Please no plagiarism and make sure you are able to access all resource on your own before you bid. One of the references must come from Flamez, B. & Sheperis, C. J. (2015) and/or Sommers-Flanagan, J., & Sommers-Flanagan, R. (2007). I have also attached my discussion rubric so you can see how to make full points. Please respond to all 3 of my classmates separately with references. I need this completed by 12/08/18 at 10pm.
Top of Form
Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings. Respond to your colleagues’ postings.
Respond in one or more of the following ways:
· Ask a probing question.
· Share an insight gained from having read your colleague’s posting.
· Offer and support an opinion.
· Validate an idea with your own experience.
· Make a suggestion.
· Expand on your colleague’s posting.
1. Classmate (N. Joh)
Description of Contemporary Youth Culture
Children and adolescents live in a seemingly different world than adults, and within that world is a unique and ever-changing culture (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2007). And that culture is forever being influenced by outside forces such as media, pop culture, Hollywood, fashion, and sports. As a professional counselor, it is important to not only understand that culture but be willing to step into that unique world, in order to understand the perspective of the child. Looking first at a specific example of an influencer of child and adolescent culture, I will explain two core cultural messages communicated through that item. Then I will explain how those messages could both positively and negatively affect children. Lastly, I will explain how my understanding of contemporary youth culture will help me to be an effective child and adolescent counselor.
Girl’s World Magazine
The item I selected to examine was Girl’s World magazine. The magazine is created for young girls ages 7 – 12 and includes information regarding the most popular age- appropriate fashion trends, celebrity gossip, party ideas, and arts and crafts (Girl’s World Magazine, n.d.). Created in 2013, the magazine is published bi-monthly, there are seven issues a year, and it costs twenty dollars for an annual subscription. There are sections within the magazine titled “Your World,” “Your Favorite Stars,” “Get Crafty,” “Juicy Read,” and “All About Animals” (Girl’s World Magazine, n.d.). The article claims to understand the pressures young girls are facing and seeks to provide healthy and fun information free of pressure or bias.
Two Core Cultural Messages
Upon review of the magazine, there are two core cultural issues identified. First, is that it is assumed that all girls are into fashion, arts and crafts, and celebrities. This is evidenced just by observing various covers of the magazine. Examples include statements such as “Why you’re so obsessed with slime,” “Fashion fun – get dressed up for the holidays,” and “test your Taylor Swift Knowledge.” In addition, every cover features a child celebrity. The second cultural message is that young girls are in need of an external third-party source of influence regarding what to think, feel, or believe about said topics. Examples of this include, “How to become an expert braider,” “Skai Jackson tells you how to be brave and take big risks,” and “Jenny Ortega tells you how you can become even closer with your friends.” In addition, most of the advice on how to be a good person, friend, and student comes from celebrities.
Positive and Negative Affects
There are many potential negative effects from the messages and images depicted in the magazine and there are some also perceived positive effects. One of the most obvious, and most concerning, of the potential negative effects, is the message standards of beauty, looks, and femininity. In a study done by Lamb, Farmer, Kosterina, Lambe Sarinana, Plocha, & Randazzo (2016) they found that “empirical research on media influences reinforces the APA’s (2007) findings that US mass media routinely depicts women and adolescent girls as conforming to an ideal of thinness, youth, and sexual passivity.” Girl’s World magazine is no exception. While more subtle and less overt than media images geared towards an older demographic, the same depiction can be witnessed just by observing the cover of the magazine. This can have profound implications for young girls. It sets standards of how girls look or are supposed to look and create a complex within girls who look different, which is the vast majority in comparison to magazine models. It also can have negative implications for girls in different socio-economic situations, given the emphasis on fashion.
On the other hand, the cultural messages depicted in the magazine can have positive effects. The strong emphasis on friendships among females and highlighting of positive female connections is a positive effect in a culture that often has young girls at odds with each other. The magazine appears to attempt to offset a sense of female competition, and in turn encourage pre-teen and adolescent girls to strengthen their bonds. This could have a positive effect on social development, self-confidence, and peer interaction.
