Explores the lives, pastimes, and customs of teenagers in the United States of America. Includes full-color photographs, a historical timeline, a glossary, and further reading sources.

In innumerable discussions and activities dedicated to better understanding and helping teenagers, one aspect of teenage life is curiously overlooked. Very few such efforts pay serious attention to the role of religion and spirituality in the lives of American adolescents. But many teenagers are very involved in religion. Surveys reveal that 35% attend religious services weekly and another 15% attend at least monthly. 60% say that religious faith is important in their lives. 40% report that they pray daily. 25% say that they have been "born again." Teenagers feel good about the congregations they belong to. Some say that faith provides them with guidance and resources for knowing how to live well. What is going on in the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers? What do they actually believe? What religious practices do they engage in? Do they expect to remain loyal to the faith of their parents? Or are they abandoning traditional religious institutions in search of a new, more authentic "spirituality"? This book attempts to answer these and related questions as definitively as possible. It reports the findings of The National Study of Youth and Religion, the largest and most detailed such study ever undertaken. The NYSR conducted a nationwide telephone survey of teens and significant caregivers, as well as nearly 300 in-depth face-to-face interviews with a sample of the population that was surveyed. The results show that religion and spirituality are indeed very significant in the lives of many American teenagers. Among many other discoveries, they find that teenagers are far more influenced by the religious beliefs and practices of their parents and caregivers than commonly thought. They refute the conventional wisdom that teens are "spiritual but not religious." And they confirm that greater religiosity is significantly associated with more positive adolescent life outcomes. This eagerly-awaited volume not only provides an unprecedented understanding of adolescent religion and spirituality but, because teenagers serve as bellwethers for possible future trends, it affords an important and distinctive window through which to observe and assess the current state and future direction of American religion as a whole.

This important book is a call to action for the library community to address the literacy and life outcome gaps impacting African American youth. It provides strategies that enable school and public librarians to transform their services, programs, and collections to be more responsive to the literacy strengths, experiences, and needs of African American youth. According to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP), only 18 percent of African American fourth graders and 17 percent of African American eighth graders performed at or above proficiency in reading in 2013. This book draws on research from various academic fields to explore the issues surrounding African American literacy and to aid in developing culturally responsive school and library programs with the goal of helping to close the achievement gap and improve the quality of life for African American youth. The book merges the work of its three authors along with the findings of other researchers and practitioners, highlighting exemplary programs, such as the award-winning Pearl Bailey Library Program, the Maker Jawn initiative at the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate writing institute in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, among others. Readers will understand how these culturally responsive programs put theory and research-based best practices into local action and see how to adapt them to meet the needs of their communities.

This handbook fills major gaps in the child and adolescent mental health literature by focusing on the unique challenges and resiliencies of African American youth. It combines a cultural perspective on the needs of the population with best-practice approaches to interventions. Chapters provide expert insights into sociocultural factors that influence mental health, the prevalence of particular disorders among African American adolescents, ethnically salient assessment and diagnostic methods, and the evidence base for specific models. The information presented in this handbook helps bring the field closer to critical goals: increasing access to treatment, preventing misdiagnosis and over hospitalization, and reducing and ending disparities in research and care. Topics featured in this book include: The epidemiology of mental disorders in African American youth. Culturally relevant diagnosis and assessment of mental illness. Uses of dialectical behavioral therapy and interpersonal therapy. Community approaches to promoting positive mental health and psychosocial well-being. Culturally relevant psychopharmacology. Future directions for the field. The Handbook of Mental Health in African American Youth is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians and related professionals in child and school psychology, public health, family studies, child and adolescent psychiatry, family medicine, and social work.

