"In this guide, Jennifer Burek Pierce provides a look at today''s teen through the lens of neurological, psychological, and educational research. Putting this research in the context of library services, she challenges librarians to question their assumptions about teen patrons and provides new answers based on research findings. Much as early literacy research informed library services to our youngest patrons, Sex, Brains, and Video Games outlines what others who work with adolescents have learned from their professional activities and how that knowledge can encourage new priorities and partnerships in youth services." "With further reading suggestions rounding out each chapter, this guide offers school, public, and academic librarians further ways of thinking about young adults and the services provided for them."--BOOK JACKET.
Sex, Brains, and Video Games A Librarian’s Guide to Teens in the Twenty-first Century Jennifer Burek Pierce Sex, Brains, and Video Games A Librarian’s Guide to Teens in the Twenty-first Century Jennifer Burek Pierce AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION Chicago 2008 While extensive effort has gone into ensuring the reliability of information appearing in this book, the publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, on the accuracy or reliability of the information, and does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in this publication Composition by ALA Editions in Electra and Sans using InDesign 2 for a PC platform Printed on 50-pound white offset, a pH-neutral paper stock, and bound in 10-point cover stock by McNaughton & Gunn The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. ∞ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Burek Pierce, Jennifer Sex, brains, and video games : a librarian’s guide to teens in the twenty-fi rst century / Jennifer Burek Pierce p. cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN-13: 978-0-8389-0951-5 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8389-0951-5 (alk. paper) 1. Libraries and teenagers —United States. 2. Adolescence—United States. 3. Teenagers—United States. I. Title Z718.5.B87 2008 027.62'6 dc22 2007021926 Copyright © 2008 by the American Library Association. All rights reserved except those which may be granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976 ISBN-13: 978-0-8389-0951-5 ISBN-10: 0-8389-0951-5 Printed in the United States of America 12 11 10 09 08 5 4 3 2 s For HS and MRB t s CONTENTS t ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii Introduction C H A P T E R O NE Myths and the American Teen 13 C hapter T W O Taking On the Teen Brain: Scientific Perspectives on Adolescence 21 C hapter T HR E E The Wired Generation: Connections and Limitations 50 C hapter F O U R Teen Sex: Facts and Fictions 86 C hapter f i v e Living in a Multicultural World: Diversifying Perspectives on Adolescence 110 C hapter si x Concluding Thoughts on Working with Teens in Libraries 120 INDEX 125 s ACKNOWLEDGMENTS t In writing a first book, one learns how much the seemingly individual author depends on the support of others Considerable thanks are due these friends and colleagues Among them, Mary K Chelton, my editor for a previous essay on adolescence, has proved a steadfast and gracious mentor in publishing and other scholarly endeavors Thanks to her and to publisher Ed Kurdyla for permission to revisit the chapter on adolescent sexual and reproductive health information seeking, which Scarecrow Press published in early 2007 My gratitude to American Libraries editor and publisher Leonard Kniffel for many years of kind encouragement and advice, as well as his permission to include selected work first published in the magazine, is substantial The patient and thoughtful encouragement of Laura Pelehach, my editor for this project, is likewise much appreciated, as is the attention of copy editor Cynthia Fostle Beverly Goldberg and Andrew Ho provided feedback that helped me move forward with confidence, and Bethany Templeton’s untiring efforts in obtaining articles and corralling my errant citations were essential to completing this manuscript Thanks, too, to Emily Pawley, who at Christmas 2005 told me to stir the mince pie filling and make a wish vii s Introduction t A s a friend and I planned a casual outdoor dinner one summer night, she offered the following head count: “We’ve got six adults, three kids, and possibly two aliens.” It’s not that she anticipated that the Midwest might become a landing site for extraterrestrials “Aliens” was her label for the teens of the household, who were as likely to be lured away from home by a spontaneous call from friends or simply to avoid the gathering even without competing invitations as to join us for our traditional Memorial Day barbecue It was said affectionately and with laughter, yet this characterization of teens reflected a certain amount of bewilderment—and tolerance—for the changes that were taking place in their lives It implied questions like Who are these young people? It acknowledged the sometimes sudden and seemingly unpredictable changes in teens’ behavior It suggested the difficulty of knowing what is going on in adolescents’ lives and minds If this is how parents, present in their lives from the beginning, feel about