Arnett Chapter 13 &
Osgood et al. Chapter 1
Megan D’Antonio
Candace Lopez
Emily Berndt
Two Types of Problems

Internalizing Problems
 Problems such as depression and anxiety
that affect a person’s internal world, for
example depression, anxiety, and eating
disorders.

Externalizing Problems
 Problems that affect a person’s external
world, such as delinquency and fighting.
Internalizing vs. Externalizing

Internalizing Problems:
 Affects a person’s
internal world
 Also called
Overcontrolled
 Includes: depression,
anxiety, & eating
disorders
 Parents exercise tight
psychological control
 More common among
female

Externalizing Problems:
 Affects a person’s external
world
 Also called
Undercontrolled
 Includes: delinquency,
fighting, substance use,
risky driving, &
unprotected sex
 Parental monitoring and
control is lacking
 More common among
males
Externalizing Problems

Terms to know:
 Risk behavior – problems that involve the
risk of negative outcomes, such as risky
driving and substance use.
 Problem behavior – behavior that young
people engage in that is viewed by adults as
a source of problems, such as unprotected
premarital sex and substance use.
Risky Automobile Driving

Across industrialized counties, the most serious
threat to the lives and health of adolescents and
emerging adults in automobile driving.
 Ages 16-24 has the highest rates of automobile
accidents, injuries, & fatalities
 Young drivers (especially males) are more likely to
drive at excessive speeds, follow other vehicles to
closely, violate traffic signs and signals, take more risks
in lane changing and passing other vehicles, allow to
little time to merge, and fail to yield to pedestrians.
 Young people are less likely than older drivers to wear
seat belts.
Substance Use

Substance use – use of substances that
have cognitive and mood-altering
effects, including alcohol, cigarettes, and
illegal drugs such as marijuana, LSD,
and cocaine.
 Research on American adolescents shows
that substance use rates continue to rise
past age 15, through the end of high school.
Binge Drinking

Binge Drinking – drinking a large
number of alcoholic drinks in one
episode, usually defined as drinking five
or more alcoholic drinks in a row.
 43% of American high school seniors used
alcohol
 28% reported binge drinking at least once in
the past month.
More on Substance Use…
Substance use in adolescence is highest
among Native Americans, followed by
White and Latino adolescents, with African
American and Asian American adolescents
lowest.
 The peak of substance use actually comes
not in adolescence but in emerging
adulthood.
 Substance use, especially alcohol use, is
highest among emerging adults who are in
college.

The Sequence of Substance Use

Substance use in adolescence and emerging
adulthood has been found to follow a typical
sequence of four stages:
 1. Drinking beer and wine
 2. Smoking cigarettes and drinking hard liquor
 3. Smoking marijuana
 4. Using “hard” drugs
○ Beer, wine, cigarettes, and marijuana have been
called gateway drugs because young people who try
hard drugs have already passed through the “gates”
of these substances.
Substance Use and Abuse

Young people use substances for a variety of
purposes:
 Experimental – trying a substance once or perhaps a
few times out of curiosity.
 Social – the use of substances in the course of social
activities with one or more friends.
 Medicinal – substance use undertaken for the
purpose of relieving an unpleasant emotional state
such as sadness, anxiety, stress, or loneliness.
 Addictive – pattern of substance use in which a
person has come to depend on regular use of
substances to feel good physically and/or
psychologically.
Delinquency and Crime
The great majority of crimes are
committed by young people—mostly
males—who are between the ages 12
and 25.
 Crimes are acts that violate the law.
 Juveniles – persons defined by the legal
system as being young than adult
status.
 Delinquency – violations of the law
committed by juveniles.

Three Kinds of Criminal Acts


Status offenses – offenses such as running
away from home that are defined as violations
of the law only because they are committed by
juveniles.
Index crimes – serious crimes divided into two
categories:
 Violate crimes such as rape, assault, and murder
 Property crimes such as robbery, motor vehicle theft,
and arson

Nonindex crimes – crimes such as illegal
gambling, prostitution, and disorderly conduct,
considered less serious offenses than index
crimes.
Terrie Moffitt’s Two Kinds of
Delinquency
Life-Course-Persistent Delinquents
(LCPDs) – in Moffitt’s theory, adolescents
who show a history of related problems
both prior to and following adolescence.
 Adolescence-Limited Delinquents (ALDs) –
in Moffitt’s theory, delinquents who engage
in criminal acts in adolescence and/or
emerging adulthood but show no evidence
of problems before or after these periods.

Factors Involved in Risk Behavior

Family






Parenting Style
Monitoring
Parental Attitudes
Family Structure
Socioeconomic Status (SES)
Friends
 Selective Association
 Friends’ Influence

School
 School Climate
 Intellectual Balance
 Ethos

Neighborhood / Community
 Collective Identity
 Cohesion

Media





Sex
Violence
Substance Use
Risky Driving
Cultural Beliefs
 Traditional / American
 Religious Beliefs
 Legal Restrictions /
Punishments
 Ethnic Cultures