Adolescence in a Global Context

Adolescence in a Global Context

Anthropology 672

Spring 2011

Professor Mimi Nichter

Office: Geronimo 318

Phone: 626-9067

Email:

Office Hours: Wend, 1-3 pm

Course Objectives:

This seminar is designed to provide an overview of adolescent health and development and emerging adulthood in national and international contexts. Drawing from a range of disciplines including anthropology, public health, psychology, and family studies, we will critically examine existing research on adolescent/ emerging adult health and discuss underlying assumptions, research methodologies, and findings. Topics include: the social contexts of development; online identity and new technologies; body image and dieting; nutrition, obesity and physical activity; adolescent sexuality; teen pregnancy; HIV/AIDs and STDs; tobacco and alcohol use; mental health; and violence. Gender-sensitive and age appropriate prevention and intervention strategies will be discussed in relation to these topics.

Course Requirements:

1. Class presentations:

Each student will be responsible for presentation of one or two articles each week as part of our class discussion. You will be responsible for summarizing important points and issues from the reading(s) and for giving out a summary outline.

2. Class papers:

Mid-semester, you will be required to write a 6-7 page paper on a book of your choice on some aspect of adolescenthealth or emerging adult health. I will provide a list of possible books, as well as guidelines for the paper. You are also welcome to make suggestions based on your interests (Due on March 9th).

At the end of the semester, each student will be required to write a 15-20 page research paper on a topic related to adolescent or emerging adult health. I will meet with students individually to discuss ideas and appropriate readings. More detailed guidelines and suggestions will be provided later in the semester.

4. Readings:

Copies of the readings will be made available on the class D2L site.

There is also one book required for reading (Nichter, Fat Talk: What Girls and their Parents Say about Dieting, Harvard University Press, 2000). It is available on amazon.com or locally at the U of A Bookstore.

5. Grading:

Class presentations/discussion: 25%

Book review: 25%

Final paper: 50%

Tentative Overview of Class

Week / Date / Topic
Week 1: January 12 / Course Overview and Introduction
Week 2: January 19 / Youth “at risk” & pathologizing of adolescence
Week 3: January 26 / Youth “at risk” (cont.)
Week 4: February 2 / Social Contexts
Week 5: February 9 / Online Identities/ Youth and Technology
Week 6: February 16 / Obesity and Physical Activity
Week 7: February 23 / Dieting & Eating Disorders
Week 8: March 2 / Body Image (Fat Talk)
Week 9: March 9 / Adolescent Romance and Sexuality
Spring Break
Week 10: March 23 / Teen Pregnancy and Sexuality Education
Week 11: March 30 / Alcohol and Drug Use
Week 12: April 6 / Tobacco Use
Week 13: April 13 / Global Tobacco
Week 14: April 20 / Issues in Mental Health
Week 15: April 27
/ Methodological Issues in Studying Youth
Week 16: May 4 / Global Youth Culture

Week 1 January 12 Course Overview and Introduction

Week 2 January 19

Youth “at risk” & the “pathologizing” of adolescence

Bucholtz, M. Youth and cultural practice. Annual Review in Anthropology, 31:525-52, 2002.

Lightfoot, C. The culture of adolescent risk-taking. Chapter 2, The history of our

ambivalence. New York: Guilford Press, 1997.

R. F. Hill & J. D. Fortenberry, Adolescence as a culture bound syndrome, Social Science and Medicine, 1992, 35:1, pp. 73-80.

Cote, J., & Allahar, A. Generation on hold: Coming of age in the late 20th century.New York: New YorkUniversity Press, 1996, pp. 5-32.

Arnett, J.J. Adolescent storm and stress, Reconsidered. American Psychologist, May 1999. 317-326.

Best, S. and Kellner, D. Contemporary youth and the postmodern adventure. Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies, 25: 75-93, 2003.

Steinberg, L. Risk taking in adolescence: What changes and why? Annals of the New YorkAcademy Science 2004, 1021: 51-58.

Choudhury, S. Culturing the adolescent brain: what can neuroscience learn from anthropology? SCAN, 2010, 5: 159-167.

