Adolescence in the 21st Century: Constants and Challenges

by Frances R. Spielhagen (Editor), Paul D. Schwartz (Editor)

What is wrong with young people today? This question has captured the concerns of the older generation about the habits and attitudes of the adolescents in their midst. The assumption is that there is indeed something wrong with young people. Even Plato must have rolled his eyes, as he relates his diatribe about the adolescents of Greece. Is the current generation of adolescents less motivated or less focused than their parents? How will they respond to the challenges facing them as they progress to adulthood? When, in fact, do they become adults? Although every generation draws upon their own unique and varied experiences, the speed of our current societal changes has created a very different adolescent passage for contemporary youth than ever before.

The world as we know it has changed significantly and because of it, much of today’s youth is decidedly different from their parents. Adolescence itself has shifted dramatically. Young children are displaying adolescent behaviors well before they are ready to act on or understand their meaning, and older adolescents are staying perpetual children. As one writer put it, “the conveyer belt that transported adolescents into adulthood has broken down”. This book provides an interdisciplinary collection of research on the constants and challenges faced by young people today. Failure to launch? Social media? Economic stagnation? For the generation that is coming of age in a post-terrorist world and in the midst of economic upheaval, the challenges might seem insurmountable. However, in this book, scholars from across the academy, from sociology, psychology, education, philosophy, science, and business, explain how the young people today are responding to the constants of growth and change in adolescence and the unique challenges of life in the 21st century.

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 14, 2013

About the author

Frances R. Spielhagen, PhD, is currently associate professor of education and director of the Center for Adolescent Research and Development (CARD) at Mount Saint Mary College. Professor Spielhagen teaches courses in curriculum planning and assessment to pre-service teachers.

As co-director of CARD, she facilitates research and evaluation projects, mentors junior scholars, and organizes an annual conference on Adolescence in the 21st Century.

Before entering the academy in 2002, she served for 30 years as a public school teacher in grades 7-12 (Latin, Social Studies, English) and as coordinator of talent development (gifted) programs.

From 2003-2006, she was an American Educational Research Association/Institute for Educational Sciences Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. There, she explored advanced opportunities in mathematics among under-represented populations, under the mentorship of Dr. Joyce Van Tassel-Baska. Professor Spielhagen has presented several peer-reviewed papers on that research, both at AERA and in other national and international venues, most recently at the biennial meeting of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children in Prague, in August 2011.

Other longstanding research interests have included gender equity, single-sex education, and motivation and engagement among adolescents. Professor Spielhagen first explored issues of gender equity in 1990-1991, as a teacher engaged in action research through an Eleanor Roosevelt Fellowship from the American Association of University Women. At that time, the focus was on female achievement. From 2003-2005, she conducted research on single-sex education in a small urban public middle school. In recent years (2006-current), she has served on the advisory board of the Gurian Institute, which has focused on achievement among boys. In 2007-2008, as consultant to the Gurian Institute, she evaluated the professional development of teachers in the single-sex schools in Atlanta, Georgia.

Her publications include peer reviewed articles in the Journal for Advanced Academics, the Middle Grades Research Journal, Research in Middle Level Education, and American Secondary Education, several book chapters, and two books, Debating Single-Sex Education: Separate and Equal (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007) and The Algebra Solution to Mathematics Reform: Completing the Equation (Teachers College Press, 2011).

Dr. Spielhagen has also been involved in service to national organizations. From 2007-2009, she was president of the Sociology of Education Association. From 2009-2011, she was co-chair of the Education Committee of the National Association for Gifted Children. From 2010-current, she has served as a mentor on the AERA Undergraduate Research Program under the direction of George Wimberly. She has just been named the editor-in-chief of the Middle Grades Research Journal (2011-2014) and selected for membership on the Research and Evaluation Awards Committee of the National Association for Gifted Children.