Overview

The intent of this essay is to provide a concise overview of the relevance and implications of social justice theory to adolescence. To begin, a description of what is meant by the term “social justice” is presented. Next, the relevance of social justice theory to adolescence is described, and relevant research addressing critical social justice issues in adolescent populations is explicated. Finally, future research directions and the implications of a social justice approach to work with adolescents are discussed.

Introduction

For several reasons, social justice theory is important to consider in the context of adolescence. Research has shown that the effects of social injustice are deleterious in the adolescent population. Poverty and family dysfunction serve as risk factors for a number of setbacks in adolescence, including mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders, delayed cognitive development, and poor physical well-being (O’Connell et al. 2009). Furthermore, these negative effects disproportionately affect the lives of children and adolescents. The rate of children and youth living in poverty in America has been consistently higher than that of adults for decades, more than 1½ times higher, and this rate continues to increase. For example, the percentage of adolescent children (ages 12–17) living in low-income families increased from 33% in 2000 to 36% in 2008 (Wight and Chau 2009).

Furthermore, it is children and adolescents within communities of color, who are often among those most negatively impacted by situations of inequality and injustice. For example, ethnic minority children and those in low-income households are more likely to experience heightened rates of violence and less likely to live in neighborhoods that offer resources such as parks, museums, and libraries (O’Connell et al. 2009). Neighborhoods without such features are less able to promote the positive development and well-being of young people (O’Connell et al. 2009). Before delving into this research, it is important to provide a clear definition of the term “social justice.”

Defining Social Justice

Social justice is generally defined as the fair and equitable distribution of power, resources, and obligations in society to all people, regardless of race or ethnicity, age, gender, ability status, sexual orientation, and religious or spiritual background (Van den Bos 2003). Fundamental principles underlying this definition include values of inclusion, collaboration, cooperation, equal access, and equal opportunity. Such values are also the foundation of a democratic and egalitarian society (Sue 2001). In addition, a crucial link exists between social justice and overall health and well-being. For individuals, the absence of justice often represents increased physical and emotional suffering as well as greater vulnerability to illness. Furthermore, social justice issues and access to resources are also inexorably tied to collective well-being (e.g., relationships and political welfare) of families, communities, and society (Hage 2005; Kenny and Hage 2009; Prilleltensky and Nelson 2002).

Effects of Inequality on Adolescents

Much research documents the adverse effects of poverty and inequality on the physical, psychological, and social development of adolescents (e.g., Evans and Kim 2007; Hay et al. 2007; Wadsworth et al. 2008; Young et al. 2001). For example, Abernathy et al. (2002) noted that adverse health outcomes start in infancy, as poverty is associated with higher rates of infant mortality. In their study, they assessed how the home environment and family income level affect adolescents’ physical well-being. Results showed that negative health-related behaviors were associated with lower levels of income. Specifically, adolescents living in lower-income families were more likely to live in a smoking household, more likely to smoke cigarettes themselves, and were less physically active. Adolescents in lower-income families were also less likely to have a regular physician (Abernathy et al. 2002).

Elgar et al. (2005) also found evidence of a relationship between negative health behaviors and socioeconomic status. These authors investigate the effects of national-level income inequality – that is, income disparities between the rich and poor – on negative health behaviors, such as drinking and smoking. Elgar et al. (2005) assessed the relationship between living in a country with higher levels of income inequality and alcohol consumption among 11, 13, and 15-year-olds. They found that the 11- and 13-year-olds living in countries with more income inequality were significantly more likely to drink alcohol. They were also more likely to drink more often, and the 11-year-olds were more likely to drink until a state of drunkenness was achieved (Elgar et al. 2005).

Much literature confirms the link between poverty in adolescence and adverse health risks and conditions (e.g., Evans and Kim 2007). These negative health factors may contribute to a shortened lifespan for adolescents living in poverty, and likely contribute to higher rates of chronic health problems among adults living in poverty. For example, Miech et al. (2006) found that rates of obesity were higher among poor adolescents, with adolescents in their sample also less likely to be physically active. Vieweg et al. (2007) found a similar link between poverty and obesity. They found that receiving public health insurance (and lack of private health insurance) was positively correlated with unhealthy weight levels in adolescents. In addition, the incidence of unhealthy weight was highest in Hispanic adolescents, followed by Black adolescents (Vieweg et al. 2007).

