Sara Tinney

This topic was based upon Adolescence: Canadian Edition chapter four and five (pp. 109-185). The other important resource for this topic is Involving Parents (PDF link below).

 

For our flex-learning activity the following case study was posted on eClass for EDPY 304:

You are a grade nine teacher who is pretty pleased with how the school year is going. There are two students, however, you just can't quite figure out. Dionte seemed like a nice kid at that start of the year but is now causing problems. He has become disrespectful, aggressive, and tardy. On the other hand, Sara seems to have come out of her shell. At first, she was shy and withdrawn but she has become quite outgoing and appears to have a bunch of new friends, but her grades are suffering.

 

Considering our class discussion, I would gather information from both the parent/family system and the peer/friend system. These two systems are related as adolescents relationships to these systems are changing. the family system remains influential but the power that peer systems hold over adolescent’s increases as teens spend more time with friends, asking for their advice before or instead of asking parents/family. The family system is important as this is the environment that shaped each adolescent into who they are currently. The peer system is important as adolescents spend more time with their peers than with their families. This means the types of friends an adolescent surrounds themselves with and how they interact with them has significant influence over their development at this point in their lives.