Understanding of Youth Culture
My understanding of youth culture is largely personal and only somewhat professional. Personally, I have four boys, ages 13, 9, 8, and 1. It was for this reason that I chose a largely female-targeted item, as I have little experience with that, other than personal upbringing. On a professional level, I have worked with youth in family settings, with the focus being on reunification and healing. That experience provided me with the opportunity to encounter the barriers to working with resistant adolescents and language barriers when working with children.
Conclusion
Counseling children, and in particular adolescents, can be one of the most challenging tasks a counselor faces. Having the ability to understand a child’s perspective, interests, opinions, and cultural influences can help a counselor build a strong therapeutic alliance with the client. In doing so, one increases their chances of being able to get through to the child/adolescent and assist them in achieving their personal goals. In addition, it is important to understand the way in which culture influences children and adolescents and the impact the positive and negative effects can have on them.
Resources
Girls’ World Magazine. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2018, from https://www.magazines.com/
girls-world-magazine.html
Lamb, S., Farmer, K. M., Kosterina, E., Lambe Sariñana, S., Plocha, A., & Randazzo, R. (2016).
What’s Sexy? Adolescent Girls Discuss Confidence, Danger, and Media
Influence. Gender and Education, 28(4), 527–545. Retrieved from https://
ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1104272&site=eds-live&scope=site
Sommers-Flanagan, J., & Sommers-Flanagan, R. (2007). Tough kids, cool counseling: User-
friendly approaches with challenging youth (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: American
Counseling Association.
2. Classmate (B. Hun)
Girl’s Life Magazine
Girl’s Life is a magazine targeted for tween girls and is the item I will be analyzing in this discussion. The tween age group is classified between eight and 14 years of age and represents a difficult transition time between child and teenager (Velding, 2017). In this age group, they are experiencing higher levels of hormones, beginning to transition from caring about their parent’s opinions to their peer’s opinions (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). Inside Girl’s Life are articles about teen celebrities, fashion ideas, makeup tips, dating advice, and articles empowering young girls to be the best they can be. On the cover of each issue is an inspirational message such as “girlpower #goals” and “your fierce future.” In this discussion, two cultural messages as well as a positive and negative effect these messages may have on the youth culture and my understanding of contemporary youth culture will be explored.
Cultural Messages
One message this magazine conveys is beauty. For example, there are articles and how to do lists on makeup and hair as well as style tips. These articles are the main parts of the magazine and can display the message that being beautiful means to have the most stylish clothes, have make-up done, and have hair styled. One thing I like in this magazine is how the authors also include ways to work on the inner self or the inner beauty as well as ways to dress for special occasions.
Another cultural message this magazine conveys is the importance of a social life including friends and boyfriends. Having a social life is important for adolescents including what their peer’s think of them. In this magazine, it portrays dates that work best depending on the answers to the questionnaire as well as how to get along with boyfriend’s family and how to handle situations with other girls who like their crush and the ex-girlfriend. A few things this article does not portray includes aspects of the LGBTQ community such as advice on how to talk with parents about being part of this community and how to get through moments where they are experiencing discrimination.
Positive and Negative Affect
Peer’s opinions are important for adolescents as well as gaining their approval. In this developmental stage, the adolescents are moving from having their parents as their best friend to seeking peers to connect with (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). Encouraging youth who may be introverted to seek a circle of friends that are trusted can have a positive effect on youth to begin establishing a net of friends who they can rely on during tough times.