The psychological effects of living in poverty have been shown to be equally problematic during adolescence. Adolescents living in poverty often cope with stressful life situations, such as domestic disputes and neighborhood violence, at a higher rate than youth from families with adequate income (Center for Disease Control 2007). In addition, adolescents of color are more likely than White adolescents to live in the poorest, crime-ridden neighborhoods, which place racial minority adolescents at greater risk of exposure to violence and the effects of negative environments (Douglas-Hall et al. 2006; Schiavone 2009).

Schiavone (2009) interviewed adolescents living in impoverished communities about their encounters with violence. All 14 racial minority youths interviewed indicated that they frequently witnessed violence in their communities. Participants described these experiences as emotionally distressing, leading to feelings of helplessness and fear, which caused them to be distrustful (Schiavone 2009). Furthermore, living under conditions of poverty also tends to demand adult role-taking earlier among adolescence (Dashiff et al. 2009). Dashiff et al. (2009) found that adolescents’ awareness of the financial difficulties their parents face appeared to cause negative mood effects, a sense of helplessness, and shame. Adolescents living in poverty are also more at risk for depression, substance abuse, and early sexual activity. Despite these increased mental health risks, the authors found that impoverished communities often lacked adequate mental healthcare (Dashiff et al. 2009).

Simultaneously, school environments often serve to perpetuate and institutionalize systems of injustice for adolescents (Kozol 1991, 2005). Public school districts in the most impoverished communities have fewer resources and opportunities for their youth. For example, in 2003, New York City spent $11,627 on the education of each child, while in Nassau County on Long Island, New York, the town of Manhasset spent $22,311 (Kozol 2005). Too often, classrooms in poorer communities are overcrowded, understaffed, and lacking basic equipment and textbooks needed for teaching (Kozol 1991). In addition, such schools are comprised of mostly Black and Hispanic students, often accounting for a majority of the student body. Following his tour of 60 American public schools, Kozol (1991) found that conditions had actually grown worse for urban children in the 50 years since the Supreme Court landmark ruling of Brown versus the Board of Education, in which the policy of segregated schools was dismantled. As described by Kozol (2005), “What is happening right now in the poorest communities of America – which are largely black communities… is the worst situation black America has faced since slavery” (p. 313).

Schools and family environments also may be unsafe environments for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth. Perceived sexuality has been noted to be a primary reason for harassment in schools (Matthews et al. 2009). Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth who have experienced rejection during adolescence were also recently found to be 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide, 5.9 times more likely to report high levels of depression, 3.4 times more likely to use illegal drugs, and 3.4 times more likely to report having engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse compared with peers from families that reported no or low levels of rejection (Ryan et al. 2009). These results mirrored other studies, which found that harassment or rejection in the school environment due to individual differences was harmful to adolescent development, putting such youth at greater risk for substance use, poorer grades, lower self-esteem, and poorer mental health (Descamps et al. 2000; Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network 2005; Hodges and Perry 1999).

One of the primary avenues for promoting social justice and reducing inequality for adolescents is through the implementation of preventive interventions. The following section will describe examples of preventive interventions with youth, and guidelines and principles for their implementation.

Preventive Interventions and Social Justice

Preventive interventions may function best by targeting risk factors and strengthening protective factors in young people (Kenny et al. 2009; Wolf 2005). Protective and risk factors occur both on an individual and societal level, thus affecting adolescents within multiple communities and systems. Protective factors include the abilities that at-risk individuals have to develop strengths in spite of negative environmental circumstances (e.g., poverty, prejudice, and discrimination) (Walsh et al. 2009). Such factors can include resilience, self-efficacy, community involvement, and academic achievement. Although these components do not prevent at-risk adolescents from facing social injustice, they increase the likelihood of positive outcomes for youth who face barriers related to their community, school, or home environment.

Preventive interventions that promote social justice are best designed as systemic interventions that reduce inequality in a variety of settings such as schools and communities (Kenny et al. 2009; Wolf 2005). These prevention programs work to simultaneously increase competencies and decrease problems in young people in order to empower them (Wolf 2005). They strive to give youth the knowledge and skills needed to more effectively deal with situations of unequal social power, as well as work to change social policies that may serve as barriers in the promotion of social justice (Wolf 2005). Successful interventions provide adolescents, families, and communities with the tools and motivation needed to create change on both an individual and systemic level and to promote social justice (Conyne 2004).