Males, M. Does the adolescent brain make risk taking inevitable? A skeptical appraisal. Journal of Adolescent Research, 24(1), 2009, 3-20.

Bessant, J. Hard wired for risk: neurological science, the ‘adolescent brain’ and developmental theory. Journal of Youth Studies, 2008, 11(3), 347-360.

Week 3: Youth at Risk (cont.)

Mitchell, W.A., Crawshaw, P., Bunton, R., & Green, E. (2001). Situating young people’s experiences of risk and identity. Health, Risk & Society 3(2), 217-233.

France, A. (2000). Towards a Sociological Understanding of Youth and their Risk-taking. Journal of Youth Studies 3(3), 317-331.

Bunton, R., Crawshaw, & Green, E. (2004). Risk, Gender, & Youthful Bodies. In Young People, Risk and Leisure: Constructing Identities in Everyday Life (Eds. W. Mitchell, R. Bunton, & E. Green). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Dworkin, J. Risk taking as developmentally appropriate experimentation for college students. Journal of Adolescent Research, 2005, 20 (2), 219-245.

Kelly, P. The dangerousness of youth-at-risk:The possibilities of surveillance and intervention in uncertain times. Journal of Adolescence, 2000, 23, 463-476.

Morrissey, S. Performing risks: Catharsis, carnival and capital in the risk society. Journal of Youth Studies, 2008, 11(4), 413-427.

Foster, K.R., & Spencer, D. At risk of what?: Possibilities over probabilities in the study of young lives. Journal of Youth Studies, 14(1), 2010. 125-143.

Millstein, S. G. & Halpern-Felsher, B. (2002). Perceptions of risk and vulnerability. Journal of Adolescent Health, 31S, 10-27.

Supplementary:

te Riele, K. Youth ‘at risk’: further marginalizing the marginalized? Journal of Education Policy, 21 (2), 129-145.

Kelly, P. Growing up as risky business? Risks, surveillance and the institutionalized mistrust of youth. Journal of Youth Studies, 6(2), 2003.

Burt, M.R., Zweig, J.M., Roman, J. (2002). Modeling the payoffs of interventions to reduce adolescent vulnerability. Journal of Adolescent Health, S31, 40-57.

Fergus, S., and Zimmerman, M.A., Adolescent resilience: a framework for understanding healthy development in the face of risk. Annual Review of Public Health, 2005, 26, 399-419.

Week 4: Social Contexts & Gendered Identities

L. Burton, D. A. Obeidallah, and K. Allison (1996). Ethnographic insights on social context and adolescent development among inner-city African-American teens. In R. Jessor, A. Colby, & R. A. Shweder (eds.), Ethnography and human development: Context and meaning in social inquiry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, pp. 396-418.

Sanchez, B., Esparza, P., Colon, Y., Davis, K. (2010). Tryin’ to make it during the transition from high school: The role of family obligation, attitudes and economic context for Latino-emerging adults. Journal of Adolescent Research 25, p. 858.

Perry, P. (2001) White means never having to say you’re ethnic: White youth and the construction of “cultureless” identities. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 30(1), 56-91.

Pollock, Mica (2004). Race Bending: “Mixed” youth practicing strategic racialization in California. In S. Maira and E. Soep (eds). Youthscapes: The popular, the national and the global. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Brown, Lyn Mikel (2002). “Patrolling the borders: high school.” Girlfighting: Betrayal and Rejection among Girls. New York: New YorkUniversity Press.

Frosh, S., Phoenix, A. & Pattman, R.(2002). “Hegemonic” masculinities. In Young masculinities: Understanding boys in contemporary society. London: Palgrave.

Eckert, Penelope.(1995) Trajectory and forms of institutional participation. In L.J. Crockett & A. C. Crouter (eds.), Pathways through adolescence: Individual development in relation to social contexts.Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 175-195.

Dimitriadis, G. “In the clique”: popular culture, constructions of place, and the everyday lives of urban youth. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 32(1): 29-51.

There are a number of supplementary readings:

Bucholtz, Mary (1999). “Why be normal?” Language and identity practices in a community of nerd girls. Language in Society, 28, 203-223.

