Who are Our Students?

Abstract

On the importance of understanding today's adolescents

AMERICA'S current generation of adolescents promises to be not only one of our country's most complex but also one of our country's largest, rivaling the baby boomer generation in size and consumer power. Understanding the challenges and positive experiences that these students bring with them to college campuses is important for educators as they work to engage students in learning. Exploring the trends that affect students in our nation's high schools provides important insight into how to organize college learning experiences to meet the needs of incoming college students.

In The Ambitious Generation, Barbara Schneider and David Stevenson call the current generation of adolescents “America's most ambitious teenage adolescents ever” (p. 3). For example, more than 90 percent of current high school students plan to participate in some form of higher education. However, the authors report that 56 percent of their sample have unaligned ambitions, meaning that their educational and professional plans are not complementary. Many appear unwilling to make the educational commitment necessary to achieve their professional goals. Students with unaligned ambitions are less able to make direct life plans, less able to make productive use of spare time, less able to organize themselves, less likely to be proactive in developing career plans, and in general have a difficult time staying motivated. Schneider and Stevenson point out that the number of professional jobs this cohort aspires to is unrealistic; the number of jobs required by these students will be unavailable to them when they are ready to enter the workforce. Many of today's high school students may be choosing professional career paths with low odds of success.

Schneider and Stevenson raise concern for the well-being of today's teenagers, many of whom are dealing with a great many stresses. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data for 2001 reveal that about one-fifth of all high school students have seriously considered suicide; white students, Hispanic students, and females are most likely to consider suicide. White students are more likely to consider and make a plan to commit suicide than African American or Hispanic students. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control report that 28 percent of high school students reported that in the twelve months preceding the survey they felt very sad or hopeless and that because of these feelings they stopped participating in their usual activities. Of interest is that the CDC data also suggest that for both high school men and high school women, suicidal behavior is strongly linked with physical violence, substance abuse, family dysfunction, acculturative stress, and a low income. It seems reasonable to conclude that this ambitious generation may be overwhelmed with the stress of achievement and the obstacles they face. Richard Kadison and Theresa Foy DiGeronimo describe in College of the Overwhelmed that today's college students experience intense pressure to excel academically. Students' perception that less than perfect performance will lead to a disastrous life creates high stress and contributes to mental health struggles. Suzanne Hudd, Jennifer Dumlao, Diane Erdmann-Sager, Daniel Murray, Emily Phan, Nicholas Soukas, and Nori Yokozuka report in the College Student Journal that they have found convincing evidence that stress in college is directly related to unhealthy behaviors, and they note the role of the peer group in maintaining unhealthy social norms.

The Power of the Peer Group

IN A TRIBE APART, Patricia Hersch writes, “It is clear that adolescents today inhabit a world largely unknown to adults” (p. viii). We believe today's teenagers have strongly adopted a tribal mentality, meaning that they see themselves and are seen as an aggregate, largely devoid of individuality, abdicating decision making to the group. Unfortunately, these young people are largely without adult role models and are without adults to listen to them and to help them emerge from the group. George Barna, in Real Teens, states that today's teenagers are much more likely to have conversations with their friends than with their parents, especially their father. Their social life is extremely important to them and is centered on their peer group; many parents know little about what is really going on in their children's lives. Reliance on the peer group is cause for concern if the group reinforces unaligned ambitions, stresses, and dangerous behaviors.

EXPLORING THE TRENDS THAT AFFECT STUDENTS IN OUR NATION'S HIGH SCHOOLS PROVIDES IMPORTANT INSIGHT INTO HOW TO ORGANIZE COLLEGE LEARNING EXPERIENCES TO MEET THE NEEDS OF INCOMING COLLEGE STUDENTS.

Hersch notes that “half of all of America's adolescents are at some risk for serious problems like substance abuse, dangerous accident-prone lifestyles, and delinquent behavior” (p. 12). Supporting this claim, 2001 CDC data reveal that young people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four each year contract approximately three million cases of sexually transmitted diseases and one million become pregnant, and HIV infection is now the sixth leading cause of death for this age group. For ninth graders, 34 percent reported having had sexual intercourse, and 23 percent reported that they were currently sexually active.