All of the youth within this magazine depict beauty as thin and in stylish clothes. This can have a negative effect on a youth’s self-esteem who is not thin and able to have clothes that are stylish. Youth culture uses content and media to show others what is important to them as well as are very influential with what they see in the media including magazines (Van Den Beemt, Akkerman, & Simons, 2010). Adolescents are very aware of their self-image and if it does not match with what is depicted as beautiful by the media, then it could have a large impact on how they view themselves. I currently work with adolescents who have a chemical dependency and have experienced traumatic adverse childhood experiences. Last week, I was at a doctor’s office with two of my clients and they were going through a Target magazine looking at the clothes and models who were wearing the clothes. They made a comment pointing out that the models are all thin and then made the comment that they would not be able to be a model because they weigh more than the models in the pictures.
My Understanding of Youth Culture
It is easy to say that we remember what it is like to be a teenager; however, this needs to be with caution and not told to our clients (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2007). In reality, it may be easy to remember how I handled things when I was a teenager but this does not necessarily mean this is how the client will be feeling or the best way for them to handle their emotions or the situation. I understand most aspects of youth culture, but it is ever-changing with how fast this world is evolving with technology and with the culture; therefore, it is something that I need to be consistently researching and also keep in mind that the client is the expert of their own life.
References
Broderick, P. C., & Blewitt, P. (2015). The life span: Human development for helping
professionals (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Sommers-Flanagan, J., & Sommers-Flanagan, R. (2007). Tough kids, cool counseling: User-friendly approaches with challenging youth (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Van Den Beemt, A., Akkerman, S., & Simons, R-J. (2010). The use of interactive media among today’s youth: Results of a survey. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(5), 1158-1165.
Velding, V. (2017). Depicting Femininity: Conflicting Messages in a “Tween” Magazine. Youth & Society, 49(4), 505-527. Retrieved from https://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1135317&site=eds-live&scope=site
3. Classmate (K. Kil)
Because social media is so prevalent in the culture of today’s youth, I saw it only fit to focus on the impact, the message, the pros, and the cons of social media have on the youth. The youth of today use social media to stay current with today’s fashion, today’s news, and even what their friend ate for lunch today. When used responsibly it can be used for both identity expression, to be informed, and to start and maintain relationships. In fact, it is reported that 70% of youth that own texting devices prefer to text over any other contact with friends.
Youtube
There are many social media outlets. You have Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, but the one I would like to focus on today is Youtube. Early this year I began watching vlogs on youtube. It started with me just watching the cooking videos, then makeup tutorials, finally videos of people talking about the lives of celebrities. While reviewing some of the other types of videos on youtube I noticed that there were also some clean and humorous videos and there were also videos that were very inappropriate for someone under the age of 18. Adolescent or even a very young child could view a video of a person getting their head cut off while looking for hairstyles or could run into a video of sexual nature while trying to watch a slime video.
Cultural Message
There are so many cultural messages that can be gathered from Youtube. The two messages I chose were the message of the importance of how one looks and the other self-disclosure. Youtube is a venue that offers videos about haircare, make-up, as well as best and worst dress celebs of the year. For example, one Youtuber by the username happycurlhappygirl (2018) gave a tutorial on holiday hair but she is one of many who will not only show you how to style and wear your hair but what products work best. The youth of today are watching happycurlhappygirl and others like her to ensure they are buying the best make-up, hair products, and clothes. Other videos that can be found on Youtube are videos that talk about a person’s life or lifestyle like Youtube vlogger Raif Derrazi (2017). Raif Derrazi took the time in his Youtube video to talk about how HIV has affected his life since his diagnosis. Videos like Raif’s informs its viewers of his journey after receiving an HIV diagnosis. These types of videos give you a glimpse of a person’s current life. Although the video can be edited it still reveals something very personal.
Positive and Negative Affects
Youtube can have both a positive affect as well as a negative affect. Videos like the two previously described can be positive. The beauty vlogger is known to be uplifting and empowering. African American girls are wearing their hair in a natural state and at times this can be challenging. It is challenging not only because it can be time-consuming and expensive but because it can at times be viewed as being controversial. If young African American can see girls like happycurlhappygirl wearing their hair in her natural state while looking and feeling beautiful it would help their self esteem.
