City Teenagers Research Articles

Inner City Youth and Drug Dealing: A Review of the Problem

Reviewed existing literature on drug dealing and inner city adolescents that underscores a serious and worsening problem. Around one in six urban adolescents have had some involvement in drug dealing, with rates even higher for African-American males over 16. For inner city teenagers, there are a range of problems associated with drug dealing, including juvenile arrest, involvement in violence (as victims and perpetrators), substance abuse, behavioral and emotional difficulties, academic failure and dropout. In terms of etiology, three influences have received the most attention: family dysfunction, economic factors, and perceptions of drug dealing that promote involvement in it. In general, there is limited recognition of the severity of the problem of drug dealing and inner city adolescents, corresponding to an almost total lack of efforts to prevent or address it. Efforts are needed at individual, family, group, school, community, and mass media levels to address this serious and escalating problem.

Variations in health behaviours among inner city 12‐year‐olds from four ethnic groups

Objectives. To describe factors that contribute to variations in health‐related behaviours and attitudes among inner city 12‐year‐olds. To see if there was an identifiable patterning by ethnic group. Design. Semi‐structured interviews with a stratified sample of 12‐year‐old students and their parents from four ethnic groups, attending state secondary schools in two inner London boroughs. Results. Bangladeshi young people were significantly more likely to receive school meals. There was no variation in reported snacking between the groups. Girls and Bangladeshi students were less likely to report exercising outside school (33% of Bangladeshi boys reported not exercising outside school compared to 5% of boys from all other groups). Bangladeshi boys and their parents were more likely to report that bullying or worries about racial violence prevented them from going out after school. White young people were more likely to report experimenting with and the regular use of cigarettes and alcohol. Use of alcohol and cigarettes was also associated with gender, religion and strength of religious observance. White parents were the least likely to report restricting their child's social activities as a way of influencing behaviour and expressed more concerns about their child's potential for health‐damaging behaviour than parents in all other groups. Conclusion. This study shows that ethnicity alone is insufficient and inadequate in explaining variations in health behaviours among inner city teenagers. A complex mix of personal, cultural and social factors including ethnicity shape the behaviours and attitudes of these young people.

Characteristics and motives of adolescent volunteers in wildlife education.

The characteristics and motives of 63 suburban adolescents (20 boys, 43 girls) who are concerned with learning how to care for and make significant contributions to wildlife and the environment were assessed by telephone interviews. The data confirm studies of adults in that significantly more girls than boys became volunteers, significantly more volunteers' families than average families experienced caring interactions with animal life through pet ownership, and significantly more volunteers reported that concern for wildlife arose during early childhood rather than later. The data also indicate that early childhood experiences with pets, with adults acting as role models and providing social approval, and having instruction in wildlife care with peers all contributed to their positive attitudes toward wildlife and the pursuit of their volunteer work. Over-all, the results suggest that adolescents, wildlife, and the environment might benefit if wildlife care programs could be established for other youth such as inner city teenagers.

Preventing teen pregnancy through persuasive communications: realities, myths, and the hard-fact truths.

Effective campaigns are desperately needed to combat the serious social problem of teen pregnancy. However, public health campaigns are most often noted for failures, rather than successes. One reason for a campaign failing to have the intended effect is lack of theoretical guidance at the formative evaluation stage. The study reported here is a theoretically-based formative evaluation with inner city teens. Six focus groups were conducted to determine knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and recommendations for effective campaigns to deter teen pregnancy. The results indicate that campaign messages need to combat positive attitudes toward pregnancy, negative attitudes toward birth control, the perception of personal invulnerability, and emphasize the negative consequences of sexual intercourse. This study's findings also suggest that campaigns with these messages need to start at an early age in order to effectively prevent teen pregnancy.

Contraceptive implant use among inner city teens

This study develops a clinical profile of urban teens who selected Norplant for contraception; determines which variables identify the subjects most likely to be compliant with the method; and determines the most common reasons for early termination of use. Demographic and health history data and reasons for termination of use were collected prospectively for 122 inner city teens who received Norplant. Life table analysis and the Mantel-Haenszel procedure were used to investigate differences between Norplant retainers and terminators. The sample consisted of black and Hispanic teens between the ages of 13-19 years, the majority of whom had one or more children and were in school. One and two year retention rates were 71% and 62%. The highest removal rates occurred during the 3-6 month interval after insertion. A significant finding was that teens who have experienced induced abortion were more likely to retain Norplant. Common reasons for termination of use included general and social concerns, including pregnancy desire. Norplant retention rates for this teen sample were greater than the compliance rates reported for other conventional methods. Similar to noncompliance with oral contraceptives, discontinuance of the method was most likely to occur in the first 6 months of use. A history of induced abortion identifies those teens most likely to retain Norplant, suggesting that these teens might evaluate contraceptive risks and benefits differently than those with no abortion history. Pregnancy desire was a common reason for terminating Norplant use.

