During the transition from childhood to adulthood, adolescents face a unique set of challenges that accompany increased independence and responsibility. This volume combines cutting-edge research in the field of adolescence and the field of motivation and self-regulation to shed new light on these challenges and the self-regulation tools that could most effectively address them. Leading scholars discuss general principles of the adolescent period across a wide variety of areas, including interpersonal relationships, health and achievement. Their interdisciplinary approach covers perspectives from history, anthropology and primatology, as well as numerous subdisciplines of psychology - developmental, educational, social, clinical, motivational, cognitive and neuropsychological. Self-Regulation in Adolescence stresses practical applications, making it a valuable resource not only for scholars, but also for adolescents and their family members, teachers, social workers and health professionals who seek to support them. It presents useful strategies that adolescents can adopt themselves and raises important questions for future research.

Cultural values and religious beliefs play a substantial role in adolescent development. Developmental scientists have shown increasing interest in how culture and religion are involved in the processes through which adolescents adapt to environments. This volume constitutes a timely and unique addition to the literature on human development from a cultural-contextual perspective. Editors Gisela Trommsdorff and Xinyin Chen present systematic and in-depth discussions of theoretical perspectives, landmark studies and strategies for further research in the field. The eminent contributors reflect diverse cultural perspectives, transcending the Western emphasis of many previous works. This volume will be of interest to scholars and professionals interested in basic developmental processes, adolescent social psychology and the sociological and psychological dimensions of religion.

The well-being and productivity of immigrant youth has become one of the most important global issues of our times as a result of mass migration and resettlement. In this unique volume, leading scholars from multiple nations and disciplines provide a state-of-the-art overview of contemporary research on immigrant youth and delineate the most promising future directions for research on their success, suggesting implications for policy and interventions that will benefit host societies as well as immigrant youth. The contributors to Realizing the Potential of Immigrant Youth include many of the leading international experts on migration, acculturation, intergroup issues and immigrant youth development, with contributions from the fields of child development, demography, economics, education, immigrant mental health, social psychology and sociology.

This volume made an important contribution to the growing literature on the transition from school to work. It provides a different perspective on the global changes that have transformed school-to-work transitions since the 1970s; offers an integrative conceptual framework for analysis; and promotes a comparative, cross-national understanding of school-to-work transitions in a changing social context. The articles assembled in this volume compare and assess variations in school-to-work transitions across Europe and North America, providing empirical evidence on how young people negotiate the different options and opportunities available and assessing the costs and returns associated with different transition strategies. Unlike many other volumes on this subject - which are pitched at either the macro or micro level - this volume attempts to integrate both perspectives, capturing the complexity of this critical life course transition. Furthermore, the authors address policies aimed at improving the capacity of individuals to make effective transitions and at enabling societies to better coordinate educational and occupational institutions.

This book is concerned with the question of how families matter in young people's development - a question of obvious interest and importance to a wide range of readers, which has serious policy implication. A series of key current topics concerning families are examined by the top international scholars in the field, including the key risks affecting children, individual differences in their resilience, links between families and peers, the connections between parental work and children's family lives, the impact of childcare, divorce, and parental separation, grandparents, and new family forms such as lesbian and surrogate mother families. The latest research findings are brought together with discussion of policy issues raised.

Research clearly indicates that ethnic groups differ significantly on levels of mental and physical health, antisocial behavior, and educational attainment. This book explains these variations among ethnic groups with respect to their psychological and social functioning and tests competing hypotheses about the mechanisms that might cause the functioning to be better, worse, or different in pattern from other groups. Attention is paid to educational attainments, antisocial behavior, schizophrenia and suicide, and to the complex and changing patterns of ethnic identity. The book also focuses on evidence on risk and protective factors that is used systematically to ask whether such factors might account for the differences in both migration histories and ethnic mixture. It concludes with a discussion of the multiple meanings of ethnicity, the major variations among ethnic groups, and the policy implications of the findings discussed in the book.

Our volume examines the potential for change during the life course and across generations. We address the possibilities for promoting healthy development from infancy to adulthood in three key domains: human capital, partnership behavior, and child and adolescent development. Drawing from the disciplines of economics, demography, sociology, psychology, and psychiatry, our volume takes a multidisciplinary approach to review relevant empirical work regarding aspects of change and continuity, and the ways in which policies and programs might bring about change. We feature chapters from leading researchers in five countries to address these important issues. The main purpose of our volume is to link and integrate the lessons learned from multiple disciplines about change and continuity in order to examine how our nations can improve life chances.

Joining Society asks precise questions: To what are the young socialized? Which skills, modes of thinking or action are required from them and what are their developmental value? Socialization tends to be viewed within the confines of a particular geographical or cultural situation. The multi-national list of contributors brings an international perspective to the problem of socialization to work and to adult life, while at the same time emphasizing the common issues that face youth around the world. Some of the topics addressed are the rules and roles involved in socialization, attaining personal agency through collective activity, use of new technologies, and the role of intergenerational relationships. This book sheds new light on the processes through which society may hope to intervene in positive ways with today's youth.

'Burnout' was first investigated in the 1970s as a crisis of overextended and disillusioned human service workers. But the nature of the syndrome has changed with the evolutions in the nature of these professions. The current experience of burnout is lived out in a more difficult social context, with human service workers struggling harder for social credibility and job security. For instance, through the greater demands on their time and energy, teachers are being pressed to do more work with fewer resources, while receiving fewer rewards and less recognition of their efforts. The objective of this 1999 volume is to provide different perspectives and a deeper understanding of the nature, conditions and consequences of burnout, notably in the teaching profession. To do this, the contributions review much research in the field, describing research agenda and action agendas designed to combat the incidence of burnout in the workplace.

Early adolescence, a critically important developmental phase in the lives of young people, has been neglected in terms of its potential to prevent educational and health problems.Preparing Adolescents for the Twenty-First Century: Challenges Facing Europe and the United States attempts to address this neglect by focusing on cross-national perspectives and linking fundamental research on adolescent development to the challenges of preparing young people for adult life. It describes the theory, design, and implementation of innovative comprehensive education and health approaches. Serious examination is given to increasing the positive influence of education in promoting literacy for a high-technology economy, healthy lifestyles, and responsible citizenship.