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An analysis of the beneficial effects of community service on the political and moral identity of adolescents. It uses a case study from a predominantly black, urban high school in Washington, D.C., building on the work of Erik Erikson on the social and historical nature of identity development.
Most studies of social development in children have relied on the assumption that adults' instructions to children pass on knowledge of the rules of behavior which govern and preserve society. In this volume, James Youniss argues that the child's relations with his or her friends and peers make a distinctive and critically important contribution to social development. While the child's relations with parents and other adults provide a sense of order and authority, peer relations are a source of sensitivity, self-understanding, and interpersonal cooperation. Following a discussion of the views of Harry Stack Sullivan and Jean Piaget, whose theories are synthesized in Youniss's perspective, Youniss presents a wealth of empirical data from studies in which children describe their own views of their two social worlds.
This book is a companion piece and extension of an earlier analysis of parent and friend relations, their structure and functions in children's social and personal development (James Youniss, Parents and Peers in Social Development: A Sullivan-Piaget Perspective, University of Chicago Press, 1980) The present book focuses on adolescents in these same relations. It presents two kinds of material: first, adolescents' own descriptions of interactions they have had in these relations, and second, theory regarding what these relations are and how they contribute to development. As before, relations are treated in the ideal typical sense as descriptions are synthesized across subjects to yield average charateristics that define structure.
With a government plagued by systemic ills and deep ideological divides, democracy, as we know it, is in jeopardy. Yet, ironically, voter apathy remains prevalent and evidence suggests standard civic education has done little to instill a sense of civic duty in the American public. While some are waiting for change to come from within, trying to influence already polarized voters, or counting down the days until the "next election," leading child and adolescent development experts Daniel Hart and James Youniss are looking to another solution: America's youth. In Renewing Democracy in Young America, Hart and Youniss examine the widening generation gap, the concentration of wealth in pockets o...
The myth of generations of disengaged youth has been shattered by increases in youth turnout in the 2004, 2006, and 2008 primaries. Young Americans are responsive to effective outreach efforts, and this collection addresses how to best provide opportunities for enhancing civic learning and forming lasting civic identities. The thirteen original essays are based on research in schools and in settings beyond the schoolyard where civic life is experienced. One focus is on programs for those schools in poor communities that tend to overlook civic education. Another chapter reports on how two city governments--Hampton, Virginia, and San Francisco--have invited youth to participate on boards and in agencies. A cluster of chapters focuses on the civic education programs in Canada and Western Europe, where, as in the United States, immigration and income inequality raise challenges to civic life.
We need young people to be civically engaged in order to define and address public problems. Their participation is important for democracy, for institutions such as schools, and for young people themselves, who are more likely to succeed in life if they are engaged in their communities. In The Future of Democracy, Peter Levine, scholar and practitioner, sounds the alarm: in recent years, young Americans have become dangerously less engaged. They are tolerant, patriotic, and idealistic, and some have invented such novel and impressive forms of civic engagement, as blogs, "buycott" movements, and transnational youth networks. But most lack the skills and opportunities they need to participate in politics or address public problems. Levine's timely manifesto clearly explains the causes, symptoms, and repercussions of this damaging trend, and, most importantly, the means whereby America can confront and reverse it. Levine demonstrates how to change young people's civic attitudes, skills, and knowledge and, equally importantly, to reform our institutions so that civic engagement is rewarding and effective. We must both prepare citizens for politics and improve politics for citizens.
In A People Adrift, a prominent Catholic thinker states bluntly that the Catholic Church in the United States must transform itself or suffer irreversible decline. Peter Steinfels shows how even before the recent revelations about sexual abuse by priests, the explosive combination of generational change and the thinning ranks of priests and nuns was creating a grave crisis of leadership and identity. This groundbreaking book offers an analysis not just of the church's immediate troubles but of less visible, more powerful forces working below the surface of an institution that provides a spiritual identity for 65 million Americans and spans the nation with its parishes, schools, colleges and ...
Miranda Yates and James Youniss have brought together an international collection of essays that describe the state of community participation among the world's youth. Authors from around the globe use empirical data to present portraits of youth constructing their civic identities through such means as community service. Youth seek to resolve ideological tensions, such as in Northern Ireland and Palestine; to overcome corrupting political practices, such as in Italy and Taiwan; to deal with disillusionment, such as in Palestine and the emerging Eastern European nations; and to bridge barriers against youth's meaningful participation in the working of society, such as in Canada and Japan. Special conditions, such as the diminution of the welfare state, for instance, in former West Germany, and the rapid turn towards democracy in former East Germany offer insight into the process through which youth try to establish meaningful person-state relationships.
This book provides an account of research in action and debate in progress in a selection of areas of childhood social development where significant progress is underway. The chapters are written by an eminent group of British and American developmental psychologists each of whom has made primary contributions to research in the areas covered in the volume. The contributors were invited to reflect upon the current scene in social developmental research and to develop their own distinctive viewpoint and contribution to the field. The book addresses issues in social development from infancy to adolescence. The topics examined include: interactions between biological and social factors in socia...
Born Catholic. Raised Catholic. Americans across generations have used these phrases to describe their formative days, but the experience of growing up Catholic in the United States has changed over the last several decades. While the creed and the sacraments remain the same, the context for learning the faith has transformed. As a result of demographic shifts and theological developments, children face a different set of circumstances today from what they encountered during the mid-twentieth-century. Through a close study of autobiographical and fictional texts that depict the experience, Ingrained Habits explores the intimate details of everyday life for children growing up Catholic during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. These literary portrayals present upbringings characterized by an all-encompassing encounter with religion. The adult authors of such writings run the gamut from vowed priests to unwavering atheists and their depictions range from glowing nostalgia to deep-seated resentment; however, they curiously describe similar experiences from their childhood days in the Church.