The Adolescence Stages Of Adolescence

Rough Draft

In this paper, we will be looking at the adolescence stage in the life course. Race/ethnicity, class and gender are related to resources and the well-being of adolescences because….. The social problem we will be looking at is depression and its correlation with shifts in family structure and the effects that both have on adolescences. One of the major shortcomings in analyzing parental absence (is that there have not been many studies that have presented data representing race/ethnicities separately (Amato 545).)

Before we go another further into this paper, we are going to start by identifying what stage in the life course is considered as adolescence. Adolescence is the stage of life where a child is in the process of developing into a young adult. During this stage in the life course adolescences are experiencing biological growth and development, a state of unidentified status, an increase in important decision making, increased amounts of pressure and the search for one’s self. [need to find something to support this]. Race/ethnicity, class and gender are all important aspects to the adolescence stage in the life course and as well as to the adolescent’s family structure.

Critical Literature Review

As mentioned above, this stage in the life course is crucial because it is when a child is developing into an adult.

a. Race/ethnicity

b. Class

-“experience higher levels of depression correlated with difficult economic conditions” (Portnoy 127)

c. Gender

“Existing evidence with regard to gender effects is similarly inconclusive” (Culpin et al. 2616).

There is some evidence for gender effects in the association between father absence an depressive symptoms, with girls being more adversely affected than boys, but...

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... it can be seen as an opportunity to grow. However, in Portnoy’s article his findings prove that, “children of divorce display higher levels of depression and anxiety, lower self-esteem, and more frequent use of psychological services” (127).

Depression with Death of a Parent

Along with other forms of loss, death of a parent is yet another extremely painful experience. By the age of 11, 3% of children in this country will have been affected by parental death (Keenan 32). Five years later at the age of 16, this figure rises to over 5% (Elliot and Shepherd 836-43).

Conclusion

Depression can be caused by many different factors but divorce and death of a parent can be directly linked to worsen levels of depression. There needs to be further research in gender, class and race/ethnicities. Girls tended to have higher levels of depression in the given situations.