Do You Think Most Girls Today Will Have Good Futures? Filed under ( Adolescence News ) by edy-koerniawan

adolescence in girls ~ Do You Think Most Girls Today Will Have Good Futures? : Although the research on resilience and protective factors suggests that connection to parents, significant adults, school and, perhaps, some greater sense of purpose or perspective fosters resilience or "odds-defying" behavior, it is often precisely a dilemma of connection, a forced choice between competing loyalties, that faces girls. Girls' struggles are rooted in systemic problems-such as poverty, racism, and sexism - that require a collective, rather than an individual, response. This suggests a need for a new concept of health and stress resistance that locates the struggle between the girl and her world, not within the individual girl, and that holds the adults in girls' environments accountable for providing girls with experiences and opportunities for them to understand, engage with, and potentially transform what limits and harms them.

Within health psychology, the concept of "hardiness" describes the stance of an individual in relation to a stressful context and, thus, points to developmental experiences girls may need to resist the long-term harm of institutionalized racism and sexism. Considering relationships with significant adults in girls' lives as potential "hardiness zones"-that is, spaces of real engagement and opportunities for girls to experience control, commitment, and challenge-one moves the focus from the individual girl to the network of relationships that create girls' social worlds and environments, allowing girls access to skills, relationships, and possibilities that enable them to experience power and meaning. Through this perspective, the relational and educational contexts, in both schools and other community organizations, in which girls find themselves can be assessed in terms of their capacity to facilitate hardiness.

Mothers, women teachers, and "othermothers" hold the possibility of providing relational hardiness zones for adolescent girls. Listening and fostering meaningful participation in school and community life, as well as providing the opportunity for self-development through effective sociocultural critique, are means by which adults can support the strengths of girls. Schools and communities that engage girls in social critique and in activist experiences appear to be particularly effective, as do adults who demonstrate commitment, respect for youth, and a willingness to involve them in making change within their communities.

Research Agenda: Relationships With Significant Adults

• What are the defining features of the individuals, institutions, and agencies that give rise to hardiness and strength in adolescent girls?
• What protective factors do "hardiness zones" offer adolescent girls? How can significant adults in girls' lives provide relational and environmental contexts that foster adolescent girls' strengths, support them in ways that are health promoting, and allow them to experience their potency in the world around them?
• How can adults help adolescent girls-particularly those who struggle with the effects of poverty, racism, homophobia, immigrant or refugee status-negotiate cultural conflicts and competing loyalties, especially in those cases in which they develop new possibilities and life choices different from their families and communities?
• What developmental and relational experiences do adolescent girls need to resist the long-term harm of institutionalized racism and sexism?
• What roles do "othermothers," such as aunts, grandmothers, adult friends, teachers, or community members, play in supporting adolescent girls and creating relational hardiness zones?
• What are the positive and protective aspects of mother-daughter relationships?
• What benefits and possibilities for support exist within girls' relationships with their fathers or other significant adult men in their lives?