adolescents, how are those of us who work in libraries, who may see teens only sporadically and for short periods, supposed to work effectively with them? This book seeks, perhaps ambitiously, to address these and other questions about adolescent development based on contemporary research It draws on the fact that many individuals are asking questions about adolescent development While having the potential to inform library services to young adults, much of this research is itself relatively young and in inflected by religious and other norms Reflections of those values, as well as our own descriptions of professional culture, should inform our service objectives In young adult collections and programming, we need to enrich our understanding of adolescence to include multiple dimensions of what occurs as youth begin to take on adult roles and responsibilities The notion of adolescence as a time of transition, in particular, seems valuable in this context, invoking change and multiple aspects of identity rather than emphasizing a fixed idea of what it means to be a teen Further, the way we define our collections for young people has consequences In efforts to respond to young people’s interests, youth collections feature materials that libraries once categorically rejected Yet to think of chart-topping contemporary music, popular magazines, and certain kinds of electronic resources as the core of a young adult collection has the potential to flatten our sense of what it means to be a teen in the twenty-first century Despite the genuine appeal these materials hold for many young people, their value has been questioned in other contexts At the same time that media critics have argued that mass media tend to homogenize individuals and encourage a consumer culture, other researchers have begun to indicate that the adolescent media market is in fact more segmented than commonly believed Does respect for and professional work with individual teens involve seeing popular materials as most important to meeting youth information and entertainment needs? Instead, diversifying our ideas about adolescence would enhance our potential to connect with young people For Further Reading Curry, Ann “If I Ask, Will They Answer? Evaluating Public Library Reference Service to Gay and Lesbian Youth.” Reference and User Services Quarterly 45, no (Fall 2005): 65–75 An unobtrusive study of inquiries at the reference desk by a female teen seeking information related to gay and lesbian issues garnered mixed results The teen proxy who asked for information rated librarians on approachability, comfort levels during the reference interview, and appropriateness of responses to her questions Curry describes behaviors and utterances that the teen found welcoming, as well as those that suggested disapproval or discomfort Robbins, Louise The Dismissal of Miss Ruth Brown New ed Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001 The highly readable story of Miss Ruth Brown, a liberal librarian whose efforts to integrate library services led to her being fired on pretenses of collecting communist resources, offers historical perspective on the field’s responses to issues of civil rights and intellectual freedom 118 st Living in a Multicultural World Tyson, Timothy B Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story New York: Crown Books, 2004 Although not about libraries, this powerful, award-winning narrative provides a striking perspective on race issues and the civil rights movement in the American South Used by a number of libraries and partner organizations as a One Community, One Book selection, Tyson’s autobiographical investigation of a black man’s murder is, as one commentator has observed, a reminder that “changes in race relations have not come about peacefully or quickly” and that “much remains to be done.”13 Informal reader commentaries posted on the Web insist that this book should be read by everyone, and this reader agrees Notes Margaret Edwards, The Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1969), 50–62 Louise Robbins, The Dismissal of Miss Ruth Brown, new ed (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001) American Library Association, Freedom to Read statement (adopted June 25, 1953), http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/ftrstatement/ freedomreadstatement.htm ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Documents Arranged by Subject, www.ala.org/ ala/oif/statementspols/statementspols.html Jeffrey Rosen, “The Way We Live Now: School Colors,” New York Times Magazine, September 24, 2006, 15 Glen E Holt, “Fitting Library Services into the Lives of the Poor,” Bottom Line 19, no (2006): 179–186 Eyal Press, “Do Immigrants Make Us Safer?” New York Times Magazine, December 3, 2006, 20 Rachel L Swarns, “Hispanic Teenagers with Outsider Roots Are Finding a Way In,” New York Times, December 31, 2006, A16 A Brock, “A Belief in Humanity Is a Belief in Colored Men: Using Culture to Span the Digital Divide,” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 11, no 1, article 17 (2005), http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue1/brock.html 10 Jennifer Chance Cook, “GLBTQ Teen Literature: Is It Out There in Indiana?” Indiana Libraries 23, no (2004): 25–28; Ann Curry, “If I Ask, Will