Ephebiphobia

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Ephebiphobia is the fear of youth. First coined as the "fear or loathing of teenagers",[1] today the phenomenon is recognized as the "inaccurate, exaggerated and sensational characterization of young people" in a range of settings around the world.[2] Studies of the fear of youth occur in sociology and youth studies. It is distinguished from pedophobia by being more focused on adolescents than prepubescent children.

Lexicology

Coinage

The word ephebiphobia is formed from the

Phi Delta Kappan.[3] Today, common usage occurs internationally by sociologists, government agencies,[4] and youth advocacy organizations that define ephebiphobia as an abnormal or irrational and persistent fear or loathing of teenagers or adolescence.[5][6]

Similar terms

Analogous labels

The term paedophobia has gained popular acceptance in Europe to describe the aforementioned "fear of youth".

Pediaphobia is the fear of infants and children. Hebephobia (from the Greek ἥβη, hḗbē, "youth, puberty") has also been proposed[citation needed]. Similar terms include adultism, which is a predisposition towards adults that is biased against children and youth, and ageism
, which describes discrimination against any person because of their age.

Juvenoia

In the context of the 21st century, the neologism juvenoia has been used by publications such as The Christian Science Monitor to describe distaste and/or fear of the social culture associated with young people. The psychological distancing is prominently tied to advancements in technology and the exposure it facilitates to material that violates traditional values.[9]

History

The fear of youth, along with fear of

Machiavelli is said to have realized that a fear of youth is what kept the city of Florence from keeping a standing army.[11] Ancient Greece and medieval Venice are also said to have had floundering public policy because of their fear of youth.[12][13]

Early American

labor became unnecessary due to mechanization and the influx of new labor.[16]

Post-World War II France was said to have been stricken by concern for mal de jeunesse when they created policies that reflected their fear of youth. "Send them to summer camps, place others in reformatories, the rest should have some fresh air, build some athletic fields..." were the intentions of youth policies in that era.[17] Following World War II the United States military identified the growing number of youth in the Deep South as a problematic scenario for national security. Analysts have suggested the upswing in the popular culture's fear of youth may be attributed to defense policies created in response to that threat.[18]

"In the 1990s public fear of adolescents mounted", caused by the "increased youth access to

Anti-Social Behaviour Order in 1998, which has also been attributed directly to a fear of youth.[21]

Causes

See also:
Baby Boom Generation § Aging and end-of-life issues

computer surveillance usage is marketed to parents; and X-ray machines, metal detectors and closed-circuit television are increasingly sold to schools on the premise that young people are not to be trusted. These steps are in spite of the fact that experience consistently shows that monitoring youth does little to prevent violence or tragedy: the Columbine High School massacre occurred in a building with video surveillance and in-building police.[24]

The very creation of the terms

involuntary and voluntary positions, and into increasingly total institutions where they lost personal autonomy in favor of social control.[26][27] Government policies outside of schools have been implicated as well, as over the last forty years curfews, anti-loitering and anti-cruising laws, and other legislation apparently targeted at teenagers have taken hold across the country. Courts have increasingly ruled against youth rights, as well.[28][29] Before the 1940s "teenagers" were not listed in newspaper headlines, because as a group they did not exist. The impact of youth since World War II on western society has been immense, largely driven by marketing that proponents them as the "Other". In turn, youth are caused to behave in ways that appear different from adults. This has led to the phenomenon of youth, and in turn has created a perpetuated fear of them.[30]

Effects

The fear of youth is thought to exist throughout the entire

American society" to "adult estrangement and fear of youth".[32]

At least one major economist has proposed that the fear of youth can have grave effects on the economic health of nations.[33] A growing number of researchers report that the fear of youth affects the health of democracy, reporting that the consequential vilification of youth has in the past, and continues to presently undermine public,[34] social, political,[35] religious,[36] and cultural[37] participation among current and future generations.

As it affects young people themselves, ephebiphobia has been recognized as a barrier towards successful academic achievement,[38] a barrier to successful social intervention programs,[1] and as an indicator of the ineptitude of many adults to be successful parents.[39]

Social discrimination

"Today citizens as a whole as well as people who work with children live in fear of youth in our homes and schools and on our streets".[40] While "society loves their attractive bodies, youthfulness and commercial firepower", we also "vilify adolescents as a noncontributing drain on the economy and our democracy". In the mainstream media, young people are most often portrayed as self-absorbed and apathetic, uninterested in the common good or in advancing social goals.[41]

