Sexually transmitted disease, alcohol and drug use, and other health and safety issues increasingly impact school life for teenagers. Parents, teachers, and peers must be aware of these issues during the adolescent years. This web site will help inform, suggest types of treatment, and offer preventive steps in order to combat these problems.
1. Adolescent Disorders Mental disorders affect more than 12 percent, or 7.5 million, adolescents. The symptoms are many and varied and often dismissed as "typical behavior for a teenager." Moodiness, overreaction to disappointments, and preoccupation with appearance are clearly normal. It is when these behaviors become extreme and last for an extended period that parents need to be concerned. Left untreated, adolescent emotional disorders can result in later hospitalization and social problems.
2. Adolescent Depression One of the most difficult challenges for many parents is differentiating between normal adolescent turmoil and clinical depression. So much has been written about adolescent mood swings that parents and teachers often become desensitized to the intense emotional suffering of adolescent depression. This article provides useful information to parents wrestling with this dilemma.
3.
Teen Pregnancy The purpose
of the Baby Think It Over Program is to provide an experience for
young adults that simulates the parenting of an infant. The program explores
the emotional, financial and social consequences of teen parenting. Worksheets,
discussions and written assignments encourage critical thinking about the
many dimensions of parenting.
4. Mental Health Risk Factors This site is a collection of electronic resources intended for parents, educators, researchers, health practitioners, and teens. It contains numerous mental health risk factor topics.
5. Research and Training Center on Family Support The Center's activities focus on improving services to families whose children have mental, emotional or behavioral disorders through a set of related research and training programs.
Created By: Rachel
Openshaw for Educational Psychology 306-02.
Last Updated: November 17, 1999.