They Answer? Evaluating Public Library Reference Service to Gay and Lesbian Youth,” Reference and User Services Quarterly 45, no (Fall 2005): 65–75 11 Elizabeth Weil, “What If It’s (Sort of) a Boy and (Sort of) a Girl?” New York Times Magazine, September 24, 2006, 50–51 12 “Population Reports: Meeting the Needs of Young Adults,” Family Planning Programs, ser J, no 41 (October 1995): 13 Susan Garrett, quoted in “Memoir about Racially Motivated Murder Earns International Religion Award,” press release, Grawemeyer Foundation at University of Louisville, December 1, 2006, http://www.grawemeyer.org/ news-updates/religion07.html Living in a Multicultural World st 119 s C H A P T E R SIX Concluding Thoughts on Working with Teens in Libraries t I n her deservedly famous Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts, Margaret Edwards described library work with adolescents as simple—“as simple as ABC,” she wrote, where A is “sympathetic understanding of all adolescents,” B refers to “firsthand knowledge of all the books that interest them,” and C equals “mastery of the technique of getting these books into the hands of adolescents.”1 This attempt to demystify young adult services was a noble one, yet the environment in which we function is not the world where Edwards broke new ground with her efforts to make teens welcome in the library Instead of combing adult collections and an emerging teen-oriented publishing market for the relatively few books suited to the adolescent reader, we now have a veritable universe of resources for adolescents Professional literature, electronic discussion lists, and proliferating award lists identify new and worthy volumes for us, in contrast to Edwards’s determined reading of books Even a truly voracious reader would be little likely to acquaint herself with everything written for adolescents in the twenty-first century, although less than a hundred years ago Edwards found it quite reasonable to expect a young adult librarian to read everything on the department’s shelves This changing information environment is one symptom of the need to modify our ideas about working with young people The appeal of Edwards’s model endures, not least because of the way she welcomed change She decried the way public libraries found them- 120 selves “stuck fast in yesterday” while the world around them worked to develop new bases for interactions and new guidelines for the institutions that served young people She urged librarians to be aware that lawyers are beginning to say that they must cease to rely so heavily on decisions made in the past for this is a new age with new problems High schools are seeking to interest more young people in finishing their educations and colleges are reexamining their philosophy and curricula to gain the confidence of young people Ministers and priests often join with youth to protest injustice, and the Catholic mass has been set to the music of young people.2 Librarians should understand that these phenomena are of renewed concern and interest in the twenty-first century In the wake of research on the adolescent brain, for example, lawyers are raising questions about when it is appropriate to charge teens as adults Schools continue to reassess whether they deliver instruction that provides needed skills and engages young people by taking advantage of ICTs and other contemporary developments And while much media attention focuses on youth interests in an at times stridently secular popular culture, in some communities religion informs the values and the priorities that teens encounter in their daily lives For all her awareness of the way the larger world had begun to reevaluate its norms, Edwards’s model for youth services centered on the book and the library Now, despite a YALSA vision statement that emphasizes more than this, in conversations with practitioners I often hear the echo of Edwards’s ideas Enjoying the books we work with and striving to know not only our own collection but also something of the breadth from which it is selected are still professional virtues, but they cannot be the only ones we possess To equate professional competence with understanding materials available for young people overlooks the increasing knowledge that is being generated about the young people we strive to serve Similarly, we must understand more than popular culture to formulate the professional activities that help young people read, think, and acquire literacy skills New information about developmental issues and the implications of ICT use suggest we ought not simply rush in where youth desire to tread The value of our own professional education ought to involve the ability to perform assessments grounded in information from researchers who belong to other disciplines as well as testimonials about young people’s new-found passion for an ICT or a related service Concluding Thoughts st 121 Evaluating the work we with teens should be key to the development of contemporary services and collections for teens Much more research is needed on this aspect of library services to young adults Understanding the effects of the media we collect is one aspect of the background necessary for this kind of work In addition to speaking to teens and to one another, as we when we create a new