Adolescence: Contemporary Issues & Resources

Adolescence: Contemporary Issues & Resources

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Adolescence: Contemporary Issues & Resources.

 

Research the range of contemporary issues teenagers face today. In a 500-750-word paper, choose one issue (besides teen pregnancy) and discuss its effect on adolescent behavior and overall well-being. Include the following in your submission:

1. Describe the contemporary issue and explain what external stressors are associated with this issue.

2. Outline assessment strategies to screen for this issue and external stressors during an assessment for an adolescent patient. Describe what additional assessment questions you would need to ask and define the ethical parameters regarding what you can and cannot share with the parent or guardian.

3. Discuss support options for adolescents encountering external stressors. Include specific support options for the contemporary issue you presented.

Use as reference:  https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs434vn/health-assessment-foundations-for-effective-practice/v1.1/#/chapter/3

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.

 

A teenager is a person between the ages of 13 to 19 years. This is the most challenging time of growth where they face actual problems. Teenagers are exposed to overwhelming pressure both internally and externally. Despite the biological processes in their bodies, teenagers are expected to cope with life, puberty and hormonal changes, social and family forces, school, work, and parental expectations. Due to the mixture of external and internal stressors, teenagers may feel overwhelmed and engage in defective behavior. However, these contemporary issues can be dealt with and be fixed if parents, guardians, and the community understood the teenagers well and collaborate in finding solutions. One of the issues is internet addiction. This paper addresses internet addiction and how it is affecting teenagers in the present world.

Teenagers and Internet Addiction

Teenagers are facing a huge problem regarding the internet and browsing. They spend more time in isolation on the internet than they use for socializing, enjoying their hobbies and meeting their friends. Some teenagers are addicted to the internet to the extent that they have depression or anxiety when taken away from it. They feel agitated when they have not visited social media sites and favorite platforms like Facebook, snap chat, and Instagram (Shin, 2017). The addiction is realized when the teenager frequently checks the internet first thing in the morning, every 2 hours, as well as making it the last thing before going to bed. Some may overlook other basic hygiene principles like grooming and showering just to be online.

The brain works by sending signals and chemical messengers. Therefore, the neurochemicals released during internet addiction are similar to those released during a behavior addiction or substance use. Further, teenage issues are interrelated as one problem may lead to another. Internet addiction may lead to depression, alcohol and substance abuse, and theft.

Consequences of Internet Addiction

The internet has several benefits to society in the present generation. However, when it is used inappropriately, it has detrimental effects on the youths. The most common effect experienced is emotional instability and low-self-esteem. The issues may lead to depression and anxiety. When a teenager is overwhelmed, they may contemplate suicide. Additionally, internet addiction may force the youths into a world of fantasy (De Abreu, 2017). This means the teenager creates a different version of themselves concerning the influence of medial and online personalities. These effects are detrimental to the teenager in various ways.

External Stressors Associated with Internet Addiction

Internet addiction occurs over time. The behavior change is dependent on the external stressors that the teenager is experiencing. A major stressor is parental expectations and pressure to succeed and get good grades at school. Some are expected to keep and maintain a good image among their peers while others are expected to keep their school projects, sports and other activities running.

The internet acts as a place where teenagers ventilate their feelings, express their thoughts, feel numb and make a social connection away from real people. Teenagers should be guided properly to cope with these stressors. Some are overwhelmed and lack the mental and psychological capacity to overcome the stressor. Peer pressure has also affected millions of teenagers. They want to fit in and be like their peers. In the process of copying and trying to be like other internet gurus, the affected teenager develops an addiction.

Assessing Internet Addiction

People manifest differently to different stressors. Similarly, people cope differently. The following criteria must be observed to determine the presence of an addiction to the internet. First and foremost, an overwhelming preoccupation and spending more time on the internet to be satisfied, being online longer than required, and having emotional changes. The teenager can also exhibit signs of using the internet as an escape and constant lies to others about the use of the internet (Lam, 2017).

Parents and guardians should be very keen to observe signs of anxiety and frustration when the youth is away from the phone or the internet. Sometimes abandoning their friends and hobbies and dwindling school performance. Parents can identify the risks early for appropriate support and treatment

Support Options and Treatment

There are enormous support and treatment for the affected adolescents. Options include management of depression, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), and counseling. Others that are useful include monitoring activity and behavior, setting daily goals, and monitoring their outcome. For instance, setting an alarm to remind you of the time spend on the internet and start another activity (Young, 2017).

Conclusion

The internet is evolving the world into a global village. Youths should balance their time well to avoid too much stay on the internet that may lead to addiction. Further, they should socialize and spend time with real friends. As parents, we should educate our children to avoid detrimental use of the internet and concentrate on useful engagements like education.

References

De Abreu, C. N. (2017). Understanding the cognitive impact of internet addiction on adolescents. Internet Addiction in Children and Adolescents. https://doi.org/10.1891/9780826133731.0006

Lam, L. (2017). Parental mental health and internet addiction in adolescents. Internet Addiction in Children and Adolescents. https://doi.org/10.1891/9780826133731.0007

Shin, Y. M. (2017). Smartphone addiction in children and adolescents. Internet Addiction in Children and Adolescents. https://doi.org/10.1891/9780826133731.0002

Young, K. (2017). Family therapy for adolescent and childhood internet gaming addiction. Internet Addiction in Children and Adolescents. https://doi.org/10.1891/9780826133731.0013

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

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Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
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One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
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I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
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I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
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Click here to ORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT: Adolescence: Contemporary Issues & Resources. 

