Paper Topic:

Sociology-Youth In Crisis

Running Head : Sociology Youth-in-crisis

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Often , adolescents with disabilities and chronic conditions have a higher likelihood of getting depressed . This predisposes them to substance abuse and sexual promiscuity . This can be explained by the fact that coping with chronic conditions is difficult and having to do so during adolescent when there are other conflicting issues to deal with makes it much harder leading to increased stress levels

A study in Oklahoma State University on psychological distress in high risk youth with Asthma explains

this issue further . The study was conducted on twenty-five high risk adolescents with asthma and twenty-five high risk controls without asthma , whose age range was 16 to 21 years . The adolescents with asthma had higher scores on the various measures of psychological distress that were used . Those adolescents who had asthma showed raised anxiety levels , depression and more global psychological distress compared to those without asthma . The study concluded that asthma , a chronic condition is an independent stressor or vulnerability factor for adolescents already at a high risk of multiple adjustment problems (Gillasppy et al , 2002

Bonham points out that the basic factors that contribute to the development of delinquent behavior are developmental issues , psychiatric mental health and aspects of the community . Her article states that about 20 of American youth experience a mental health dis before they are 21 years and while only 1 to 10 children have severe mental dis that impairs their daily life , fewer than 20 of those who require mental health treatment get adequate health services . As a result of this absence of care , adolescents with mental illness often have delinquency problems and are subsequently admitted to the juvenile justice system (Bonham , E , 2006

Most of the youth in the juvenile system have mental health diss E Casey Foundation (2003 ) discovered that approximately 75 of the youth in Louisiana who were in the juvenile system we incarcerated for nonviolent acts and drug offences . A survey by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill discovered that around 35 of respondents had placed their children in the juvenile system so that they could gain access to mental health services as these were unavailable to them (Skowyra and Coxozza , 2006

The US Department of justice carried out investigations to find out the conditions of juvenile detention and conventional facilities in the country . The findings show a failure to address the mental health needs of the youth . This is the case even though there are documented findings by the National Central for Mental Health and Juvenile System for a study carried out in 3 different jail settings that 70 of the youth in these systems have a mental health dis . Most youth actually had multiple diagnoses with over 90 of the youth who met the criteria for conduct dis also having another dis (Showyra and Cocozza 2006

The danger of placing these adolescents in the juvenile system for minor non-violent offenses is that they will end up in the system as adults...

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