Navigating the Psychosocial Pressures of Adolescence: The Voices and Experiences of High School Youth

Abstract

This article describes pressures and problems in adolescents’ family, peer, and school worlds that they perceive as powerful enough to have an impact on their ability to engage optimally in school and learning endeavors. The study sample includes 55 ethnically and academically diverse youth in four urban desegregated high schools in California. The primary data were obtained through four in-depth interviews with each student over a period of 2 years. Using the Students’ Multiple Worlds Model and Typology (Phelan, Davidson, & Yu, 1993), which provides a framework for examining the interrelationships of sociocultural components in students’ worlds, we discuss the problems reported by youth in each of four category types: (a) congruent worlds/smooth transitions; (b) different worlds/border crossings managed; (c) different worlds/border crossings difficult; and (d) different worlds/border crossings resisted. Further, we describe social, emotional, and educational consequences of the problems that youth face.