 

Adolescence is a very challenging stage of life during which intellectual, psychological, physical, and emotional changes occur. In as much as adolescence is considered a relatively healthy stage in life, individuals in this age group start making important life choices and establishing behaviors that impact both their current and future overall health. Adolescents tend to exhibit several serious social, safety, and health issues such as violence, substance use, bullying, delinquency, depression, suicide, sexually transmitted diseases, and teenage pregnancy, which can negatively impact their health and well-being (Rougemont-Bücking, et al., 2017). The paper will however focus on substance use and abuse as the main contemporary issue affecting adolescents in the current world.

Substance Use and Associated External Stressors

            Substance use and abuse is a major concern among several countries across the globe. Studies show that more than a quarter of individuals between the age of 15 to 19 years are current alcoholics, amounting to approximately 155 million adolescents. The most commonly abused drug by adolescents in the United States is cannabis, with a prevalence of 4.7% according to data collected in 2018 by the WHO (Thorpe, Hamidullah, Jenkins, & Khokhar, 2020). Studies have also associated the recent increase in substance use and abuse among adolescents to several external stressors such as peer pressure, divorce, lack of parental guidance, and physical or sexual assault among others. Substance use and abuse among adolescents can lead to reduced self-control and increased risky behaviors such as unsafe sex and violence, which may cause physical injuries and mental disorders compromising the patient’s health.

Assessment Strategies to Screen for Substance Use and External Stressors

            Routine screening for substance use among adolescents is quite crucial for early detection of associated health complications and to indicate the degree of severity of the disorder for appropriate intervention. During routine adolescent examination, the clinician needs to incorporate assessment of substance use when taking the patient’s history (Eisenberg et al., 2020). The assessment will entail the administration of several screening tools for substance use. For instance, for general alcohol and drug screening, tools such as the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) among others.

During the assessment, the clinician is required to ask several questions to understand the background of the adolescent, substance use history, and mental health problems. For background information, the adolescent must report on the history of domestic violence, trauma, financial situation, family status, housing status, family strengths, and education. For information regarding substance use, the clinician will ask questions such as whether the adolescent has been using any drug of abuse, what drug they have been using, the age of the first use, the driving force of using the drug, and family history of substance use problems (Kennedy et al., 2019). A mental health examination will be necessary if the patient reports any associated mental or behavioral symptoms.

Despite adolescents being minors and their parents and guardians taking responsibility for their health, legal and ethical requirements however state that adolescents are entitled to the right of confidentiality and autonomy (Fortuna, Porche, & Padilla, 2018). As such, the parents can only be informed about the overall health status of the adolescent, with additional information regarding any concerning sign and symptoms, that require their intervention, such as substance use disorder, suicidal ideation, and potential harm to self or other. However, the minor details disclosed by the adolescent must remain private to enhance trust and a healthy relationship with the patient.

Support Options for Adolescents Encountering External Stressors

Several interventions have been identified through EBP to provide support for adolescents encountering external stressors that can compromise their quality of life. For starters, the clinician must engage in conversation with the adolescent encouraging them to make healthy choices to avoid, reduce or prevent risk behaviors despite the magnitude of the stressor. Consequently, the use of motivation-enhancing principles should be encouraged for both the clinician and the adolescent’s parents or guardians, to help them open up and seek help in case the external stressors for substance use have started impacting their lives negatively (Eisenberg et al., 2020). Positive reinforcement and increased patient education on substance use and associated health complications might also be necessary.

Conclusion

            Adolescents are faced with several challenges as a result of both internal and external stressors, which compromise their quality of life. One of the most common challenges is substance use and abuse (Kennedy et al., 2019). However, with appropriate screening and intervention, adolescents can prevent or reduce the impact of external stressors on their quality of life.

 

 

References

Rougemont-Bücking, A., Grazioli, V. S., Daeppen, J. B., Gmel, G., & Studer, J. (2017). Family-related stress versus external stressors: Differential impacts on alcohol and illicit drug use in young men. European addiction research, 23(6), 284-297. https://doi.org/10.1159/000485031

Kennedy, B., Chen, R., Fang, F., Valdimarsdottir, U., Montgomery, S., Larsson, H., & Fall, K. (2019). Low-stress resilience in late adolescence and risk of smoking, high alcohol consumption, and drug use later in life. J Epidemiol Community Health, 73(6), 496-501. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech-2018-211815

Eisenberg, M. E., Erickson, D. J., Gower, A. L., Kne, L., Watson, R. J., Corliss, H. L., & Saewyc, E. M. (2020). Supportive community resources are associated with lower risk of substance use among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning adolescents in Minnesota. Journal of youth and adolescence, 49(4), 836-848. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01100-4

Fortuna, L. R., Porche, M. V., & Padilla, A. (2018). A treatment development study of a cognitive and mindfulness‐based therapy for adolescents with co‐occurring post‐traumatic stress and substance use disorder. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice, 91(1), 42-62. https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12143

Thorpe, H. H., Hamidullah, S., Jenkins, B. W., & Khokhar, J. Y. (2020). Adolescent neurodevelopment and substance use: receptor expression and behavioral consequences. Pharmacology & therapeutics, 206, 107431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pharmthera.2019.107431

Adolescence: Contemporary Issues and Resources – Rubric

COLLAPSE ALL ADOLESCENCE: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES AND RESOURCES – RUBRICCOLLAPSE ALL

Contemporary Issue and Associated External Stressors

27.5 POINTS

Assessment Strategies to Screen for the Issue and External Stressors

33 POINTS

Support Options for Adolescents Encountering External Stressors

27.5 POINTS

Thesis Development and Purpose

5.5 POINTS

Argument Logic and Construction

5.5 POINTS

Mechanics of Writing (includes spelling, punctuation, grammar, language use)

5.5 POINTS

Paper Format (use of appropriate style for the major and assignment)

2.2 POINTS

Documentation of Sources

3.3 POINTS