Educational and Supportive Services for Adolescents Living With their Families

Abstract

Where do adolescents and their families turn when the school sends that final notice of expulsion, when conflict in the home has reached such unbearable levels that parents are prompted to request the immediate placement of the adolescent, when parents get that feared call from the police saying that they have picked up their child for possession of drugs, or when the hospital emergency room calls to say that their son or daughter was one of five teenagers in a car crash? Where does the youngster turn when he or she just can’t make it in school, can’t find a job, feels awkward because his or her body is so much smaller or bigger than classmates’, feels so down and alone that life is not worth living any longer? While some families manage to cope with the stresses, problems, and crises of the adolescent phase by relying on friends, relatives, and the religious group they belong to, as we saw in the Olson and McCubbin (1983) study, other families desperately need and use support from community services under public and private auspices.