The bumpy road to Year 10
Something awful happens to many girls in the first years of high school.
It’s a painful fact that for far too many teenage girls, the road to Year 10 is not a wondrous passage through the adolescent growth years, but a tougher transition than previously thought.
Recently released research from the University of Wollongong tracked the lives of 700 secondary school students from the Illawarra district south of Sydney, over a period of six years.
It found that teenage girls, moving through the ages of 13 to 16, were the most likely of all young people to be abandoning hope and optimism. It’s worth noting that girls entering high school come off a higher base in this regard, as the study reported that most started secondary school more confident than boys in their general outlook and in their capacity to accomplish set goals.
However, the research indicated that by the age of 14, boys have made up most of the lost ground. By the age of 15, boys are ‘markedly more hopeful’ than girls, and this is even more apparent in sixteen year olds with girls tending to be sadder, less joyful, more afraid of failure and far less self-assured about their ability to achieve significant goals.
So what causes this downward spiral?
“I think one of the great failings in society as it stands today is a lack of faith and hope for the future,” says CEO of youth mentoring charity, Young Life Australia. “There is a real need right now in the community for the ‘old school’ youth club. Fully supervised, with fun, self-esteem boosting activities as well as important interaction time and mentoring from adult role models.”
“Sure we do that here at Young Life,” concedes Henman, “but since the demise of Police Boys Clubs for young people back in the early ‘90s, and social clubs generally, we’re one of the few organisations running a weekly or fortnightly Club night for teens, apart from some of the Church run groups which don’t cater for unchurched youth.”
The Illawarra research highlighted that Year 9 in particular seems to be a real crisis point in the emotional development of teenage girls. It’s when hormonal driven competition between girls is at its fiercest, leading to relationships that are more competitive than supportive. Young women are also far more likely to get swept up in the early-onset pornification culture and the unrealistic body image demands that we face today.
An online poll of almost 1,000 young Australian women conducted by Grazia magazine in February and March of this year revealed around one in five has or has had an eating disorder. It also revealed that 74% believed their weight affected their overall happiness, and 57% of all respondents wanted to be size-8 or under, regardless of their height, body shape or age.
“It’s very disturbing,” says Young Life’s Glyn Henman. “We have a situation now where 12 and 13 year old girls are being sexualised like never before and pressured by their boyfriends to have full Brazilian wax jobs to try and fulfil their porn fantasies. In first form! I have even see T-shirts worn by teens with the words ‘it’s not rape, just surprise sex’ proudly emblazoned on them.”
Another alarming trend that is having a big impact on young women is ‘sexting’, where teens and tweens create and exchange sexual images of themselves through their mobile phones.
Inappropriate sexting can lead to very serious repercussions. In New Jersey, USA, a 14 year old schoolgirl is facing child pornography charges after posting 40 shots of herself performing sexual acts on Myspace. Jesse Logan hanged herself in shame after shots she SMSed to her boyfriend were put online. A male student who borrowed a friend’s phone found a screensaver shot of the 13 year old girl performing a sex act. NSW Police were called in and charges could be laid.
“If ever there was an advert not to have a camera on your phone, this is it,” says Glyn Henman of Young Life Australia. “Young people need to be guided away from scenarios where they can really be run off the rails.”
The University of Wollongong research suggests that the bumpy road to Year 10 does smooth out for most teenage girls by the middle of Year 12. The downside for some though is that they will carry the emotional scars from the whole process for a very long time, and an unfortunate few will be forever shaped by a set of negative experiences.
However, with good guidance and a willing ear from adults they trust, teenagers in general, and young girls in particular, can make this transition with the minimum of stress and develop into optimistic grown-ups with a clear life direction and a renewed sense of hope for the future.
Date: 5 May 2009
Author: Philip Jenkinson
Sources: University of Wollongong research study 2004-2009; Grazia poll 6/4/2009; Sun Herald 3/5/09; Glyn Henman, CEO Young Life Australia 2009.
© Copyright Young Life Australia
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