electronic discussion list to exchange ideas about music and media with other youth services librarians, we need to account for the voices of others who work in the content area and have begun to establish core knowledge.3 Then, seeking not just a snapshot of what occurred—how many teens attended a program or how many items circulated—but also the types of knowledge and behaviors that emerge afterward would help demonstrate the value of library services to the community Rather than relying on teens’ self-reported interests, we may want to test the theories of effects proposed by cognate fields, which seldom accept attitude as a predictor of future actions This book differs from many works on youth services in that it reframes how we view young people rather than offering straightforward ideas about what to in order to encourage them to visit our libraries No step-by-step guide to successful programming, its aim is to survey the contemporary research landscape for cues about how to understand young adulthood To borrow one of Edwards’s metaphors, it does not offer “provender for beasts.” Its focus is on how to think rather than on directions for what to In this, it is both informed and speculative, seeking conclusions from research that have not been tested yet in our libraries What it does suggest, though, is that the political and ideological assumptions we’ve used to ground decisions aren’t fully borne out by empirical research With the best of intentions, advocates for young adults have argued for full and open access to information resources and technologies, stemming from the assumption that teens are independent and fully capable individuals and that no harm comes from information or entertainment resources The indications emerging from developmental research, though, suggest that teens benefit from supported decision making Welcoming parents and other professionals who are positioned to aid these processes is a possible avenue into collaborative relationships, congruent with the existing YALSA mission Providing support, rather than withdrawing information access, is one potential means of addressing gaps between young adults’ skills and the difficulties of decision making In other words, truly empowering teens might mean something somewhat different than we’ve assumed in recent years It is to our advantage, and to 122 st Concluding Thoughts teens’ benefit as well, that this growing body of knowledge is available to draw on as we reflect on our ideals for professional service In this, we not have to reject the alphabet that Edwards relied on We should, however, use it to construct new vocabularies and ways of talking about the needs of our teen patrons We need not work alone to determine the sorts of change that might be appropriate in light of the emerging ideas about adolescent development and the effects of media; we could engage as partners others who want to understand teens in the twenty-first century Years ago, Edwards called on us to invite young adults into the library wholeheartedly; having done so, we ourselves now must venture outside it Understanding Adolescents: Centers That Study Teen Well-Being Who wants to understand teens? Many researchers are making the effort Many policy and research centers exist across the country, and any number of them may periodically offer information about teens that can help librarians understand their young patrons This selection of centers focuses on those that regularly include teens as part of their research programs and often make at least some of their findings available either via the Web or other low-cost outlets All operate as not-for-profit centers and are nonpartisan, although they work to identify social issues and advocate for meaningful solutions Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation, www.kff.org This foundation’s focus on health issues reflects a broad perspective that recognizes the many factors that contribute to well-being Entertainment media and health and youth HIV/STDs are two areas of its research that should interest YA librarians National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, www.teenpregnancy.org The specific mission of this organization is to reduce teen pregnancy rates in the United States This results in a number of studies, educational programs, and community outreach efforts The center’s interest in working directly with teens and including their voices in its efforts to secure better futures for young people is consonant with YA librarians’ interests in speaking with teens, not at them Check here for recent studies and teen-generated materials, like public service announcements (PSAs) created and chosen by young people Concluding Thoughts st 123 National Institute on Media and the Family, www.mediafamily.org This organization studies how media affect young people and the ways parents and others can maximize the good and minimize the less than ideal aspects of young people’s media use The institute understands library’s roles and has featured an information literacy education program created by a teacherlibrarian on its site RAND Corporation, www.rand.org Child policy, which includes adolescents, and education are among RAND’s present areas of research Its analyses in these areas look at the impact of