Many social programs and social critics view the fear of youth as a condemning force against youth throughout society, particularly when coupled with

public schools,[49] and social services.[50] Sociologists have suggested that much of the current spread of the fear of youth is due to "adult anxiety over the shifting racial mix in the general population".[51] The effects of sexism are similarly reported to be amplified by ephebiphobia.[52] However, New York University professor Pedro Noguera has suggested that the fear of youth extends beyond color boundaries, as "skateboarders, punks, even straight-laced suburban teenagers can evoke anxiety among adults by congregating in large numbers in places deemed off-limits to youth".[53]

The ability of youth to participate throughout society is seen as compromised because of the fear of youth, and is often disguised as a paternalism or protectionism among adults.[54] Additionally, scholar Henry Jenkins, "links criticism of new media with fear of adolescents, who are the most eager adopters. Teen culture seems meaningless and dangerous without an appreciation of its context".[55]

Commercial gain

Academics specifically acknowledge the force of ephebiphobia in the commercial sector, where this fear of youth has been extensively exploited for financial gain.[56] This is elaborated on by researchers and social critics who claim that popular media, including cinema and television, specifically exacerbated society's fear of youth for financial gain,[57][58][59] as one study reports, "Extreme fear of youth is an established media panic".[60]

Pulp novels in the 1950s were mass-produced to specifically cash in on the growing fear of youth that was spreading throughout society.[61] Ironically, it has also been said that popular media's effects on young people are not as powerful as the fear of youth, which drives the fear of technology and in turn perpetuates the fear of youth.[62]

Governmental policy

Decision-making by government agencies, including

Mike Males has identified trends among politicians and policy-makers of stoking the fear of youth among society in order to make headway in political campaigns and build popular support or otherwise "generate media sensation and public fear".[65] Similarly, the fear of youth has been identified as the driving factor behind many governmental programs designed to combat so-called "youth violence," in which the actions of few youth are attributed to the population of youth in general.[66][67][68] In a specific instance, "In Dallas, fear of youth led to accelerated surveillance and policing, particularly in its poorest area, Gaston".[69] The fear of adolescents is also said to have caused many governments to lower their age of criminal responsibility and escalate the detention of young people from childhood through adulthood.[70]

Education

Examining the

high schools today.[72] Fear of youth has led to the development of zero tolerance policies in many schools,[73] which in turn is attributed as the cause of the increase in arrests for juvenile crime on school campuses, which has promoted the fear of youth and led school administrators to call police for infractions once dealt with internally.[74]

