NCJ Number
181062
Journal
Reaching Today's Youth Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Dated: Fall 1999 Pages: 31-35
Editor(s)
Alan M. Blankstein,
Lyndal M. Bullock
Date Published
1999
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article offers strategies adults and other young people can use to reach depressed youth who turn from the pathway of retreat to the pathway of vengeance.
Abstract
American culture has dramatically changed over the past century, and one of the negative by-products has been a record number of troubled young people. Children who are troubled respond in one of two ways: they either externalize it or they internalize it. One prominent youth researcher (Trieschman) indicates that the core problem of many troubled children is profound sadness. These children need adults to help them develop the courage to master loss and sadness in the circumstances of daily living and to prevent sadness from turning into depression. Experts estimate as many as 1 in 20 American pre-teenagers and adolescents suffers from clinical depression. Further, an examination of recent school violence incidents shows two common characteristics of perpetrators they were victims of bullying and they suffered from depression. Vengeance is a common theme in many acts of violence by juveniles. To reach depressed youth, the author recommends that youth be mobilized to reach their peers and prevent school bullying. 12 references and 1 figure