institutions, environmental factors, and more on young people A related area, the Promising Practices Network, may also offer useful resources The Urban Institute, www.urban.org The Urban Institute focuses on social problems with economic causes and effects Despite its name, its findings are relevant outside cities, too Adolescents are among the groups this center studies, and the website contains a link to its studies on teens Notes Margaret Edwards, The Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1969), 16 Ibid., 116 See, e.g., YALSA’S “Teen Music and Media” discussion list, at http://lists.ala org/wws/info/ya-music/ 124 st Concluding Thoughts s INDEX t A ABC News, 95 abused children protection of, 16–17 and right of privacy, access to information See rights of adolescents Add Health survey, 92–93 adolescent behavior See teen behaviors adolescent psychology, 5, adolescents, myths about as adults-in-waiting, 14–15, 24, 44 hating parents, 16–17 as technologically savvy, 17–18 as unhealthy, 17 as united by mass media, 18–19 adult interactions with teens, 66–67, 75 See also best interests of the teenager affective systems, 39–41 affirmative action, 111–112 Aftab, Parry, 54 aggressiveness and video games, 62 alcohol consumption, 68, 92 American Academy of Pediatrics, 91, 114 American Library Association statements on young people, 45, 111 appropriation of knowledge, 59 B Bandura, Albert, 69 Bean, Mary A., 2–3 Berry, John, 104 best interests of the teenager and brain development, 22–23, 27, 34, 42 and effect of media, 57, 64, 74–75 and sexuality, 89–90, 100–101 See also intellectual freedom issues; rights of adolescents bibliographies brain research, 46–47 electronic media in adolescent lives, 79–81 multiculturalism, 118–119 myths about teens, 19–20 sexual information, 105–106 birth control information, 100, 104 blogs, 59, 73 Bobo doll study, 69 body image, 68 125 books and reading controversial titles, 87, 99 and multitasking, 55–56 boys and brain research, 43 and gender differences, 79 and sexual information, 103 brain, regions of, 28–30 brain development applications of research, 22, 27 changing understanding of, 14–15 cognitive changes in, 24–27 use of studies, 21 brain research bibliography, 46–47 information-seeking activities, 21–22 and programming, 22–23 and rights of adolescents, 34–35, 45, 122 sex-linked differences, 43 video games, 63–64 Brown, Jane D., 77–79 Brown, Ruth, 110 C Carskadon, Mary, 36–37 Cart, Michael, 116 cerebellum, 29 cerebrum, 28 Chambers, Aidan, 116–117 Charlotte and Mecklenburg County Public Library, 71–74 chat rooms, 76 Cole, George, collection development goals for, 118 media, 74 and sexuality, 100–101 video games, 64 communications research and multitasking, 54–56 and teen sexuality, 97 and teen use of media, 8, 53–54 community, influence of, 15–16, 89 controversial titles, 87, 99 core values, 5–6 Czarnecki, Kelly, 71–74 126 st Index D Dahl, Ronald, 38–41 decision-making abilities, 45 Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), 87–88 dendrites, 29 developmental issues, 121 digital natives, 52 disabled children brain function in, 43 and video games, 66 diversity, 111 See also multiculturalism; race and ethnicity driving, age for, 41 E Earls, Felton, 15 education research, Edwards, Margaret, 110, 120–121, 123 electronic media, 50–85 and adolescent well-being, 67–68 and information literacy, 57–59 multitasking, 54–56 music, 68, 70–71, 79, 97, 100 role of, 51–52 statistics, 56 video games, 9, 10, 60–67 See also mass media electronic media in adolescent lives, bibliography, 79–81 emergency contraception, 104 emotions, 39–41 entertainment interests of YAs, 18–19 environmental factors, 24, 31 environments, safe for testing limits in, 62–63 ethics of using brain research, 42 ethnic groups and environment of library, 115 explosive responses to even mild comments, 25 Eye4You Alliance, 71–74 F facial expressions, 25–26, 35–36 feelings, 39–41 filtering, 42 forgetfulness, 25 fragmentation of knowledge, 59 frontal lobe, 28, 31 G Gee, James Paul, 59, 61, 62 gender differences in brain research, 43 in sexual information, 103 in use of media, 79 Generation M, 52 Generation We, 52 genre books, GenTech, 52 Giedd, Jay, 26–27, 31, 32, 44 Green, Samuel S., guidance for young people, 100–102 See also best interests of the teenager Gullett, Matt, 71–74 Guttmacher Institute, 92, 93 H Hall, G Stanley, 5, harm to adolescents, 104, 122 Harper’s, 10, 58 health and sexual information, 17, 89, 99–100, 102–103 health researchers, 8–9 health-oriented gaming, 64–65 helicopter parents, 14 Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation, 93, 123 HIV risks and video games, 65 Holt, Glen E., 112 homosexuality conceptualizing questions about, 114 information about, 103 in surveys, 93 hormones and teen behavior, 37–38 human papillomavirus (HPV), 102 hypothalamus, 29 I ICT See information and communication technology IM, 75 ImaginOn project, 71–73 immigrant populations and police statistics, 113 impulsivity, 25, 31 information and communication technology (ICT), 53, 56, 57–59, 74–77, 121 information literacy and interactive technology, 57–59 and learning, promotion of, 76 and technology, 53 and video games, 62–63, 67 See also media literacy information-seeking activities, 22 intellectual freedom issues