Research on adolescents urged

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33753, 28 January 1975, Page 12

Research on adolescents urged

| More reliable and accurate information about i New Zealand adolescents , is needed, the quadrennial conference in Christchurch of the Association of Home Science Alumnae was told. Mr R. J. Manthei, a lecturer in the education department at the University of Canterbury, said that researchers attempting to fill this void would have to adopt the view that adolescents were individuals concerned with, responsible for, and capable of participating in, their own development. Overseas and local research had suggested that most adolescents were reasonable, conservative, and conforming. “In New Zealand, this I conformity i>s fostered by

unique child-rearing systems: and cultural training which also minimise the importance of normal adolescent needs for independence, selfreliance, and nonconformity,” Mr Manthei said.

Society had tended to label its adolescents as rebellious, disrespectful, and unpredictable. Adults had become more strident and condemnatory towards teenagers, and their casual indifference towards adult values, institutions, and attitudes. “Almost in desperation the adult world has tried to appease, cajole, and coerce its youth into accepting thh ‘realities’ of contemporary living,” Mr Manthei said.

Most of those attempts had been little more than instances of bribery which failed to perceive and meet the needs of youth for genuine participation, challenge, and status in the tasks of daily living. “The adolescent’s vocation as seen by adults is to complete his schooling: but even

here he is denied the oppor-i tunity for continuous, mean-' : ingful participation and' often sits bored, uncomprehending, and frustrated,”! said Mr Manthei. The result was too often daily classroom struggle for domination between teacher and students. “School becomes another constant. reminder that society regards him as too immature and too inexperienced to assume more than token responsibility for himself.” Mr Manthei criticised the (setting up in some schools of student councils which allowed elected student representatives to discuss and debate peripheral issues. “In the end, the decisions of these councils are subject to the administration’s approval. Basic school policy is I not considered appropriate | material for student-council i I attention.

, “In effect, this power to I participate its merely token, j and most often involves students in meaningless work.” 1 Many adults failed to

comprehend that actie, meaningful participation might be more important than specific, outsideimposed solutions to their problems. Too often adolascents were deprived of opportunities for selfrealisation at the very moment in their development when they needed the challenges of real situations, and real problems to test themselves and to define their capabilities and interests. Troublesome adolescent behaviour could in large part be a frustrated reaction to society's failure to provide a reasonable, appropriate place for its youth, Mr Manthei said.