Shucksmith, J. & Hendry, L.B. “I sort of get pushed into things”: Peer pressure and young people’s beliefs in their own ‘agency’ with respect to health. In J. Shucksmith & L. Hendry, Health issues and adolescents: Growing up, speaking out.London: Routledge.

Gilles, V. (2000) Young people and family life: Analyzing and comparing disciplinary discourses. Journal of Youth Studies, 3 (2), 211-228.

B. B. Brown, M. M. Dolcini, and A. Leventhal (1997). Transformations in peer relationships at adolescence: Implications for health-related behavior. In J. Schulenberg, J. Maggs, & K. Hurrelmann (eds.), Health Risks and Developmental Transitions during Adolescence, Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, pp. 161-189.

Week 5: Youth &Online Identities

Blair, B. and Fletcher, A. (2011). “The only 13 year old on planet earth without a cell phone”: Meanings of cell phones in early adolescents’ everyday lives. Journal of Adolescent Research 26(2), 155-177.

Mallan, K., Ashford, B, and P. Singh. (2010) Navigating iScapes: Australian youth constructing identities and social relations in a network society. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 41(3), 264-279.

West, A., Lewis, J, and P. Currie (2009). Students’ Facebook ‘friends’: public and private spheres. Journal of Youth Studies, 12(6), 615-627.

boyd, d. (2008) Why youth love social network sites: the role of networked publics in teenage social life. In Youth, Identity and Digital Media,edited by David Buckingham, MIT Press, 119-142.

Willett, R. (2008). Consumer citizens online: structure, agency and gender in online participation.In Youth, Identity and Digital Media,edited by David Buckingham, MIT Press, pp. 49-70.

boyd, d. (2009) The conundrum of visibility: youth safety and the internet. Journal of Children and Media, 3(4), 411-419.

Mallan, K., Singh, P, and Giardina. N. (2010) The challenges of participatory research with tech-savvy youth. Journal of Youth Studies, 13(2), 255-272.

Davis, K. (2010). Coming of age online: The developmental underpinnings of girls’ blogs. Journal of Adolescent Research 25(1), pp. 145-171.

Supplementary:

Chittenden, T. (2010). (2010) Digital dressing up: modeling female teen identity in the discursive space of the fashion blogosphere. Journal of Youth Studies, 13(4), 505-520.

Mazur, E. and Kozarian, L. (2010) Self-presentation and interaction in blogs of adolescents and young emerging adults. Journal of Adolescent Research 25(1), 124-144.

Week 6 Obesity and Physical Activity

Ogden, C.L., Carroll, M.D., Curtin, L, et al. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States, 1999-2004. JAMA, April 5, 2006, 295, (13).

Institute of Medicine (2005). Preventing childhood obesity: Health in the balance.WashingtonD.C. (Intro and Chapter 2).

Moffat, Tina. The “Childhood Obesity Epidemic”: Health Crisis or Social Construction? Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 24(1), 1-21, 2010.

Kumanyika, Shiriki (October, 2005). Obesity, Health Disparities, and Prevention Paradigms: Hard questions and hard choices. Preventing Chronic Disease, Vol. 2, No.4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nelson, M., Lytle, L. & Pasch, K. Improving literacy about energy-related issues: The need for a better understanding of the concepts behind energy intake and expenditure among adolescents and their parents. 2009, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 109, 281-287.

Latner, J.D. & Stunkard, A.J. Getting worse: The stigmatization of obese children. Obesity Research, 2003,11(3), 452-456.

Taylor, Nicole. “Guys, she’s humongous!”: Gender and weight-based teasing in adolescence. Journal of Adolescent Research 26(2), 178-199.

Thompson, Clive. Are your friends making you fat? September 13, 2009, New York Times.

Physical Activity

(Skim this article for reference purposes) Brownson, R.C., Boehmer, T.K., and Luke, D. (2005) Declining rates of physical activity in the United States: What are the contributors? Annual Reviews of Public Health, 26:421-23.

Grad, M. and Wright, J. Managing Uncertainty: Obesity discourses and physical education in a risk society. Studies in Philosophy and Education 20: 535-549, 2001.

