Discontinuity and adolescent stress in Zambia

Abstract

This paper attempts to sketch out some salient areas of conflict which confront young people in Zambia today, thereby making personal adjustment somewhat stressful for many of them. The three factors considered (rapid change, education, and puberty rites) are by no means the only ones which present adjustment problems for Zambian adolescents. There are other areas of concern, such as relationships with parents (as alluded to in the section on rapid social change) and unemployment; but it is the author's contention that those discussed here—particularly rapid social change and education—are more ubiquitous. Moreover, all three areas involve discontinuities and contradictions in the socialization of adolescents. In turn, these discontinuities produce ambiguity and uncertainty of status for the adolescent in Zambian society, with the consequent feeling of marginality and ultimately, anxiety and emotional stress.