Teenage Girls : Exploring Issues Adolescent Girls Face and Strategies to Help Them

by Ginny Olson

• ISBN13: 9780310266327
• ISBN10: 0310266327
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-05-30
• Publisher: Zondervan

Summary

Girls are more than just sugar and spice. We've all figured that out. What we haven't figured out completely is how they're wired, why they do the things they do, how the world around them affects their choices and opinions, and what that means for youth ministry-until now.In Teenage Girls, you'll find advice from counselors and veteran youth workers, along with helpful suggestions on how to minister to teenage girls. Each chapter includes discussion questions to help you and other youth workers process the issues your own students face and learn how you can help them and mentor them through this tumultuous time.In addition to the traditional issues people commonly associate with girls, such as eating disorders, self-image issues, and depression, author Ginny Olson will guide you through some of the new issues on the rise in girls' lives.You'll understand more about issues related to:Family - Addiction - Emotional well-being - Mentalhealth - Physical welfare - Sexuality - Spirituality -Relationships

Table of Contents

No Tourists Need Apply	7	(8)
Identity Matters	15	(16)
Background	17	(2)
Influences on Identity Development	19	(1)
The Contexts of Identity Development	20	(7)
Self--Esteem	27	(1)
The Youth Worker's Role	28	(3)
The Adolescent Girl's Body---In Search of ``Normal''	31	(18)
Her Body Is Changing	33	(3)
Her Secondary Sex Characteristics	36	(2)
Her Primary Sex Characteristics	38	(4)
Early Maturation	42	(2)
Late Maturation	44	(1)
Strategies for Youth Workers	45	(1)
The Youth Worker's Role	46	(3)
The Adolescent Girl's Body---Body Issues	49	(24)
Body Image	51	(7)
Extreme Exercise	58	(1)
Obesity	58	(2)
Eating Disorders	60	(10)
Recovery and Treatment for Eating Disorders	70	(1)
The Youth Worker's Role	70	(3)
Altered State: Adolescent Girls and Self-Injury	73	(8)
Self-Injury	75	(3)
The Youth Worker's Role	78	(3)
Dating Matters	81	(16)
A Little Dating History	83	(1)
Stages of Dating: Early Adolescence	83	(2)
Stages of Dating: Middle Adolescence	85	(3)
Emerging Patterns and Issues	88	(5)
The Youth Worker's Role	93	(4)
Sex Matters	97	(24)
Girls' Sexual Activity---by the Numbers	98	(2)
Oral Sex: The New Game in Town	100	(2)
Incest and Sexual Abuse	102	(2)
Pregnancy and Abortion	104	(4)
Sexually Transmitted Diseases	108	(5)
Same-Sex Attraction	113	(8)
Emotional Matters	121	(22)
The Turmoil of the Adolescent Girl's Emotions	123	(4)
Stress and Anxiety	127	(4)
Depression	131	(6)
Suicide	137	(3)
The Youth Worker's Role	140	(3)
Brain Matters: Cognitive and Educational Issues	143	(18)
Gender Differences	148	(2)
A Girl's Mental Development: Issues	150	(9)
The Youth Worker's Role	159	(2)
Family Matters	161	(22)
When Puberty Hits...	162	(3)
The Role of Mothers	165	(3)
The Role of Fathers	168	(3)
The Impact of Divorce	171	(4)
Siblings	175	(3)
Immigrant Family Issues	178	(4)
The Youth Worker's Role	182	(1)
Friendship Matters	183	(16)
How Friendships Change from Childhood to Adolescence	185	(4)
How Girls' Friendships Differ from Boys' Friendships	189	(2)
Girls and Relational Aggression	191	(4)
Girls and Violence	195	(1)
The Youth Worker's Role	196	(3)
Faith Matters	199	(12)
Pre-Adolescent Faith	201	(1)
Early Adolescent Faith	202	(3)
Middle Adolescent Faith	205	(1)
Alternative Spirituality	206	(3)
The Youth Worker's Role	209	(2)
Notes	211