Development of a nutrition education/support group for obese inner city teens with and without diabetes mellitus, including a simultaneous parent workshop

A program was developed to support teenagers attempting to loose weight and provide them with skills enabling them to make positive food choices. Participants included patients over age eleven from a Metabolic Clinic and Pediatric Model Unit of the Diabetes Research and Training Center of the University of Chicago. Participants' weights' ranged from an estimated 130% to over 200% desirable body weight for height. The participants were all from the African American or Latino Communities of Chicago. Sessions were facilitated by two Registered Dietitians, who met weekly with a Staff Psychologist to process and plan eight weekly sessions followed by monthly sessions. The nutrition education goals of the program were to increase knowledge and reported intake of high carbohydrate, low fat food choices, as measured by food frequency questionnaires, a Food Choice Inventory and weekly food records. Another goal was to provide an interactive atmosphere among participants, generating coping mechanisms for overcoming barriers to successful weight loss. Methods to achieve this included the development of a telephone buddy system, a workshop on stress management techniques, writing of weekly goals, keeping of journal, interactive games and social events. A simultaneous parent workshop was held on the premise that increasing parents' knowledge of healthful nutrition, and engaging them in the program would provide support for them leading to an increased attendance and positive changes in family eating behavior. Speakers included a social worker, physician and physical therapist, as well as videotapes about shopping healthfully and recipes for holiday eating provided by nutritionists. Questionnaires were used to evaluate participants' rating of the program's value in helping them. Results were mixed in terms of changes in reported eating patterns. The program was extremely successful in creating a supportive group atmosphere among the participants as demonstrated by discussions and reports of phone calls and outside activities teenagers organized on their own initiative. Evaluations of the program were positive including written comments requesting a continuation of the group on a weekly basis. Parent participation was limited, mostly due to schedules, but those parents who participated did so consistently. The facilitators concluded that the social ostrasization from friends and family due to obesity was extremely important to address, cultural food issues had to be carefully integrated into any recommendations for change, and that the development of realistic expectations and goals, as well as skills for expressing these needed to be taught. It was evident was that this experience could be utilized as part of an ongoing process of change to introduce information, skills and relationships to assist teenagers as they engage in a lifelong struggle with the chronic diseases of obesity and/or diabetes.

Incentives and their influence on appointment compliance in a teenage family-planning clinic

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether or not the family-planning compliance patterns of indigent adolescents could be influenced by various types of incentives. From February 1988 through January 1989, 534 postpartum inner city teenagers, aged 12–19, who delivered at a large city-county public hospital, participated. Teens were randomly assigned to two treatment groups that either offered a coupon for milk for the infant or a gift for the teenage mother if they returned for their postpartum visit 4–6 weeks after delivery. A third group, which used no incentive for appointment keeping, acted as a control. Although overall compliance was low, a significant relationship was found between type of program incentive and compliance outcome. The program using milk coupons as an incentive had the best compliance rate. This incentive appeared to be most effective with black adolescents. Such incentive programs, although not without controversy, offer a potential way to enhance postpartum contraceptive appointment-keeping compliance in a high-risk population.

Adolescent Social Perception: A Study of Senior High School Students in Jakarta

Adolescent behaviour always tends to give rise to concern, but recently in Jakarta such was the concerted level of concern shown by the official authori ties, parents, educators and the press over the behaviour patterns of the city's teenagers that a special study was carried out under the auspices of the Univer sity of Indonesia. However, the results of the study belied many of the causes for concern.

Shakespeare In Washington, D. C.

passionate production, but his quiet style complemented Olivia Negron's fiery Puck, who flitted about and around the tiny platform, alighting briefly to spit out waspish lines or to drink in Oberon's schemes. This Puck fitly led the other fairies, all diminutive, female, and Tinkerbell-like in dress, but all with Peter-Pan-ish verve and agility. Not surprisingly, Bottom and his crew dominated this very physical Dream. Director Hedley played for the belly laughs, and got a tun of them, through pratfalls, through outrageous costuming, and through mining the Pyramus and Thisby spoof for verbal and visual puns. His mechanicals were expertly clownish, an harmonious team. Patrick Kerr, as Snout, showed the deeply forlorn expression of a helpless man fully aware of the absurdity of playing a wall: a look he maintained constantly during the antics of Robert MacCallum, who, as Flute, minced, curtsied, and falsettoed through the role of Thisby, all the while showing with hang-dog eyes his nervous knowledge that the audience should not be laughing. These worried looks set off the histrionic rapture of O'Connell's Pyramus/Bottom, whose face and manner radiated the confidence of a man preferred by his duke and doted on by the fairy queen. Bottom the ham, the good fellow, the impresario, came through in O'Connell's performance and inspired the entire production. His acting would have stolen a less effervescent show. The puns, the knockabout, and the bright spirits sent the audience home happy. They could have gone home enlightened, too, had not Theseus' perceptive comments in Act V been largely lost due to the atrocious acoustics in the courtyard, a problem the company will have to solve. The stone walls sent the actors' amplified voices up, not out, yet deflected to the audience's ears all the chatter of the Saturday night strollers passing through the square. The solution to the poor acoustics would not be to move the Theatre in the Court, however. Better hearing might be had if money and ingenuity could build a simple heavens of deflector panels above the stage. Moving the show to a quieter setting or, worse, inside, might take from those very nighttime strollers-inner city teens, nightclubbers, tourists-the uniquely pleasurable surprise of discovering the best drama in the world. Moving would surely rob the actors of the thrill of seeing their audience grow from two hundred at the beginning to more than three hundred, seated and standing, black and white, knowledgeable and neophyte, three-year-old and eightyyear-old, at the epilogue. Only in the noisy, midtown milieu can the modern director or scholar experience the refreshing mixture, the holiday