Combating ephebiphobia

The American Library Association has developed a resource collection for librarians specifically to combat the ephebiphobia by promoting customer service skills specific to youth.[75] However, sociologist Mike Males has suggested that ephebiphobia does not analyze the problem deep enough, as the fear of adult stereotype of adolescence, or kourophobia, is the core challenge facing young people today.[76]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Astroth, K. (1994) Beyond ephebiphobia: problem adults or problem youths? (fear of adolescents). Phi Delta Kappan. January 1, 1994.
  2. ^ Hoffman, A.M. and Summers, R.W. (2001) Teen Violence: A Global View. Greenwood Press. p 2.
  3. ^ Gough, P. (2000) "Detoxifying Schools." Phi Delta Kappan. March 1, 2000.
  4. ^ European Union's Stop Discrimination website - Glossary on age Archived October 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Grønnestad-Damur, W. & Pratch, L. (n.d.) No Ephebiphobia Here! Edmonton: Edmonton Public Library.
  6. ^ Clark, C. (2004) Hurt: Inside the World of Today's Teenagers (Youth, Family, and Culture). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
  7. ^ Childhood is changing, but "paedophobia" makes things worse Archived 2007-09-04 at the Wayback Machine Institute for Public Policy Research. 22 October 2006.
  8. ^ Waiton, S. (2006) The Roots of Paedophobia. Online.
  9. ^ "Juvenoia: The kids are all right, even on the Internet". Christian Science Monitor. 23 July 2013.
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  14. ^ Meily, C. (1911) Puritanism. C. H. Kerr & Company. p 118.
  15. ^ Gatto, J.T., (2001) The Underground History of American Education. Oxford Village Press.
  16. ^ Savage, J. (2007) Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture. Viking Adult.
  17. ^ Jobs, R.I. (2007) Riding the New Wave: Youth and the Rejuvenation of France After the Second World War. Stanford University Press. p 230
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  19. ^ Rosenheim, M.K., Zimring, F.E. and Tanenhaus, D.S. (2002) A Century of Juvenile Justice. University of Chicago Press. p 282.
  20. ^ Parrish, G. (1999). "Fear of Youth" Archived 2013-05-15 at the Wayback Machine, Seattle Weekly. February 29, 1999.
  21. ^ Street-Porter, J. (2005) "The Politicians Fear of Youth Culture Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine", The Independent April 7, 2005.
  22. ^ Fletcher, A. (2006) Washington Youth Voice Handbook Archived 2008-04-14 at the Wayback Machine. CommonAction. p 11. Retrieved 6/3/08.
  23. ^ Sternheimer, K. (2006) Kids These Days: Facts and Fictions about Today's Youth. Rowman & Littlefield. p 140.
  24. ^ Sternheimer, K. (2006) p 146.
  25. ^ Savage, J. (2007) Teenage: The Creation of Youth 1875-1945. Chatto & Windus.
  26. ^ Gatto, J.T. (2001) The Underground History of American Education. Oxford Village Press. p 306.
  27. ^ Breeding, J. (2002) True nature and great misunderstandings: On How We Care for Our Children. Virtualbookworm Publishing. p 10.
  28. ^ Lauter, P. and Howe, P. (1971) The conspiracy of the young. Meridian. p 304.
  29. ^ Epstein, R. (2007) The case against adolescence. Quill Driver Books. p 323.
  30. ^ Palladino, G. (1996) Teenagers: An American perspective. BasicBooks. p 247.
  31. ^ Konopka, G. (1983) Social Group Work: A Helping Process. Prentice Hall. p 40.
  32. ^ Oldenburg, R. (1999) The Great Good Place: Cafés, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons. Marlowe & Company. p xx.
  33. ^ Gray, D. (1999) Negroponte: Europe's Net development held back by fear of youth, risk taking CNN. September 15, 1999.
  34. ^ Jones, P., Shoemaker, S. Chelton, M. (2001) Do It Right! Best Practices for Serving Young Adults in School and Public Libraries New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.
  35. ^ Lawrence Grossberg, (2005) Caught In The Crossfire: Kids, Politics, And America's Future (Cultural Politics & the Promise of Democracy) New York: Paradigm Publishers
  36. ^ Rice, W. (1998) Junior High Ministry: A Guide to Early Adolescence for Youth Workers. Zondervan Publishing. p 15.
  37. ^ Giroux, H. (2004) Take Back High Education: Race, Youth, and the Crisis of Democracy in the post-Civil Rights Era New York: Palgrave
  38. ^ Butts, P.M. (2000) Beyond Ephebiphobia: Overcoming the Fear of Middle & High School Students; A Program for Public Librarians. Macatawa, MI: Macatawa Public Library.
  39. ^ Coontz, S. (1999) The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms With America's Changing Families. New York: Basic Books.
  40. ^ Bender, S.J., Neutens, J., Skonie-Hardin, S., et al. (1997) Teaching health science: Elementary and middle school. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. p 7.
  41. ^ Jee, K. and Sherman, R. (2006) "Youth as important civic actors: From the margins to the center" Archived 2008-05-15 at the Wayback Machine, National Civic Review. 95;1.
  42. ^ Delgado, M. (2001) Where are All the Young Men and Women of Color? Columbia University Press. p 231.
  43. ^ Levingston, K. (2001) "New Statistics Puncture Myth of Violent Kids", Philadelphia Inquirer. January 6, 2001. Retrieved 5/9/08.
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  45. ^ Males, M. (2002) "The New Demons: Ordinary teens" Archived 2005-05-18 at the Wayback Machine. Los Angeles Times. April 21, 2002.
  46. Youth Media Council. (2005) Reclaiming Meaning, Echoing Justice Archived 2006-10-10 at the Wayback Machine
    . Oakland, CA: Author.
  47. ^ Collins, J. (2002). Gangs, Crime and Community Safety: Perceptions and Experiences in Multicultural Sydney Archived 2006-12-31 at the Wayback Machine Sydney: University of Technology.
  48. ^ Scottish Executive (2006) Measurement of the Extent of Youth Crime in Scotland.
  49. ^ Kozol, J. (2005) The Shame of a Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. New York: Three Rivers Press.
  50. ^ Abram, S. (2007) "Ephebiphobia," p 130 in Abram, S. Out Front with Stephen Abram: A Guide for Information Leaders. ALA Editions.
  51. ^ Rapping, E. (2003) Law and Justice as Seen on TV. NYU Press. p 208.
  52. ^ Bromwich, R.J. (2002) Beyond Villains and Victims: Some Thoughts on Youth and Violence in Canada Archived 2007-02-14 at the Wayback Machine. Toronto, ON: Women's Justice Network.
  53. ^ Noguera, P. (2003) City Schools and the American Dream: Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education. Teachers College Press. p 127.
  54. ^ Fredman, S. and Spencer, S. (2003) Age as an Equality Issue. Hart Publishing. p 34.
  55. ^ Tushnet, R. ("Volunteers from the Audience: Audience Interests and the First Amendment," Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine Georgetown University Law Center. p 3., footnote 10.
  56. ^ Palladino, G. (1997) Teenagers: An American History. New York: Basic Books.
  57. ^ "Studios caught in teen-age dilemmas Multiplex issues," Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA), July 20, 2001.
  58. ^ Shary, T. (2002). Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 4.
  59. ^ Giroux, H. (1999) The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
  60. ^ Hope, A. and Oliver, P. (2005) Risk, education and culture. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p 79.
  61. ^ Shary, T. (2005) Teen Movies: American Youth on Screen. Wallflower Press. p 20.
  62. ^ Sternhiemer, S. (2003) It's Not the Media: The Truth about Pop Culture's Influence on Children. Westview Press. p 115.
  63. ^ Giroux, H. (2003) The Abandoned Generation: Democracy beyond the culture of fear. New York: Palgrave.
  64. ^ Beker, J. and Magnuson, D. (1996) Residential Education as an Option for At-Risk Youth. Haworth Press. p 60.
  65. ^ Males, M. (2001) "Lies, Damn Lies, and 'Youth Risk' Surveys" Youth Today. April 2001
  66. ^ Barak, G. (2003) Violence and Nonviolence: Pathways to Understanding. Sage Publications Inc. p 132.
  67. ^ Collins, J., Noble, G., and Poynting, B. (2000) Kebabs, Kids, Cops and Crime: Youth, Ethnicity and Crime. Pluto Press Australia. p 122.
  68. ^ Walgrave, L. and Bazemore, B. (1999) Restorative Juvenile Justice: Repairing the Harm of Youth Crime. Criminal Justice Press. p 192.
  69. ^ Wilson, D. (2005) Inventing Black-on-Black Violence: Discourse, Space, and Representation. Syracuse University Press. p 144.
  70. ^ Susskind, A. (1987) "Issues in Institutional Child Sexual Abuse The Abused, the Abuser, and the System," Residential Treatment for Children & Youth. 4;2. p 19.
  71. ^ Ornstein, A.C. (1972) Urban Education: Student Unrest, Teacher Behaviors, and Black Power. Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co. p 73.
  72. ^ Campbell, N. (2004) American Youth Cultures. Routledge. p 19.
  73. ^ Lyons, W. and Drew, J. (2006) Punishing Schools: Fear And Citizenship In American Public Education. University of Michigan Press. p 4.
  74. ^ Acland, C.R. (1995) Youth, Murder, Spectacle: The Cultural Politics of "youth in crisis". Westview Press. p 144.
  75. ^ ALA President's Program. (1994) "Beyond Ephebiphobia: A tool chest for customer service to young adults". American Library Association.
  76. ^ Males, M. (1999) Framing Youth: 10 myths about the next generation. Common Courage Press. p 47.