and brain research, 4, 5, 45–46, 101–102 and causing harm, 104 and sexual content, 87–88 See also best interests of the teenager; rights of adolescents interactive technology, 57–59, 74 International Consortium for Brain Mapping, 42 Internet inaccuracies about people of color, 113–114 library websites, 37, 88, 99 and teen sleep patterns, 37 website evaluation, 99 See also online safety interpersonal communications, intersex disorders, 114 iPods and hearing loss, 57 K Katz, James E., 75 KGOY (Kids Getting Older Younger), 14 Koster, Ralph, 59 L language learning abilities, 39–40 learning and brain plasticity, 32 and multitasking, 55 video games for, 65 legal rights See rights of adolescents Index st 127 library hours, 37 library services and implications of brain research, 22, 27, 34, 42 library staff, 34–35, 36 library websites and controversial content, 88 sexual information on, 99 and teen sleep patterns, 37 lifelong learning and brain research, 21–22 literacy See information literacy; media literacy low-level literacy skills, 101, 103 M Manlove, Jennifer, 95 market researchers, 14 mass media and communications researchers, image of adolescence in, 10, 13, 18–19 sexual content in, 77–79, 97–98, 100–101, 104 See also electronic media media See electronic media; mass media Media Awareness Network, 66 media diet, 74–75, 78 media literacy, 67–68, 76, 77–79 See also information literacy medulla oblongata, 29 minorities See race and ethnicity morning aversion, 25 motivation, 24, 39 movies, 68 multiculturalism, 110–119 bibliography, 118–119 conditions of diversity, 112–115 and library services, 110–112, 117–118 and mass media, 19 multitasking, 54–56 music and diversity, 79 and media literacy, 68 sexual content in, 97, 100 teens’ use of, 70–71 myelin, 30 128 st Index N National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 93, 95, 96, 123 National Center for Health Statistics, 93 National Institute on Media and the Family, 124 National Survey of Family Growth, 93 neurons, 29 neuroscience, definition, 23 New Yorker, 10 night owl behaviors, 36–37 No Child Left Behind, 112 noise in library, 34–35 non-English speakers, 115 O observation as learning mechanism, 69 occipital lobe, 29 older (college-age) teens and YA services, 32 online safety Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), 87–88 and media literacy, 74, 76 and teen use of media, 54 outreach to impoverished people, 112 P parents adolescents’ relation to, 16–17, 122 and sexual content, 89, 102, 104 parents, outreach to and communication with teens, 42, 79 and media, 74–75 and video games, 67 parietal lobe, 29 Piaget, Jean, 9, 24, 38, 40 plasticity of brain, 32–33, 39–41 Plato, 57 Poldrack, Russell, 55 political activism and video games, 65 pons, 29 popular media See electronic media; mass media Postman, Neil, 67 poverty, 112 prefrontal cortex, 31, 36 privacy, right of, 4, 102 programming, 18–19, 22–23 Progressive Era, librarianship in, pruning in brain development, 32–33 psychologists, public health educators, 101 public health researchers, 90 R race and ethnicity and different media, 79 and environment of library, 115 and sexual activity, 92 in video games, 66 rainbow parties, 94, 95 RAND Corporation, 97, 124 rap music, 70–71 ratings for video games, 64 Reeves, Byron, 57 reflective time, 55–56 reluctant readers, Re-Mission, 65 research, evaluation of, 95–96, 98, 105 restrictions on materials See intellectual freedom issues Rideout, Victoria, 53 rights of adolescents age of consent for medical care, 103 and brain research, 34–35, 45, 122 privacy, 4, 102 See also best interests of the teenager; intellectual freedom issues risk-taking behaviors and age for driving, 41 and brain plasticity, 33–34 in chat rooms, 76 and filtering, 42 and sexual activity, 78, 90–91 and video games, 61 Rocky Horror Picture Show, 35 S scaffolding (support structures), 44–45 Second Life, 60, 66 segmented programming, 18–19 self-talk/self-narratives, 39 series fiction, 79 sex-linked differences See gender differences sexual abstinence, 68, 89, 99, 102 sexual content in fiction, 87 sexual messages in media, 68, 70–71, 77–79 sexual orientation, 114 See also homosexuality sexuality bibliography, 105–106 casual sex, 96 oral sex, 93–95 provision of information about, 88–89 research in, 89–90 statistics on, 91–93, 95–96, 98, 104 and video games, 65 sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and infections (STI), 90, 96 sleep patterns, 36–37, 40 smoking, 68 social networking, 19 Society for Adolescent Medicine, 104 staff, 34–35, 36 stereotyping of immigrant populations, 113 in video games, 66 support structures, 44–45 supported decision making, 122 See also best interests of the teenager surveys on sexual activity, 91–93, 95–96 synapses, 29 T technological change, implementation of, 76–77 technology quality of teen skills, 17–18 and teen culture, 75 YAs’ use of, 53 teen advisory boards, 78 teen behaviors and brain development, 25–26, 30–38 and hormones, 37–38 and library staff, 34–35 See also risk-taking behaviors teen culture myth of, 18–19 and technologies, 75 Index st 129 Teen Second Life, 71–74 teenagers, definition, television, 100 temporal lobe, 28 texting, 75 thalamus, 29 Tolman, Deborah, 91, 96–97 tweens, definition, U Urban Institute, 93, 94, 124 V values, support