Q.Discuss any three challenges faced by adolescents today (e.g., delinquency, substance abuse, eating disorders) and suggest one protective factor for each.

Delinquency, substance abuse and eating disorders are three well-documented adolescent challenges, each linked to identifiable risk factors and each having its own corresponding protective factor named in the chapter. …

The chapter identifies three well-documented, serious challenges that a significant number of adolescents face today: delinquency, substance abuse, and eating disorders. Each has identifiable risk factors, and each has a corresponding protective factor that can help reduce its likelihood or severity.

Delinquency covers a range of behaviours from socially unacceptable conduct and legal offences to outright criminal acts — examples given in the chapter include truancy, running away from home, stealing or burglary, and vandalism. Adolescents showing delinquent behaviour tend to have a negative self-identity, decreased trust, and lower achievement, and delinquency is often associated with low parental support, inappropriate or inconsistent discipline, and family discord; it is also more common among adolescents from communities marked by poverty, unemployment, and alienation from mainstream society, who may act out to gain attention or peer popularity. A key protective factor identified in the chapter is consistent parental support combined with positive role models — the chapter notes that a change in peer group, a growing awareness of social responsibilities, developing genuine self-worth, imitating positive role models, and overcoming a poor self-concept all help reduce delinquent behaviour, and most delinquent adolescents, importantly, do not remain delinquent forever.

Substance abuse — smoking, alcohol, and drug use — is a second major concern, with adolescents especially vulnerable to it, sometimes turning to substances as a way of coping with stress, which paradoxically interferes with the actual development of coping skills. Motivations named in the chapter include peer pressure, the need to be accepted by a group, a desire to act more like adults, or a need to escape academic or social pressure; adolescents more vulnerable to substance use tend to be impulsive, aggressive, anxious, depressive, and have low self-esteem. The chapter's clearest protective factor here is positive relationships with parents, peers, siblings, and other adults, which play an important role in preventing substance abuse; structured, evidence-recognised interventions such as India's Society for Theatre in Education Programme (using street performances to teach 13-25 year-olds refusal skills, recognised by the UN's International Drug Control Programme) can further support this protection. …