1. The Adolescent in Society
CHAPTER 6
The Adolescent in Society
Section 1: Adolescence in Society
Section 2: Teenagers and Dating
Section 3: Challenges of Adolescence

2. SECTION 1
Adolescence in Society
Question:
How did adolescence develop as a distinct stage of the life cycle in the United States?

3. Adolescence in Society
SECTION 1
Adolescence in Society
Prior to 1860s
Adolescence did not exist as a separate life stage. Children treated as small adults.
Education
Work
Courts
Children stay in school longer; extended period of dependence
Laws restricted child labor, also increasing length of dependency
Juvenile-justice system legally distinguished between youth and adults.
Effect
Development of adolescence as a distinct life stage between childhood and adulthood

4. SECTION 2
Teenagers and Dating
Question:
How did various social changes lead to the emergence of dating?

5. Teenagers and Dating SECTION 2 Cause Effect
People moved from the farms to the cities, where young adults could gain more economic freedom and their own homes. As a result, parental control over young adults and courtship decreased.
Industrial Revolution
Public Education
Automobile
Telephone
Equality of Women
By the 1900s most secondary-school students attended coeducational public schools, which increased interaction between boys and girls.
Young adults had more freedom of movement away from parents.
Young adults could more easily talk to members of the opposite sex.
More women entered the workforce and took on more active community roles, which increased the interaction between single adult men and women.

6. SECTION 3
Challenges of Adolescence
Question:
What are the causes and consequences of social problems facing contemporary teenagers?

7. Challenges of Adolescence
SECTION 3
Challenges of Adolescence
Cause
Effect
Consequences
Teenage Sexual Behavior
Teenage Drug Use
Teenage Suicide
loosening of norms concerning sexuality; low-income, one-parent families
teenage pregnancy; expo-sure to or acquiring STDs such as syphilis or AIDS
dropping out of school; having friends who use drugs; social and academic adjustment problems; hostile and rejecting family settings
increase in the use of some drugs among teens; increase in drug-related violence
alcohol or drug use; triggering events such as a family crisis or other trials of adolescence; being female; social isolation; living in an underpopulated area; bad family environment; cluster effect from publicized suicides
death; possible cluster effects leading to other teenage suicides; rise in U.S. teenage suicide rate; teen suicide rate now exceeds that for adults

8. Chapter Wrap-Up CHAPTER 6
1. Describe the factors that led to the development of the concept of adolescence in the United States.
2. Identify and describe the five major features of adolescence.
3. How did the practice of dating develop in the United States?
4. What functions does the dating process perform today?
5. What major social problems face American teenagers today?