The Centers for Disease Control's 2002 report on violence in schools reveals that 17 percent of high school students report having carried a weapon (such as a gun, knife, or club) within thirty days prior to answering the survey question, and 33 percent had been in a physical fight. Eight percent of students surveyed reported having been forced to have sexual intercourse and one out of ten high school students reported being seriously hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend during the twelve months preceding the survey. The 2002 CDC research suggests that the second leading identifiable cause of death for persons between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four is homicide, and strategies to reduce violence among teens is a national topic of concern. Whom do teenagers generally talk to about these issues? One another. In A Tribe Apart, Patricia Hersch chronicles students who are grappling with the use of alcohol and drugs as part of group social activity but are unable to turn to adults for assistance in making meaning of the challenges of being a teenager. Lloyd Johnston, Jerald Bachman, Patrick O'Mal-ley, John Schulenberg, and John Wallace's national study records trends of eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders and their use of alcohol and drugs. These data suggest that through the high school years, students increase their use of alcohol and drugs substantially; 25 percent of the high school seniors had used illicit drugs, and almost 50 percent reported that they had consumed alcohol within the month prior to completing the survey. During the course of a given year, 39 percent of eighth graders and 72 percent of high school seniors reported using alcohol, and 41 percent of high school seniors reported using illegal drugs. The 2001 CDC data support these findings and add that 30 percent of high school students report heavy episodic drinking and 24 percent report current marijuana use.

Educators'Challenge

HOW DO EDUCATORS meaningfully engage students with potentially misaligned ambitions, mental health concerns, and high-risk behavior profiles? Higher education faculty and administrators can begin to meet the challenge by taking the time to learn about trends that affect high school students, who are tomorrow's first-year college students. Because students have had varied experiences, once they arrive on campus, we advocate taking the time to get to know them, listening with the intent of understanding students' particular experiences. Because high school trends suggest some deficiency in adult role modeling, and because research on student engagement and involvement shows that educator-student interaction is a significant factor in promoting student learning, we advocate that educators construct active relationships with students as a means to promote learning.

One approach to helping students align their educational and professional ambitions and plan accordingly is to ask them to develop an “essay of aspiration,” in which they describe their hopes and dreams for the future. Shared with advisers, faculty, and staff members, this essay would allow students to get feedback and to discuss their goals with others. Students could be asked to refine and update this document throughout their academic career. This work serves as an important reflective tool that students can use to track their progress and to integrate their studies. By sharing their aspirations and getting feedback from invested adults, students would have the opportunity to understand and match their career aspirations with their educational commitments and begin to build a bond with a potential role model. Academic advising and career planning services could also intentionally focus on helping students align their ambitions with their educational plans.

Institutions of higher education could also seek positive ways to embrace the power of the peer group. Student leaders and student staff should be trained to actively connect incoming students with faculty and staff. In this way, peers can teach peers how to reach out beyond the collective, and to develop relationships with potential mentors and teachers. Stephen St. Onge, in articles in About Campus and the Journal of College and University Student Housing, suggests that students can engage one another in meaningful dialogue through the creation of “community constitutions” that spell out positive community norms and base community development in caring, trust, open communication, and collective responsibility. Through programs such as these, the peer group becomes a positive, powerful force that guides student behavior and counteracts negative past behaviors.

Of course, counseling activities at colleges and universities will continue to be essential to the process of student growth and learning. Campus communities, led by counseling professionals, should, for example, proactively confront the issue of suicide and consider programs for dealing with violence and aggression, which are often precursors to suicide. As part of early judicial sanctions, University 101 programs, or residence hall community building, campuses could consider incorporating programs that help students learn to manage anger and frustration before they turn to violence. Social norming activities, which use the peer group as a positive influence on student behavior, have been used on many campuses, and we have seen positive results from peer drama troupes, in which students act out scenarios and facilitate dialogue about issues they face as college students. Interactive, engaging activities like these seem to have the greatest impact on students and can be powerful tools in helping students find a healthy balance between their individuality and their connection to others.

References

Barna

Real Teens. Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, 2001.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance-United States, 2001. CDC Publication No. SS-4. Washington, D.C: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002.

Hersch

A Tribe Apart. New York: Ballantine Books, 1998.

Hudd

, Dumlao

, Erdmann-Sager

, Murray

, Phan

, Soukas

, and Yokozuka

“Stress at College: Effects on Health Habits, Health Status and Self-Esteem.”

College Student Journal, 2000, 34(12), 217–232.

Johnston

, Bachman

, O'Malley

, Schulenberg

, and Wallace

Trends in Annual and 30 Day Prevalence of Use of Various Drugs for Eighth, Tenth, and Twelfth Graders. Ann Arbor: National Institute on Drug Abuse, University of Michigan, 2002.

Kadison

, and DiGeronimo

T. F.

College of the Overwhelmed: The Campus Mental Health Crisis and What to Do About It. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004.

Schneider

, and Stevenson

The Ambitious Generation: America's Teenagers, Motivated but Directionless. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999.

St. Onge

“Developing Community Constitutions at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.”

About Campus, 1999, 4(4), 23–25.

St. Onge

“The Practice of Moral Education in Today's Colleges and Universities.”

Journal of College and University Student Housing, 2000, 29(1), 8–10.