Prejudice Against Youth For Substance Use And Misuse: Challenges And Youth-led Initiatives

Prejudice against Youth for Substance Use and Misuse

Discuss about the Prejudice against Youth for Substance Use and Misuse.

Prejudice is indicative of an affective feeling against a person that is based on the group membership of the individual. It refers to preconceived and unfavourable feelings against a person on the basis of their values, social class, occupation or education (Ambrose et al. 2014). Stereotyping occurs when an individual is represented in unyielding terms. The persons who are stereotyped are not viewed as individuals having distinct personal attributes. This essay discusses about the prejudice that prevails in the society against the young people and it challenges the negative depictions against the young people.

The young people in the society are victimized by the adults and they are thought of to be lazy and apathetic. It is often assumed that they do not involve in any kind of productive work and is injurious for the development of the society (Czoli, Hammond and White 2014). The prejudices that exist against them conceive of them to be apathetic and the adults brand them as being devoid of any kind of deep feelings. It is assumed that they cannot contribute to the greater good of the society and can only cause mischievous acts. The young people are thought of to be irresponsible and that they are incapable of understanding the deeper feelings of other people. They cannot help other people in case of any crisis and solely exist for the purpose of troubling other people.

Adultism is the power that the adults exercise over that of children. The adults have a notion that they can control the life of the young people and they are viewed with contempt by the adults. The young people are viewed like a horizontal line and they are thought of to be violent creatures (Jaafar, Noor and Rasoolimanesh 2015). They are stereotyped by the adults of being aggressive and there exists a popular idea that they can only cause injury to other people. Adults are prejudiced against the young people and they are thought of to be the thieving and conniving trouble makers. It is held that they waste a large part of their time by doing things that are unnecessary and unfruitful. There is another notion against the young people by the adults that they are addicted to drugs and they waste the money of their parents by involving themselves in wrong acts (Berg et al. 2015). Prejudice against the young people is very common in the society and an image exists in the mind of the adults that they are always expelled from the school. It is thought of that they exist for the sole purpose of letting their family down and are a cause of disgrace for the family.

Linking with Key Theories

The theory of essentialism harps on the fact that the nature of the human beings are fixed and it cannot be changed. The adults believe that the behaviour of the young girls and boys cannot be changed and they would continue to remain the same forever. The young girls in the society are stigmatized and it is held that they cannot control their instincts and they fall prey to that of bad people. Essentialism is evident in the fact that the young people are thought of to be whimsical as if they act spontaneously without thinking about the repurcussions that may arise from it. The teenagers are thought of to be thugs who exist in order to act as a cause of trouble for other people. The manner of their stereotyping by the adult people creates mistrust between the generations in the small communities (Czoli and Hammond 2014).  The adults perceive the young people to be offenders and they tend to think that the youth give vent to their frustration by indulging in aggressive acts. The manifestation of violent behaviour by the young people is according to the adults a reflection of their deviant behaviour.

The young people in the present age are intelligent and they are fully aware of their responsibilities in the wider social structure. They involve themselves in different kind of schemes and sometimes they involve themselves in volunteering acts. They deliver fruits along with vegetables to the old people in order to help the elderly. The young people are active on the platform of social media and the youth in Australia undertake e-volunteering that challenges the popular idea that the young people are of no good for the society. There is the Foundation for Young Australians that is open for the Australians who are aged between 18-29 years and they make use of their influence for bringing changes to the world (LeFrançois 2014). This foundation helps the young people in Australia in order to address the social along with environmental challenges of the times. The young people can easily partake of this program and bring about changes to the condition of people living in Australia. This group helps in facilitating that of community action by engagement of the young people. This can help in challenging the popular perception that the youth does not contribute in any way for the welfare of society (Pease 2015).

The youth led organisations has a great impact on the arena of advocacy along with activism within Australia. Western Young People Independent Network is led by the young people and youth from different kind of background come together for the execution of the initiatives of the organization. It is situated in the western region of that of Melbourne and it helps in the creation of an inclusive and multicultural society. UN Youth Victoria is a charity that aims in providing the young people with the requisite knowledge that can help them in confronting the social along with political problems of the times (Desai 2018). It is based in the United Nations and it encourages the young people so that they can make a difference to the community.

Challenges

The Australian Youth Climate Coalition is a movement that comprises of more than 150,000 people and they urge people for a safe climate that can be of great help for the future generations. Batyr is a mental health organization that is driven by the young people within Australia. They help in destroying the stigma that surrounds that of mental health and offers help to the young people so that they can reach for support. This dynamic team of Australia can help in the creation of positive behavioural change for the Australians and it can be of great benefit for the future (Lenzer 2015). Oaktree is a movement of the young people within Australia that is aiming to end poverty. These group of young people believe that extreme kind of poverty cannot be accepted and they want to take actions that can end that of extreme poverty. These kinds of initiatives by the young Australians helps in combatting the notion that exists in the society that the youth cannot contribute for the good of the society.

The youth in the society are thought to be lazy and irresponsible by the society. The adults think that they are unproductive and can be detrimental for the society. The young people are thought to be whimsical as if they act spontaneously that can be harmful for the society. The youth are thought of to be unproductive and they are labelled as being injurious for the society (Pensoneau-Conway 2017).  The young people in the present age are intelligent and they involve themselves in different kinds of volunteering acts that can prove to be of great benefit for the whole society. Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Batyr and Oaktree are the youth organisations in Australia that is working for improving the prevailing social and environmental conditions.

References:

Ambrose, B.K., Rostron, B.L., Johnson, S.E., Portnoy, D.B., Apelberg, B.J., Kaufman, A.R. and Choiniere, C.J., 2014. Perceptions of the relative harm of cigarettes and e-cigarettes among US youth. American journal of preventive medicine, 47(2), pp.S53-S60.

Berg, C.J., Stratton, E., Schauer, G.L., Lewis, M., Wang, Y., Windle, M. and Kegler, M., 2015. Perceived harm, addictiveness, and social acceptability of tobacco products and marijuana among young adults: marijuana, hookah, and electronic cigarettes win. Substance use & misuse, 50(1), pp.79-89.

Czoli, C.D. and Hammond, D., 2014. Cigarette packaging: youth perceptions of “natural” cigarettes, filter references, and contraband tobacco. Journal of Adolescent Health, 54(1), pp.33-39.

Czoli, C.D., Hammond, D. and White, C.M., 2014. Electronic cigarettes in Canada: prevalence of use and perceptions among youth and young adults. Can J Public Health, 105(2), pp.e97-e102.

Desai, M., 2018. Module 12 Parenting Education. In Introduction to Rights-based Direct Practice with Children (pp. 333-354). Springer, Singapore.

Jaafar, M., Noor, S.M. and Rasoolimanesh, S.M., 2015. Perception of young local residents toward sustainable conservation programmes: A case study of the Lenggong World Cultural Heritage Site. Tourism Management, 48, pp.154-163.

LeFrançois, B.A., 2014. Adultism. In Encyclopedia of critical psychology (pp. 47-49). Springer New York.

Lenzer, G., 2015. The Vicissitudes of Children's Rights. Int'l J. Child. Rts., 23, p.243.

Pease, B., 2015. Understanding Adultism and Adult Privilege: An Essential Step Towards Honouring Children and Young People. In The Tasmanian Children’s Commission Forum.

Pensoneau-Conway, S.L., 2017. Parenting the Possible. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, 4(1), pp.130-138.