Adolescence or the Teenage Years

Adolescence or the Teenage Years

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is often used in combination with pharmacotherapy in the treatment of depression. Thus, in combination with antidepressant medication, CBT may reduce the symptoms of depression. Depression affects many people, and not just adults. For example, according to some sources, up to 1 in 5 teenagers would have experienced at least one depressive episode by age 19. Adolescence is a hard time for parents and teenagers alike, because it is a transitional period during which teens become more independent. Consequently, independence comes with a price, and often means a certain rebellion or rebellious phase.

Teenagers seek independence in part because they no longer feel like children. Image: Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

Further, psychologists would argue that teenage years are the period when children are starting to become adults in their own rights and thus stop blindly listening to parents. Also, adolescents stop emulating parents and seek their own identity. Social psychologists usually place the formative years of human personality between 16 and 24 years of age. After this period, personalities appear formed and become much less malleable. However, human personalities, while stable across the lifespan, are not set in stone and certain aspects, such as character flaws, may be changed especially with the right motivation. Evidently, mental illness may exacerbate the problems faced by adolescents and their parents during this critical period.

Having healthy hobbies and good, reliable friendships may buffer against rebelliousness during the teenage years. Image: Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

Additionally, teenagers often experience a strong need to belong and are therefore even more vulnerable to peer pressure. Many parents are worried that their children would yield to peer pressure and try recreational drugs with their group of peers. Naturally, parents attempt to monitor their children’s peer groups, but the endeavour is not always feasible 100 % in real life. Good self-esteem, self-confidence and self-acceptance are crucial and fundamental for teenagers to be able to say no to drugs in situations when false friends make them understand that taking narcotics is contingent on remaining friends. Classroom interventions may be very effective, but it is always better to talk to a professional in the corresponding field.

Children's Classics Not to Miss

To encourage the reading of memorable books, the National Endowment for the Humanities asked some of the best public and private schools in the U.S. several years ago for their lists of recommended books for students. Noting how frequently these lists included books that have been treasured for a generation or longer, the NEH decided to publish a compilation of the books that appeared most frequently on the lists they collected. The selection all date back to 1960 or before and have been organized into age-appropriate grouping by a panel of children's book specialists.

Each year, the Association for Libary Service for Children, a division of the American Library Association, gives the Newbery Medal to the author of a single work in recognition of his or her outstanding contribution to children's literature.

Proud Voices from Across the Ages

Recommended classics from the African American experience

Few works can rival the power with which the following classics capture the African American experience. The selections and comments come from Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who is W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities and Chairman of the Afro-American Studies Departmemt at Harvard University.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X : Malcolm X with Alex Haley, 1965. - A classican articulation of a life of protest.

Letter from Birmingham Jail - Martin Luther King, J. 1963. - Articulates the case for justice and freedom, and the action required to achieve them in a racist society.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass, 1845. - The prototype of the autobiography of the escaped slave.

Ths soul of Black Folks. W.E.B. Du Bois, 1903. - Combines astute historical analysis withj a lyric celebration of the black folk tradition to express perhaps more than any other single work the essence of African Americanism.

In additipn to the works above, Gates suggests reading the fiction of such renowned African American authors as Charles Chestnutt, Jean Toomer, Nella Larsen, Richard Wright, Ralphe Ellison, and Toni Morrison; and the poetry of masters such as Phyllis Wheatley and Langston Hughes.