Over the past several decades, the field of adolescent health and development has undergone a profound and pervasive transformation in the knowledge and understanding of young lives. Popular myths about adolescents - that they are hapless victims of “raging hormones” or risk-takers who see themselves as invulnerable - have been laid to rest. But even more important has been the emergence of a new, scientific perspective about this stage of life. It is a perspective that recognizes that adolescents are active participants in the shaping of their own development; that the influence of context - family, peers, school, media, neighborhood,workplace - is as important in determining the life course as are the attributes of the individual and, indeed, that it is the interaction between context and individual attributes that is really crucial; that there is remarkable diversity in the pathways that can be taken by youth as they traverse between late childhood and young adulthood; and that the adolescent life-stage is, itself, an extended one - a full decade of the life trajectory with very different tasks, opportunities, and challenges in the later years than in the earlier years. It is this new, scientific perspective that so thoroughly informs the present volume by Silvia Bonino, Elena Cattelino, and Silvia Ciairano. The volume is an impressive contribution to understanding risk behavior among contemporary Italian adolescents, but it goes far beyond that to advance understanding of adolescent behavior and development as a whole. In this regard, it has immediate relevance for American developmental science as well. The reliance of the authors on a theoretical framework that engages both individual and context; their assessment of the multiple contexts in the ecology of daily adolescent life; their insistence that risk behavior - as with all behavior - is meaningful, purposive, and instrumental; and their focus on multiple types of adolescent risk behavior and on their covariation as a life style or a way of being in the world - all of these together give the volume generality beyond youth in Italy and provide a window on adolescence that enables us to look beyond risk behavior alone. With regard to its particular focus on adolescent risk behavior, the volume is remarkably informative and useful for both scientist and practitioner alike. The data are based on large samples of youth, the analytical methodology is sound, and the presentation of findings is very accessible, relying throughout on graphic representation rather than statistical tables. The chapters deal with each of the key types of risk behavior that are of concern at this developmental stage - drug and alcohol use, delinquency, early sexual experience, risky driving, and unhealthy eating behavior. They show the linkages among them, elaborate the functions served by the various types of risk behavior or the meanings they may have for the adolescent, and examine how they vary with age, gender, and other demographic characteristics. Important and useful as such descriptive knowledge is, the major contribution of the volume clearly lies in its demonstration of the influential role the theoretical risk factors and protective factors play in adolescent risk behavior involvement. In this regard, the research findings not only strengthen the theory, but they serve as an important guide to the design of intervention efforts to prevent or reduce adolescent involvement in risk behavior. One comes away from reading this book with a sense of optimism about the usefulness of the knowledge it provides. The emphasis of the authors on the need to strengthen protective factors that can promote positive youth development, and on the need to provide opportunities for behavior that can serve the same purposes that risk behavior does but without compromising health and development, is salutary. This, indeed, is the key challenge for all contemporary societies to accomplish. By meeting that challenge, societies would give young people the kind of protection they probably need most - the protection that comes from a strong sense that they have a viable stake in the future.
Adolescents and risk. Behaviors, functions and protective factors
CATTELINO E;
2005-01-01
Abstract
Over the past several decades, the field of adolescent health and development has undergone a profound and pervasive transformation in the knowledge and understanding of young lives. Popular myths about adolescents - that they are hapless victims of “raging hormones” or risk-takers who see themselves as invulnerable - have been laid to rest. But even more important has been the emergence of a new, scientific perspective about this stage of life. It is a perspective that recognizes that adolescents are active participants in the shaping of their own development; that the influence of context - family, peers, school, media, neighborhood,workplace - is as important in determining the life course as are the attributes of the individual and, indeed, that it is the interaction between context and individual attributes that is really crucial; that there is remarkable diversity in the pathways that can be taken by youth as they traverse between late childhood and young adulthood; and that the adolescent life-stage is, itself, an extended one - a full decade of the life trajectory with very different tasks, opportunities, and challenges in the later years than in the earlier years. It is this new, scientific perspective that so thoroughly informs the present volume by Silvia Bonino, Elena Cattelino, and Silvia Ciairano. The volume is an impressive contribution to understanding risk behavior among contemporary Italian adolescents, but it goes far beyond that to advance understanding of adolescent behavior and development as a whole. In this regard, it has immediate relevance for American developmental science as well. The reliance of the authors on a theoretical framework that engages both individual and context; their assessment of the multiple contexts in the ecology of daily adolescent life; their insistence that risk behavior - as with all behavior - is meaningful, purposive, and instrumental; and their focus on multiple types of adolescent risk behavior and on their covariation as a life style or a way of being in the world - all of these together give the volume generality beyond youth in Italy and provide a window on adolescence that enables us to look beyond risk behavior alone. With regard to its particular focus on adolescent risk behavior, the volume is remarkably informative and useful for both scientist and practitioner alike. The data are based on large samples of youth, the analytical methodology is sound, and the presentation of findings is very accessible, relying throughout on graphic representation rather than statistical tables. The chapters deal with each of the key types of risk behavior that are of concern at this developmental stage - drug and alcohol use, delinquency, early sexual experience, risky driving, and unhealthy eating behavior. They show the linkages among them, elaborate the functions served by the various types of risk behavior or the meanings they may have for the adolescent, and examine how they vary with age, gender, and other demographic characteristics. Important and useful as such descriptive knowledge is, the major contribution of the volume clearly lies in its demonstration of the influential role the theoretical risk factors and protective factors play in adolescent risk behavior involvement. In this regard, the research findings not only strengthen the theory, but they serve as an important guide to the design of intervention efforts to prevent or reduce adolescent involvement in risk behavior. One comes away from reading this book with a sense of optimism about the usefulness of the knowledge it provides. The emphasis of the authors on the need to strengthen protective factors that can promote positive youth development, and on the need to provide opportunities for behavior that can serve the same purposes that risk behavior does but without compromising health and development, is salutary. This, indeed, is the key challenge for all contemporary societies to accomplish. By meeting that challenge, societies would give young people the kind of protection they probably need most - the protection that comes from a strong sense that they have a viable stake in the future.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