of and sexual content, 89 and video games, 65 video games benefits of, 64–67 and brain research, 63–64 concerns about, 60–64, 66 and education research, as interactive technology, 57–58 and popular press, 10 violence in, 57, 61–64 violence effects of observation of, 69 in police statistics, 113 130 st Index and sexual activity, 96 and video games, 57, 61–64 virtual worlds, 71–74 volunteer training for teens, 42 W Warlick, David, 58–59 Wartella, Ellen, 57 website evaluation strategies, 99 women attitudes about sexuality, 96–97 in video games, 66 Y young adult literature, 87, 116–117 young adult services history, 2–6, 101, 110, 120 research on, 121 young adults definitions, 6–7, 117–118 as individuals, 117 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), 92 Yurgelun-Todd, Deborah, 35 Jennifer Burek Pierce is assistant professor of library and information science at the University of Iowa, where she teaches courses in resources for children and young adults Her research focuses on sexual and reproductive health information for adolescents and on young people as readers She writes a column, “Youth Matters,” for American Libraries [...]... expertise to support outreach and other programming for young adults Communication researchers are strongly interested in teens’ involve ment with mass media Their definition of mass media encompasses television and radio, magazines and newspapers, the World Wide Web and video games, and even movies, music, and blogs These researchers use diverse methods to see what programs and pages attract teen attention,... Brown and Carol J Pardun, “Little in Common: Racial and Gender Differences in Adolescents’ Television Diets,” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 48, no 2 (June 2004): 272 7 Amanda Lenhart and Mary Madden, Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview (Washington, D.C.: Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2007), http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/198/report_display.asp 20 st Myths and. .. them A glance at newsstand offerings shows publications like Harper’s and even the New Yorker joining the conversation that others, including Newsweek and the Washington Post, have made a recurring feature in recent years There are discussions of how the brain grows and changes, whether girls’ and boys’ brains harbor sex-linked differences, teens’ sleep patterns and alertness, and the social environments... media depictions of real young people and supported by experts whose advice may speak to parents and teachers but less so to librarians Yet it is equally important for librarians to understand and apply emerging research on adolescence in their service planning, collection management, and other work with teens Our abilities to welcome young people into our facilities and to engage their interests can... Can Understand the Interests of TwentyFirst-Century Youth by Paying Attention to the Entertainment Media Marketed toward Them A great deal of writing, past and present, supposes a common youth culture From Disney and other animated films to MySpace, it is often assumed that young people consume certain media products that result in common understanding and shared cultural references and reflect... information and freedom to read in a Library Bill of Rights and similar statements supporting individual opportunities for access There is training in serving the underserved These and other activities show librarians’ commitment to connecting young people and ideas of many sorts and in many forms, of meeting obligations to young people that others have neglected Yet this enthusiasm for equality of users and. .. young people’s abilities to understand the world around them and to respond reflectively, yet this development also has limitations Thinking of development as a transitional process affected by environment and other conditions, rather than as an on-off switch that suddenly and dramatically changes teens’ perceptions or skills, is crucial to understanding teens’ attitudes and actions Adolescent brain development,... testing, and more Their youthful virtues and vices receive, if not the sort of outcry that has arisen in the past when teens evinced values and behaviors that differed from their parents’ ideals, then certainly a fair amount of media attention Not all contentions about youth cohere, nor do the portrayals always stand up to scrutiny Some media outlets turn our attention to the extremes of youth culture, and. .. researchers are considering the effects of video games on young people’s cognition These findings regarding literacy and learning are of potential use for librarians These are some of the fields on which LIS practitioners can draw in their efforts to provide meaningful and appropriate services to young adults The studies conducted in these areas alternately build on and revise what we know about young people... they mature “If you want to understand something about human devel opment in urban environments, you have to come to Chicago,” Earls said His research, which shows a complex interaction between neighborhood environments and health, cautions against stereotyping and easy generalizations Earls and his research team sought to explain apparently unrelated illness and mortality rates, ultimately finding