Smith, Alan. Peer relationships in physical activity contexts: A road less traveled in youth sport and exercise psychology research. Psychology of Sport and Exercise 4, 2003, 25-39.

Cockburn, C. and Clarke, G. “Everybody’s Looking at You!: Girls negotiating the “Femininity Deficit” they incur in Physical Education. (2002). Women’s Studies International Forum25,6, 651-665.

Smith, Andrew and Green, Ken. The place of sport and physical activity in young people’s lives and its implications for health: some sociological comments. Journal of Youth and Society, 2005, 8(2), 241-253.

.Supplementary Readings:

Christakis, N.A., & Fowler, J. The spread of obesity in a large social network over 32 years. New England Journal of Medicine, 2007, 357:370-9.

Nestle, Marion. Food politics: How the food industry influences nutrition and health. Chapters 8 and 9. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.

Twisk, J. Physical activity guidelines for children and adolescents: a critical review. Sports Medicine, 2001, 31(8), 617-627.

Mellin, A., et al. Unhealthy behaviors and psychosocial difficulties among overweight adolescents: The potential impact of familial factors. Journal of Adolescent Health, 31, 2001, 145-153.

Baillie-Hamilton, Paula. Chemical toxins: A hypothesis to explain the global obesity epidemic. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 8(2), 2002. 185-192.

Puhl, Rebecca and Brownell, Kelly. Bias, discrimination, and obesity. Obesity Research, 9 (12), December 2001.

Week 7

Body Image Concerns, Dieting, and Eating Disorders

Reischer, E. & Koo, K. (2004). The body beautiful: Symbolism and agency in the social world. Annual Reviews in Anthropology, 33:297-317.

Streigel-Moore, R. & F. Cachelin. Body image concerns and disordered eating in adolescent girls: Risk and protective factors. InBeyond Appearance: A New Look at Adolescent Girls, edited by N. Johnson, M. Roberts, & J. Worrell. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1999.

Austin, S. Bryn. Fat, loathing and public health: The complicity of science in a culture of disordered eating. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 1999, 23: 245-268.

Labre, M. Adolescent boys and the muscular male body ideal. Journal of Adolescent Health, 2002, 30, 233-242.

Bordo,S. (2000). Beauty (Re) discovers the male body. In Beauty Matters, edited by Peggy Zeitlin Brand. IndianaUniversity Press.

Becker, A. (2004) Television, disordered eating, and young women in Fiji: Negotiating body image and identity during rapid social change. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 28: 533-559.

Anderson-Fye, E.(2004) A “Coca Cola” shape: Cultural change, body image, and eating disorders in San Andres, Belize. Culture, Medicine, & Psychiatry 28: 561-595.

Fadzillah, I. The Amway Connection: How transnational ideas of beauty and money affect Northern Thai Girls’ perceptions of their future options. Youthscapes: The popular, the national, the global (edited by S. Maira and E. Soep). University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.

Eating Disorders:

Bordo, S. Anorexia Nervosa: Psychopathology as the Crystallization of Culture.

Gremillion, Helen (2002). In fitness and in health: crafting bodies in the treatment of anorexia nervosa. Signs 27(2): 381-414.

Mann, T., et al. Are two interventions worse than none? Joint primary and secondary prevention of eating disorders in college females. Health Psychology, 16(3), 1997, 215-225.

Week 8 Body Image and Dieting

Read Fat Talk: What Girls and their Parents Say about Dieting. (Mimi Nichter)

Interview Assignment:

I would like each of you to conduct an open ended interview with an emerging adult on weight-based teasing. You might want to explore whether the person ever experienced this (either because they were too thin or too fat); when it occurred; who was the perpetrator of the teasing (family member; girlfriend; boyfriend); whether they did anything about it, etc. They may have been a “teaser” of others, or an observer of the behavior among friends, and if so, you can discuss these issues with them. You might also ask about whether they think there is more teasing now because of the ‘obesity epidemic’ or whether people have come to accept larger body sizes.

Before your interview, write down a few questions to aid in the direction of the discussion. Write up your findings in about 2-3 pages; also submit your questions.

Week 9

Adolescent Romance and Sexuality

Michelle Fine. Sexuality, Schooling and Adolescent Females: The Missing Discourse of Desire. Harvard Educational Review, 58:1, February 1988.