Excerpts

Teenage Girls: Exploring Issues Adolescent Girls Face and Strategies to Help Them
Copyright © 2006 by Ginny Olson
Youth Specialties products, 300 South Pierce Street, El Cajon, CA 92020 are published by
Zondervan, 5300 Patterson Avenue Southeast, Grand Rapids, MI 49530.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Olson, Ginny.
Teenage girls : exploring the issues that adolescent girls face and the strategies to help them /
by Ginny Olson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-10: 0-310-26632-7 (pbk.)
ISBN-13: 0-310-26632-7 (pbk.)
1. Church work with teenagers. 2. Teenage girls--Religious life. I. Title.
BV4447.O485 2006
259’.23--dc22
2006003986
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New
International Version (North American Edition). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International
Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or
any other (except for brief quotations in printed reviews) without the prior permission of the
publisher.
Web site addresses listed in this book were current at the time of publication. Please contact
Youth Specialties via e-mail ([e-mail]) to report URLs that are no longer
operational and replacement URLs if available.
Creative Team: Dave Urbanski, Laura Gross, Heather Haggerty, Janie Wilkerson, and Mark
Novelli
Cover design by Burnkit
Printed in the United States
06 07 08 09 10 • 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CHAPTER ONE
IDENTITY MATTERS
Elise watched Karla drift into the youth room with a
swarm of boys surrounding her, basking in her glow.
With a flip of her dark brown hair, she’d smile at the
ones who made her laugh—and they were all trying.
Her short denim skirt was slung low around her hips,
her long legs seemed to stretch into oblivion, and one
strap of her black knit tank top was resting provocatively
off one shoulder. Even the guy leaders turned
their heads when she walked in. Elise just shook her
head. Karla was only 15, but she’d already mastered
the art of flirting.
They were starting small groups that night, and
Elise was dismayed to learn that Karla was in her
group. If Elise were honest, she’d admit that Karla
intimidated her. She had never really talked to Karla,
as the girl only attended youth group in spurts. Plus,
Elise had never felt comfortable around “girly girls.”
She was an athlete who’d broken a few school records
when she was in college. How on earth was
she going to connect with someone like Karla? Elise
had vague misgivings that this group was going to
focus more on makeovers and boy-toys than on anything
substantial.
Later that evening, as they sat in tiny orange
plastic chairs around the linoleum table in the second
grade Sunday school room, the girls in Elise’s
group were sharing their stories. Elise had to hide
her surprise as Karla talked about how much time
basketball required, and how it was taking her away
from church and her studies. She was hoping to win
a much-needed scholarship for college, but she was
debating whether or not it was worth the cost. When
Karla asked the group to pray for her, Elise thought,
“They need to be praying for me.”
Even though she believed she was seeing the
whole picture, Elise had seen only one of Karla’s
personas. An adolescent girl is multifaceted, and
which facet she chooses to show all depends on her
mood. She’s wavering in a world where some days
she wishes she could still play with her dolls, yet she
recognizes that her body is now able to bear children.
She’s in a constant state of fl ux, wondering who she
is right now, and who she’ll be tomorrow. Some days
she’ll feel as though she’s 21. Other days, she’s 10
again. It’s a season of setting aside her childhood
props and grieving that loss, while at the same time
eagerly rejoicing as she becomes an adult. This isn’t
a one-day decision; it’s a process that takes place
over her adolescent years, as she constantly tries on
new personalities and casts off others.
During this phase of her life, change is the only
constant; every relationship is shifting, and every
belief is questioned. What she once knew was solid
ground now feels as though an earthquake hit it.
She’s not quite sure where to fi nd the stability of her
childhood, or if she even wants to. In the midst of
this chaos, she’s screaming the question of adolescence:
“Who am I?” Tied to that question is a whole
series of other questions: Who is she in relation to
her friends? To her family? To her community? She’s
seeking to find her identity.
BACKGROUND
Erik Erikson is the name most frequently associated
with the topic of identity development in adolescents.
Erikson, a researcher in the area of human development,
divided the human life span into phases, and a
key issue marks each phase. According to Erikson,
the adolescent phase of life deals with the issue of
“identity versus identity confusion.”1 In other words,
during her adolescent years it’s healthy for a teenage
girl to try to figure out who she is and how she fi ts into
her surrounding context. The unhealthy alternative (or
“identity confusion”) occurs when a girl reaches the
end of adolescence (around her early 20s), and she
hasn’t made a commitment to any identity.
Identity formation is why it’s normal for a girl to
walk into youth group one month dressed in black
Goth attire (and an attitude to match), while next
month she’s wearing polo shirts and Shetland sweaters.
She’s researching different personas to see what
she likes and what others respond to affirmatively
(in her judgment). Ideally, according to Erikson’s
theory, by the time she’s reached young adulthood,
she’ll have made choices and commitments about
her beliefs, her values, and her goals in life. All of
these help form an identity that’s acceptable to her,
as well as to her larger community.
However, if at age 22 she’s still walking into
church wearing a punk outfit one Sunday and hip-hop
the next, those are indicators that she’s not moving in
a healthy direction. Those kinds of drastic, external
persona changes are a sign that she’s floundering internally
and having a difficult time committing to an
identity. She’s probably still waffling about what she
believes, what she really values, and what she wants
to do with her life. She’s emerging from adolescence
without a committed answer in any of these areas.
This uncertainty about who she is as she heads
into young adulthood results in what Erikson would
call “identity confusion.” Erikson doesn’t claim that
adolescence is the only time people deal with their
identities; discerning one’

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Excerpted from Teenage Girls: Exploring Issues Adolescent Girls Face and Strategies to Help Them by Ginny Olson
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