Contextual Factors for Adolescents

Well-designed preventive interventions take account of social and contextual factors (e.g., poverty and discrimination), and promote community-wide involvement (Hage and Kenny 2009; Kenny et al. 2009). Ecological theory is one useful model that is frequently utilized in developing effective preventive interventions, as it requires an awareness of many interacting contexts that create adolescents’ life circumstances (Bronfenbrenner 1979). These systems include the social, familial, school, and community context of adolescents’ lives, all of which need to be considered in creating, designing, and implementing effective preventive interventions.

Guidelines for Effective Preventive Interventions

Prevention scholars have begun to identify a set of guidelines for effective social justice–oriented preventive interventions that are relevant to work with adolescents (Hage et al. 2007; Walsh et al. 2009). First, it is imperative that prevention programs be designed with an understanding of the social context specific to adolescents (Walsh et al. 2009). More specifically, programs should address both risk and protective factors within each setting relevant to the lives of adolescents, including the social, familial, school, governmental, and community levels. Secondly, programs should be created with the ultimate goal of social justice and structural change, recognizing that genuine change must go beyond an individual level (Hage and Kenny 2009; Kenny et al. 2009). Thirdly, effective preventive interventions are also geared toward the appropriate developmental level of the target population. For example, adolescence is characterized by a transition from elementary school to high school and into adulthood. With this transition come decisions pertaining to work, school, family, and increasing levels of responsibility both for oneself and for one’s community. By recognizing adolescents’ unique developmental needs, preventive interventions will more effectively support the transition from adolescence into adulthood (Walsh et al. 2009).

In addition to attention to the unique developmental needs of adolescents, preventive interventions should take the cultural context of adolescents into account in designing, implementing, and evaluating prevention programs (Walsh et al. 2009). Multiple factors shape the beliefs and behaviors of an individual adolescent, including racial–cultural identity, ethnic background, family traditions, peer behaviors, and acculturation levels. These cultural influences create an identity that is consistently changing and evolving. Preventive programs that consider the cultural context of adolescence attend to the norms, attitudes, beliefs, and experiences of the target group of adolescents, in their program development, implementation, and evaluation efforts. Not attending to the context may result in programs that inappropriately impose their own values on the target population (Hage et al. 2007).

It is also important to note that collaboration across a variety of disciplines, such as counseling, social work, community psychology, and other related fields, strengthens such programs so that individuals are able to work toward structural change on multiple levels (Hage et al. 2007; Walsh et al. 2009). This collaboration is crucial because it reduces the potential for miscommunication and allows for greater consideration of the specific context of the target community, thereby enhancing program relevance and likelihood of a successful outcome. In addition, it is also imperative that leaders evaluate the extent to which the program meets their specific social justice goals (Walsh et al. 2009), such as a decrease in social inequities. Finally, professionals need to carry out these programs over time in order to reach as many individuals as possible and sustain smaller, short-term changes that have been made (Walsh et al. 2009).

In sum, these principles can be used to implement prevention programs and can help program leaders reach social justice goals by working to eliminate social inequalities. A number of programs that work with adolescents have used these factors to promote social justice, and have shown promising results, as well as the potential to create and maintain structural change. Some examples of these programs are discussed in the next section.

Examples of Preventive Interventions That Promote Social Justice

The number of preventive interventions for adolescents that target social justice has grown tremendously in the past few years (Wolf 2005). One such program, known as The Boston Connects Program, takes a multilevel approach to promoting social justice by targeting students, peers, families, schools, and communities (Walsh et al. 2008). Students and families in the program are provided with resources to improve academic performance, social competencies, school and community involvement, and support on the individual, peer, and familial levels. The program involves a large-scale intervention targeting both neighborhoods and schools to address risk (e.g., violence, aggression) and protective factors (e.g., mentorship and service opportunities). Evaluations of this program revealed increased support services for students, more community involvement in schools, and improved academic success. More specifically, data suggested that at-risk students in the program progressed academically at the same rate as (if not faster than) students who were not in the program because they were not at risk (Kenny et al. 2009).

