits suicide, other adolescents who find
out about this also commit suicide. Such copycat suicides raise the
issue of whether or not suicides should be reported in the media; a
news report might plant the idea of committing suicide in other
adolescents minds.

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders have become increasing problems in adolescence.

Lets now examine different types of eating disorders in adolescence,
beginning with obesity.
Obesity: It has been estimated that as many as 25 percent of todays
adolescents are obese. Eating patterns established in childhood and
adolescence is highly associated with obesity in adulthood.
For example 80 percent of obese adolescents become obese adults.
Both heredity and environmental factors are involved in obesity
(Stunkard, 2000). Some individuals inherit a tendency to be overweight.
Only 10 percent of children who do not have obese parents become
obese themselves, where as 40 percent of children who become obese
have one obese parent and 70 percent of children who become obese
have two obese parents.
Strong evidence of the environments role in obesity is the doubling of
the rate of obesity in the United States since 1900. This dramatic
increase in obesity likely is due to greater availability of food (especially
food high in fat), energy-saving devices, and declining physical activity.
American adolescents also are more obese than European adolescents
and adolescents in many other parts of the world.

 Anorexia Nervosa: is an eating disorder that

involves the relentless pursuit of thinness through

starvation. Anorexia nervosa is serious disorder that can
lead to death.
Most anorexics are White adolescents or young adult
females from well-educated, middle and upper income
families that are competitive and high-achieving. They
set high standards, become stressed about not being
able to reach the standards, and are intensely concerned
about how others perceive them (Streigel Moore &
Rodin, 1993).
The fashion image in the American culture, which
emphasizes that thin is beautiful, contributes to the
incidence of anorexia nervosa (Polivy & others, 2003).
About 70 percent of patients with anorexia nervosa
eventually recover

 Bulimia Nervosa: Bulimia nervosa is an

eating disorder in which the individual consistently
follows a binge-and-purge eating pattern.
The bulimics goes on an eating binge and then
purges by self-induced vomiting or by using
laxative.
One recent study of adolescent girls found that
increased dieting, pressure to be thin, exaggerated
importance of appearance, body dissatisfaction,
depression symptoms, low self-esteem, and social
support predicted binge eating two years later. As
with anorexia nervosa, about 70 percent of
individuals who develop bulimia nervosa eventually
recover from the disorder (Keel & others).

Ways to Prevent or Intervene in Problems

The four problems that affect the most adolescents are
(1) Drug abuse,
(2) Juvenile delinquency,
(3) Sexual problems and
(4) School-related problems.
Researchers are finding that adolescents who are the
most at risk often have more than one problem and that
the highest risk adolescents often have all four of these
problems. In Dryfoos analysis, these were the common
components of successful prevention/intervention
programs:
(1) extensive individual attention,
(2) community-wide intervention and
(3) early intervention.