On the negative side, there are the videos on Youtube that showcase lifestyles that aren’t so positive. Those videos show drug and alcohol use, murders, and even sexual content. It is reported that exposure to the advertisement of alcohol use can cause a non-drinker to consume. Exposure to the wrong type of thing could cause challenges for children and adolescents.
Cultural Competence
Understanding Norms and behaviors of the client is important, even if the client is a child. Having this knowledge helps the helping relationship. It will help build trust between client and counselor, build rapport, and encourage client dialogue (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016).
Reference:
Anderson,P.,de Bruijn,A.,Angus,K., Gordon,R., & Hastings, G. (2009). Impact of alcohol advertising and media exposure on adolescent alcohol use: A systematic review of longitudinal studies. Alcohol & Alcoholism, 44(3), 229 – 243.
Capuzzi, D. & Stauffer, M. D. (2016). Counseling and psychotherapy: theories and interventions. (6th ed.). Alexandria, VA: ACA
Happycurlhappygirl. (2018, November 22). My holiday up-do on stretched hair!!! yall FT. jamaican mango and lime. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/aIDHmCilW0U.
Hawk, S.T., van den Eijinden, R. J. J. M., van Lissa, C. J.,& ter Bogt,T. F. M. (2018). Full length article: Narcissistic adolescents attention-seeking following social rejection: Links with social media disclosure, problematic social media use, and smartphone stress. Computers in Human Behavior, 92, 65-75. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2018.10.032
Derrazi,Raif (2017, September 22). Living with HIV (Today). What its like? [Genvoya]. Retrieved https://youtu.be/g3BeXqb9tQI
Bottom of Form
Required Resources
Learning Resources
Please read and view (where applicable) the following Learning Resources before you complete this week’s assignments.
Readings
Sommers-Flanagan, J., & Sommers-Flanagan, R. (2007). Tough kids, cool counseling: User-friendly approaches with challenging youth (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Chapter 2: “Establishing Rapport, Gathering Information, and Informal Assessment”
Anderson, P., de Bruijn, A., Angus, K., Gordon, R., & Hastings, G. (2009). Impact of alcohol advertising and media exposure on adolescent alcohol use: A systematic review of longitudinal studies . Alcohol & Alcoholism, 44(3), 229–243.© 2009 by Oxford University Press. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press via the Copyright Clearance Center.
Van Den Beemt, A., Akkerman, S., & Simons, R-J. (2010). The use of interactive media among today’s youth: Results of a survey . Computers in Human Behavior, 26(5), 1158–1165.© 2010 by ELSEVIER SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY JOURNALS. Reprinted by permission of ELSEVIER SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY JOURNALS via the Copyright Clearance Center.
Vitoria, P. D., Salguerio, M. F., Silva, S. A., & De Vries, H. (2009). The impact of social influence on adolescent intention to smoke: Combining types and referents of influence . British Journal of Health Psychology, 14(4), 681–699.© 2009 by BLACKWELL PUBLISHING. Reprinted by permission of BLACKWELL PUBLISHING via the Copyright Clearance Center.
Optional Resources
Lawson, D. M. (2009). Understanding and treating children who experience interpersonal maltreatment: Empirical findings. Journal of Counseling & Development, 87(2), 204–215.Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Academic Search Complete database.
Mrug, S., & McCay, R. (2013). Parental and peer disapproval of alcohol use and its relationship to adolescent drinking” Age, gender and racial differences. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 27(3), 604–614.Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Goodrich, K., & Mangleburg, T. F. (2010). Adolescent perceptions of parent and peer influences on teen purchase: An application of social power theory. Journal of Business Research, 63(12), 1328–1335.Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Academic Search Complete database.
Besic, N., & Kerr, M. (2009). Punks, Goths, and other eye-catching peer crowds: Do they fulfill a function for shy youths? Journal of Research on Adolescence, 19(1), 113–121.Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.