Discover, part I of a three-part book, helps teenagers to grow in self-discovery, in their passions, and in their dreams. It also allows them to deal with low self-esteem, fear, and bullying, and it teaches them to develop a positive self-image. In this book, teenagers will learn to understand different concepts, such as purpose, gift, skill, potential, friendship, job, passion, and much more. Transform, part II of a three-part book, shows teenagers how to be transformed and how to understand the process required to grow from within and become a person who displays character and good values. This part helps teenagers to picture themselves as leaders who take ownership of their choices and who apply concepts and principles that teach them how to become more responsible. Influence, part III of a three-part book, teaches teenagers to influence the world in which they live and to grow in the concept of leadership. The world needs future leaders who understand good values and exemplify character; leaders who serve their people without selfish motives and who love the people around them. In this part, teenagers will learn to change their mindset about how to become successful and how to positively influence their communities. Indeed, teenagers are looking for inspiration; they are looking for something different that will change their self-paradigms and how they see the world. Hopefully, having this book in schools as part of the curriculum will help teenagers become global citizens of tomorrow. I believe that through this books, teachers, parents, and teenagers will be inspired, transformed, and motivated to become better versions of themselves. It would benefit schools to balance theory with practice and allow students to discover themselves. These parts are mixed with inspirational quotes, self-developing topics, and coaching questions to allow teenagers to discover where they are in life and focus on what they want to accomplish. This book is teenager-friendly and will guide teens to understand the action steps they need to take in order to embrace their destinies.

"Korean-American Youth Identity and 9/11: An Examination of Korean-American Ethnic Identity in Post-9/11 America" by Professor Heerak Christian Kim of Asia Evangelical College and Seminary is a very important book in the area of ethnic studies in post-9/11 America. Although many books have been written on 9/11, there has not been adequate examination of its impact for particular ethnic groups. Even scholars of ethnic studies seem to ignore 9/11 as an event that is incidental to self-understanding and group identity of America's ethnic groups. This book is a step in the right direction in computing 9/11 into the study of ethnic identity and experience in America. This book specifically focuses on Korean-American identity, particularly in regards to Korean-American youth. However, this scholarly examination is further significant in its sensitivity to the ethnic experience of other Asian-Americans and in its examination of Korean-American identity as negotiated in the context of the larger dominant culture of America. And this book contributes further to the understanding of ethnic identity in the United States by devoting an important chapter to the dynamics of inter-ethnic relations between Korean-Americans and African-Americans. Besides being a monumental contribution to the understanding of ethnic identity in comparative terms, this book represents an important contribution to Korean-American studies. This book is the most up-to-date book on Korean-American youth identity and provides the scholarly community with valuable information regarding which direction to take future research regarding Korean-American identity and the Asian-American experience in the United States. As Asian-Americans are rising in terms of number and influence, the need for understanding their identity becomes important on academic, social, political, economic, and intellectual levels. This book is a very important book to meet the rising need that has been largely neglected in academia and in the publishing industry thus far. This book is an essential addition to all serious university libraries, public libraries, and private personal libraries of educated individuals.

In this practical guidebook, experienced librarians—a public librarian and a school librarian—share advice and ideas for extending resources, containing costs, and leveraging capabilities between school and public libraries, offering insights and strategies to overcome today's economic challenges. The current economic crisis has had a drastic impact on both public and school libraries. As budgets shrink, resources become scarcer, and the job of the librarian becomes harder. The conundrum of doing more with less challenges even the most seasoned professionals whose institutions face service cutbacks, disappointed patrons, and possible job eliminations or closures. This book asserts that a collaboration between school and public libraries can effectively serve the needs of two populations—teens and the community at large—while minimizing the cost to do so. Better Serving Teens through School Library–Public Library Collaborations offers thought-provoking advice and ideas for practical use in real-world libraries. The authors provide step-by-step guidance for those who wish to start, strengthen, or extend a partnership with colleagues at a sister library, covering topics ranging from teen advisory boards and collaborative programs to homework help and professional development. Veterans in the field, as well as beginners, can utilize the wealth of tools within—including worksheets, timelines, and checklists—to leverage the capabilities of other agencies tp fortify both their own and their institutions' value.