Adolescence in Social Context

Catalog description

What does it mean to be a teenager? Is it an age-based or social-role based distinction? Is teen angst a universal phenomenon? Do parents really just not understand? Both an individual and a collective perspective on adolescence are used to provide an understanding of how this life stage is differently experienced by youth cross-culturally. Readings include theoretical and empirical papers from such areas as psychology, sociology, anthropology, and education.We examine how local context and salient axes of social difference affect both the cultural construction of what adolescence means and how individual youth navigate their everyday lives.