Adolescence

Adolescence in research papers can examine the psychological factors and changes that take place during adolescence or they can look at the time of life from a sociological perspective. Which ever genre you must examine adolescence from, Paper Masters can help custom write a research paper on adolescence.

Adolescence is defined by an era more than any particular age. It is the time in life when young persons enters puberty and experiences the growth changes of sexual maturity. It is a generally recognized fact that boys and girls reach adolescence at different times in their life and each plateau highly individualistic. Therefore, when writing a research paper on adolescence, keep in mind that adolescence is defined uniquely. Tread lightly when making blanket statements.

The idealized conception of adolescence has long characterized this stage in a person's life as carefree and, except in the presence of unfavorable circumstances, happy. Despite this long-standing stereotype, young adults in every historical era have been faced with challenges unique to their age group, ensuring that adolescence in America have never been without unique difficulties and stressors.

As such, it follows that the particular social, economic, and cultural environment that is extant in current-day America also presents problems for adolescents. In fact, many experts suggest that the pressures facing the current generation of young people are clearly distinct from those that faced previous generations, and in many ways harsher than previous historical eras. When writing your research paper on adolescence, explore the validity of this assertion by examining the unique social, economic, physical, and cultural and challenges facing the current generation of American adolescence.

Adolescence in the US

The current-day social climate in the United States presents unique challenges and obstacles for individuals from all developmental stages. However, many aspects of the rapidly evolving American society have had their most significant impact on adolescents, since this age group often lacks the cognitive ability to assimilate social changes in a healthy and productive manner. Changes in the social landscape as a whole tend to result in negative manifestations among adolescents. This age group is also often identified as being unable to successfully cope with the more ambiguous nuances of emerging social problems, tending to view social trends and issues from a more literal perspective.

Although there are many society-based issues facing American adolescents, one of the most prevalent is that of the increasing stratification of American society. In recent years, studies have repeatedly shown that the sense of community that was rated an important part of social life in previous generations has gradually diminished, with people generally paying greater attention to an increasingly smaller scale of social groups, most often focusing on their own nuclear and extended. Further, recent decades have also given rise to increased social stratification among American families and communities, with greater, more formidable social barriers being erected between socioeconomic, ethnic, gender, and similar social groups.

Social Groups and Adolescence

In the realm of adolescents, this translates into a lack of a larger sense of community, greater emphasis on maintaining exclusivity among small social groups, and less broad-based social acceptance. These developments, in turn, have eroded the sense of social support that existed more widely in previous generations, which social scientists have associated with a large array of social problems amongst children and adolescents, including

• Violence among and against adolescents
• Adolescent depression and other psychiatric disorders
• Increased social stratification

The increased social stratification that has manifested itself among adolescents in recent years has in part been a result of changes to the economy that have occurred in the last several decades. Although much of the 1990s was viewed as a time of economic renewal and prosperity, these improvements were only concentrated within small, relatively small segments of the American population. Taking into consideration the whole of American society, there is more difference between the economic classes today than ever before, emphasizing socioeconomic differences and decreasing class mobility.

The increased quality of health associated with economic stability and prosperity among adolescents is but one of the health issues that pose serious challenges for current-day youth. Obesity, premature pubescence, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, and sexually transmitted diseases are only the most visible health issues posing challenges to American children growing up today. Although in the past, many of the health problems facing adolescents were as a result of poor economic conditions. To the contrary, a significant number of the health problems facing children and adolescents today are skewed amongst all socioeconomic groups. In fact, some problems, especially obesity and premature puberty, are thought to have gained prevalence in the late twentieth century as a direct result of the increased prosperity that many American children experienced throughout the last hundred years.

Probably the most profound challenges facing and adolescents growing up today are based in the current-day cultural landscape. The main difference between the culture that exists in the early twenty-first century and the cultural climate of previous eras is the pervasiveness of the media and the influence that the media has upon the daily lives of Americans. No previous generation of adolescents have been subjected to the constant stream of information and images that the current generation encounters in their everyday life.