An additional example is the Communities That Care program based in Pennsylvania, which uses prevention strategies to address problem behaviors of at-risk adolescents in over 100 communities (Feinberg et al. 2005). One of the most important features of this program is a prevention board made up of community members that create an individualized risk assessment for each community. Preventive interventions are then implemented for each community, targeting problem behaviors such as teen pregnancy, substance use, school dropout, and acts of violence. Leaders from each community serve as the bridge for program and community involvement, ultimately creating a collaborative partnership in which all parties work to establish social justice at the community level. Program evaluations have shown multiple benefits, including increased community involvement and collaboration in programs, as well as improvements in school performance, school safety, parenting, practices and family and community relations (Hawkins et al. 2002; Jenson et al. 1997; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention [OJJDP] 1996). Evaluations have also shown decreased problems in school (e.g., detention, failure, truancy, suspension, fighting) and decreases in weapons charges, burglaries, and drug offenses (Jenson et al. 1997; OJJDP 1996).

A third preventive program that works with adolescents who face multiple societal barriers, such as poverty and racism, is Tools For Tomorrow, which works with urban youth in public high schools in Boston, Massachusetts (Kenny et al. 2007). The focus of Tools For Tomorrow is on a pivotal point in adolescence, high school graduation. This program educates students about further educational and career opportunities available post-graduation, while also informing them of structural barriers that they will inevitably face due to the social stratification of society (e.g., racism, classism). The program’s ultimate goal is to promote social justice for urban youth by addressing barriers and giving students access to the tools needed to prevent negative consequences of school dropout (e.g., lifelong poverty). Initial findings demonstrate that teachers who worked with students in the program observed improvements in decision-making skills (Solberg et al. 2002). Early evaluations also suggest positive results pertaining to binge drinking, delinquent behavior, and other targeted risk factors (O’Connell et al. 2009). Finally, the program has also formed a strong collaborative relationship between an area university (i.e., Boston College) and the public school system (i.e., Boston high schools), allowing the intervention to initiate change from more than one level.

The above preventive interventions provide examples of effective programs that have worked to increase awareness of social barriers and decrease social inequities on multiple levels. By following the principles and guidelines outlined above that speak to effective preventive interventions (Walsh et al. 2009), professionals in the helping profession can effectively design, implement, and evaluate programs that promote social justice and target risk and protective factors for adolescents.

Conclusion

This essay provides an overview of critical issues related to a social justice theory of adolescence. Researchers interested in promoting social justice with adolescent populations can contribute to existing work by identifying the causes and effects of oppression in the larger society, and by exploring how oppression and its consequences can be prevented. Examples include studies on preventing dating violence (Cornelius and Resseguie 2007), preventing bias against gay and lesbian youth (Fisher et al. 2008; Morsillo and Prilleltensky 2007) and promoting career development for adolescent girls (O’Brien et al. 2000). In sum, in order to impact issues relevant to social justice in adolescents, researchers need to work toward developing effective preventive interventions that address societal issues of discrimination, and exploitation, such as bias against people based on their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, religion, and gender (APA 2003; Perry and Albee 1994).

The examples of social justice prevention practice contained in this essay are meant to provide direction to practitioners, researchers, and theorists in mitigating the harmful effects of poverty and other inequities on youth, and in empowering youth to use their skills and knowledge to engage in creating social change. A primary avenue for cultivating adolescents’ skills and awareness is through education about the social and historical context of social injustice and about factors that contribute to the well-being of all adolescents. Roaten and Schmidt (2009) propose beginning such education as early as elementary school by integrating experiential activities and self-awareness exercises into classroom meetings and curricula. Such activities aim at expanding children’s knowledge of social inequality and sense of cultural empathy. They note that such activities not only increase self-awareness but also lead students to confront their biases and ethnocentricity (Roaten and Schmidt 2009).

Furthermore, in addition to education about oppression and to designing preventative interventions aimed at reducing or eliminating the negative effects of social injustice on adolescents, scholars and youth leaders need to engage in substantial policy change to adequately address pressing social concerns facing adolescents. For example, professionals can engage in training of school personnel (e.g., teachers, psychologists) to assist them with developing skills and knowledge about implementing prevention projects that target adolescents (Romano 1997). Youth leaders might also become actively involved in political initiatives that lend their expertise as it relates to health promotion and the prevention of psychological and physical distress among adolescents. Examples include public advocacy initiatives and legislation to reduce community and school violence, to reduce adolescent drug use, and support for cigarette smoking bans in schools and other places frequented by youth. Professionals can further advocate for the support of federal funding priorities that address adolescent health promotion through agencies such as the National Institute of Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency. These efforts will work toward ensuring that all youth are provided with resources and opportunities to become successful leaders for the next generation.