Tolman, Deborah. Dilemmas of Desire: Teenage Girls talk about Sexuality. Cambridge: HarvardUniversity Press, 2002. (Chapters 3 & 4)

Larson, R., Clore, G., G. Wood. The Emotions of Romantic Relationships: Do they Wreak Havoc on Adolescents? In W. Furman, B. Brown, and C. Feiring, The Development of Romantic Relationships in Adolescence. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Pearce, Sharyn. “As Wholesome As…”: American Pie as a New Millenium Sex Manual. In S. Mallan and S. Pearce (eds), Youth Cultures: Texts, Images and Identities. Westport: Praeger Press, 2005.

Tait, Gordon. “The Seven Things All Men Love in Bed”: Young Women’s Magazines and the Governance of Femininity. In S. Mallan and S. Pearce (eds), Youth Cultures: Texts, Images and Identities. Westport: Praeger Press, 2005.

Kehily, Mary Jane. The trouble with sex: Sexuality and subjectivity in the lives of teenage girls. In Problem Girls, 2004.

Allen, Louisa. ‘Getting off’ and ‘Going out’: Young people’s conceptions of (hetero) sexual relationships. Culture, Health and Sexuality, 6(6), 2004, 463-481.

Korobov, Neil & Thorne, Avril. The negotiation of romance in young women friends’ stories about romantic heterosexual experiences. Feminism and Psychology, 2009, 19, 49.

Jackson, Sue with T. Gilbertson. Hot lesbians: Young people’s talk about representations of lesbianism. Sexualities, 2009, 12(2), 199-224.

Savin-Williams, Ritch. Boy-on-Boy Sexuality. In Niobe Way & Judy Chu (eds) Adolescent Boys: Exploring Diverse Cultures of Boyhood, NY: NYU Press.

Supplementary Readings

Korobov, Neil & Thorne, Avril. Young men’s conversations about romantic relationships. Journal of Adolescent Research, 21, 27-55, 2006.

Spring Break

Week 10: Teen Pregnancy & Sexuality Education

Mike Males. Three reasons why teenage pregnancy does not exist (Chapter 1) in

Teenage Sex and Pregnancy: Modern Myths, Unsexy Realities. (2010) Santa Barbara: Praeger Press.

Arline Geronimus. Damned if you do: culture, identity, privilege, and teenage childbearing in the United States. Social Science & Medicine 57 (2003), 881-893.

Jessica Fields,”Children having children”: Race, innocence and sexuality education. Social Problems, 52(4), 549-571, 2005.

Douglas Kirby. Understanding what works and what doesn’t in reducing adolescent sexual risk-taking. Family Planning Perspectives, Vol. 33, 6, 2001.

C. Dailard, Understanding ‘abstinence’: implications for individuals, programs and policies. In The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, December 2003.

Stephen Russell, F. Lee, and the Latina Teen Pregnancy Prevention Workgroup. Practitioner’s perspectives on effective practices for Hispanic teenage pregnancy prevention. Perspectives on Sexuality and Reproductive Health, 36(4), 2004.

Sax, Leela. Being and becoming a body: moral implications of teenage pregnancy in a shantytown in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Culture, Health, and Sexuality, 12(3), 2010, 323-334.

Froyum, C. Making good girls: sexual agency in the sexuality education of low income black girls. 12:1, 59-72, 2010., Culture, Health and Sexuality.

Perrin K and DeJoy S. Abstinence only education: how we got here and where we are going. 24 (3/4), 2003. Journal of Public Health Policy.

Wilson, H. and Hunington, A. Deviant (m)Others: the construction of teenage motherhood in contemporary discourse. Journal of Social Policy 35(2005): 59-76. (I could not put this one on the D2L, for some reason, but you can access it through the library)

Constantine et al. 2010. No time for complacency: teen births in California. Pub lic Health Institute, Oakland, Ca.

Supplementary

Denner, Jill, Kirby, Doug et al. The protective role of social capital and cultural norms in Latino communities: A study of adolescent births. Hispanic Journal of BehavioralSciences, 23, 1: 3-21.