Introduction
Adolescence is a portal before a person reaches adulthood. So there are a lot of challenges, crises, and sufferings involved at this stage. So during this phase, young people continue to face several problems. Society’s expectation on an individual also increases during this phase. They are expected to behave in a responsible manner and also to make responsible choices. They have to be answerable for all their choices even without any or less specific instruction. This is a matter of pressure to the teenagers and this creates stress in them. “Early adulthood is the settling down period and most reproductive age. It is the most problematic age.” (Hurlock). Young adults experience a lot of changes during this time. Main among them include emotional tension, social isolation, increased dependency, increased commitments, changes and shifts in value, increased creativity, and, moreover, a higher level of adjustment becomes necessary. To achieve the tasks associated with changes, one requires physical efficiency, motor and mental abilities, good motivation and a good role model to follow. The personal interests of a younger adult include the interest in appearance, clothes, personal adornment, maturity and status symbols, amusements, money and religion etc. There is a high chance for social isolation or limited social participation during this phase. Social mobility is also there and is having close association with many changes that occur during the period. This will show impacts in their life and development. The younger adults, as wells as their parents or associates have to be well informed about these factors.
During this phase, teenagers will exhibit more social skills, enthusiasm, energy etc. On the negative side, they will face more psychological, physical and mental pressure. The growing up or shaping up process of a younger adult is of higher importance, and they must be given due care during this period. There is no doubt that it is the human right of the children to receive ample opportunity to develop their potential. Even the UN declaration supports this. They need to get the opportunities for increasing the productivity as increasing their productivity is increasing society’s own productivity. They need program for eliminating distressing inequalities. Their growth can be the best strategy for initiate solidarity. The children’s growth process also are undergoes changes, and so trends will also keep on changing. The changing social, economic and political conditions stress this. (Pandey).
The major issues that the adolescents or younger adults and their supporters have to take care of during the adolescence involves the development of cultural identity or representing a culture, independent decision making art, balance on the decisions and actions etc., are some issues connected with the development of younger adults.
The following part of the essay tries to highlight some of the key issues faced by the adolescents in the younger adulthood.
Achievement of Development Tasks: Need of support from Environment
The developmental tasks of adulthood is a major source of tension for young adults as they mostly are individual-centered and there is a high chance of perceiving oneself in a most complicated way. The fact is that the development is not only an internal maturation process but it also requires appropriate challenges and support from the environment.
“Development takes place through an interaction between an individual’s internal state and the societal and institutional demands of parents, faculty, university, peers, and culture. An individual’s development, therefore, is highly influenced by the “developmental potential” of the learning environment.” (MacKeracher, p.2).
It all highlights the importance of development tasks. So it is worthy to note those tasks here. The tasks are achieving competence, managing emotions, shift from dependence to interdependence, development of mature interpersonal relationships, establishing identity, developing purpose for life, developing integrity etc.
The best strategy to assist them to excel in life is to render good support at the entry phase and later presenting challenges which are growth oriented. But we should also make sure that the young adult is not insulted rather than developing a sense of sportsmanship in him.
Cultural identity problems
During this phase, the young adult tries to develop a sense of cultural identity. The surrounding environment in which the individual is growing is of key importance in this context. Sometimes there are chances for the collision of the ethnic fashion and cultural identity of the individual. This is particularly in the case of Asians living in America. “Ethnic Fashion obscures cultural identity”, a work by Sunita Puri well describes this phenomenon. In the book, we can find that the author recognizes herself as a mixture of various cultures and this brings crisis to herself. She often experiences a multicultural belongingness. She describes this well by quoting the case of “bindi” The authors surrounding usually interprets bindis as a fashion statement rather than a statement of cultural belonging. But, for her, it is of cultural importance, which is of unique relevance to Indians and it was an opportunity for her to demonstrate her respect for her culture. When somebody perceives it just as a fashion, it shocks her and she feels it as cultural imperialism. “Pop icons like Madonna perpetuate a faulty understanding of Indian culture by selecting exotic images from India, such as the bindi, taking them completely out of cultural context and popularizing them in the West.” This, according to her, is appropriating the bindi in a method which devastates its cultural meaning (Puri).
Independency for Decision Making
Parents should allow and must give them freedom to their children for independent decision making. The parents’ concern over children must not interfere in children’s freedom and also in their independent decision making power. They should not be considered as immatured who are only to obey or implement their actions as per the directions of parents. It will affect the identity of children. This is more in the case of Asian parents. This can be best explained with the support of “Good Daughter” by Caroline Hwang, As Caroline Hwang says “Asian parents do not give their children independence at all and the children could not decide the life themselves” (Good Daughter).
As she describes, when the children argue with parents for privacy, it will affect their relationship with parents. In the case of immigrants, the children have to struggle between two diverse cultures also. The same is in the case of academic decisions such as selecting a course as well as life decisions such as identifying a partner. Her problem was that she was not able to choose Korean culture as she lives in American and was not able to choose American culture as the parents didn’t gave her the freedom for that. It was a crisis situation for her. In these kinds of situations, as Hwang points out, parents forget to realize and refuse to hear about the thoughts of children, and they are not given control over their own life. Cultural crisis is also affecting the children, and parents do not understand the children. She also says that she cannot identify herself with Americans as they do not accept her. Then the child’s choice is to go by the Asian way. But the parents’ expectations interfere with it. As Hwang describes, “Her parents worried her children should not speak Korean, forget Korean cultural. They just want their parents to let them decide the life, school themselves. Finally, he breaks up that girl then live-in family. In Hwang case, she said that my parent did not want their daughter to be Korean, but they don’t want her fully American, either her parents wanted her to go to law school” (Good Daughter).
All these affects children and presents before them a crisis mixed with cultural and identity crisis, and it will hamper the children’s independent decision making skills.
Balancing life as an Art
In the beginning of younger adolescence, they have to make independent choices. But they mostly come across two opposite and extreme situations. They have to forge a balance between the two opposite forces. This is especially in the case of migrant children. Marcus Mabry well explains this in the migrant contexts and tries to create balance in the article “Living in Two Worlds,” by giving the readers a clear description on “the geographical, economic, and social differences of living in both New Jersey and Stanford University.” (Mabry).
This actually is giving every reader an opportunity to evaluate the differences between New Jersey and Stanford from a geographical standpoint. Further, it symbolizes much more in the cultural point. This is exactly like presenting two cultures before the children as two options and allowing them to reach a consensus. It definitely gives the children the opportunity to make independent choices and also increase their power to be balanced.
Conclusion
The above factors and a close analysis of other relevant factors, which includes emotional tensions, identity crisis, dependency, creativity, adjustments, value changes, creative growth etc need to be considered to understand the teenagers problem an to determine developmental strategies that will practically help them to grow up as responsible citizens. So giving due care to these factors will help the younger adults to have a balanced life and to have a strategic approach towards life, and it will help them to be successful.
Works Cited
- Good Daughter. Mega Essays.com. 2008. Web.
- Hurlock, Elizabeth B. Chapter9: Early Adulthood Personal and Social Adjustments. Development Psychology A Life Span Approach, 1981, 5th edition, Tata MC Graw Hill Publishing Company Limited.
- Mabry, Marcus. Living in Two Worlds. Example Essays.com. 2008.
- MacKeracher, Dorothy. Development of Young Adults. University Teaching Services. 1999. Web.
- Pandey VC. (ed.). Sensitive Advice to Grow Child. Child Counseling. 2005, Isha Books, Delhi.
- Puri, Sunita. Ethnic Fashion Obscures Cultural Identity. Yh Online. 2001. Web.