Author : Ruth Wells
THE TRUTH ABOUT TROUBLED YOUTHHow accurate are your assumptions about troubled youth and
children? In our recent on-site workshop for the Black Clergy
Alliance in Daytona Beach, Florida, the issue of stereotyping
came up a lot, and inspired this topic.Here is a quick quiz to
test how much you really know about youngsters who struggle.
You may be surprised or even shocked to discover how much
of what you thought you knew is actually myth, not reality. If
your skills are at least somewhat based on myth instead of fact,
you may be quite limited in what you achieve with troubled students.THE TRUTH ABOUT TROUBLED YOUTHQUESTIONS(Answers follow the list of questions.)1. Are inner-city or suburban kids more likely to use alcohol?2. Who is the most likely to be involved in a school shooting?3. What are the top two most serious family problems?4. Who has the highest rates of anxiety and depression?5. Who is most likely to use tobacco?THE TRUTH ABOUT TROUBLED YOUTHANSWERS1. Are inner-city or suburban kids more likely to use alcohol?Suburban youngsters are more likely to drink than their
urban counterparts, according to a recent Psychology
Today article. The article cites a Columbia University
study that challenges our "cultural assumption that parents
who make more money are more affable, more available to
their children than parents in dire poverty."2. Who is the most likely to be involved in a school shooting?If you listen to the mainstream media, you answered that
bullied children are the most likely to become school
shooters. The truth is more complicated than this simple
sound bite would indicate. The truth is that while bullied
children can blow up and become shooters, a more accurate
answer would note that conduct disorders, thought
disorders and extreme agitated depressed youth can
be shooters. Bullied youth are severely depressed kids
who explode, but not all severely depressed kids have
been bullied. While bullying may or may not have occurred,
the depression will be present. If you just watch for
bullying, you will miss identifying some non-bullied,
depressed students who are at risk of extreme violence.
If you watch instead for depression-- that may or may not
include bullying-- you won't miss anyone. Of course, you
must be sure to also remember the two other types of
students who can be of concern: the conduct disorder and
thought disorder, who were covered in the second and
third issues of this magazine, and on our web site.3. What are the top two most serious family problems?We ask this question in each of our workshops. Most
youth professionals say "poverty" and "divorce." But
the real answer may involve problems that are often
considerably more devastating to children. The top
two most serious problems may be sexual abuse, and
physical/verbal abuse. Most mental health professionals
would evaluate childhood sexual and physical/verbal
abuse to usually be far more destructive than poverty
or divorce. In our culture, we don't like to think about
abuse-- especially sexual abuse-- so your training may not
include much preparation to help children with the
two biggest problems they are actually encountering.4. Who has the highest rates of anxiety and depression?In general, suburban teens have the highest rates of
anxiety and depression, but upper-class suburban girls
are three times more likely to suffer depression than
other teen females. (This data was included in the
recent Columbia University study, as detailed in
Psychology Today magazine.) As our workshop has
traveled around North America, we often hear from
staff who work in affluent areas that "Our students
don't have those types of problems here." Staff
with upper-class students are often particularly
vehement that sexual abuse doesn't happen in their
region, however there is no data to support that
contention. In fact, there is every indication that youth
from wealthier homes endure the same amount of sexual
abuse as other children.5. Who is most likely to use tobacco?You may be pretty confident that inner city youth are
the ones who are most likely to be smokers. That is the
dominant stereotype, but it is an incorrect assumption.
Surprisingly, suburban youth are more likely to smoke.
If you now imagine that this discrepancy is due to
suburban youth having more money, guess again. The
Columbia University study attributed this occurrence
not to relative affluence, but to inadequate parental
involvement-- a factor that is completely unrelated
to income.WANT MORE ANSWERS TO YOUR WORST "KID PROBLEMS?"Click our link below to go to our free Solution Center that
is packed with hundreds of additional solutions you can use
right away.
Keyword : difficult,conduct,disorder,emotionally,disturbed,ebd,sbd,special,student,ed,teacher,ideas,help
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