Bibliography

  • Lesko, N. (2001) Act Your Age!: A Cultural Construction of Adolescence. Routledge.
    ISBN 0-415-92833-8
    .
  • (n.d.) "Youth liberation", Z magazine online.
  • Three Types of Youth Liberation - by Sven Bonnichsen
  • Pro-Youth - A firm text against ageism towards teenagers, presenting a case of ageism committed by a jury.
  • Everyone deserves to be given a chance - An essay against ageism towards teenagers, written by a Canadian adolescent.
  • "Are We Down On Our Kids?" - A Review of Caught in the Crossfire: Kids, Politics, and America's Future by Lawrence Grossberg in Endeavours magazine that diagnoses cultural ephebiphobia in the U.S.
  • Ayotte, W. (1986) As Soon as You're Born They Make You Feel Small: Self Determination for Children.
  • Chicago Anarchist Youth Federation (n.d.) Schoolstoppers Textbook.
  • Cullen, S. (1991) Children in Society: a libertarian critique. London: Freedom Press.
  • Goodman, P. (1964) Compulsory Miseducation and The Community of Scholars. New York: Vintage Books.
  • Illich, I. (1970) Deschooling Society. New York:
    Harrow Books
    .
  • Holt, J. (1972) Freedom and Beyond. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.
  • Miller, A. (1990) For Your Own Good: Hidden cruelty in child-rearing and the roots of violence. 3rd edition. New York: Noonday Press.
  • Sternheimer, K. (2006) Kids These Days: Facts and Fictions about Today's Youth. Rowman and Littlefield.

External links

Look up ephebiphobia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Look up hebephobia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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