Everyday Courage: The Lives and Stories of Urban Teenagers / Edition 1

by Niobe Way

Overview

A developmental analysis of adolescents growing up in an inner-city, working class life

What does it mean to be a teenager in an American city at the close of the twentieth century? How do urban surroundings affect the ways in which teens grow up, and what do their stories tell us about human development? In particular, how do the negative images of themselves on television and in the newspaper affect their perspectives about themselves? Psychologists typically have shown little interest in urban youth, preferring instead to generalize about adolescent development from studies of their middle-class, suburban counterparts. In Everyday Courage Niobe Way, a developmental psychologist, looks beyond the stereotypes to reveal how the personal worldviews of inner-city poor and working-class adolescents develop over time. In the process, she challenges much conventional wisdom about inner-city youth and about adolescents more generally.

She introduces us to Malcolm, a sensitive and proud young man full of contradictions. We follow him as he makes the honor roll, becomes a teenage father, and falls into depression as his younger sister is dying of cancer. We meet Eva, an intelligent and confident young women full of questions, who grows increasingly alienated from her mother and comes to rely on her best friends for support. We watch her blossom as a ball player and a poet. We share her triumph when she receives a scholarship to the college of her choice.

In these 24 adolescents, Way finds a cross-section of youngsters who want to make positive changes in their lives and communities while struggling with concerns about betrayal, trust, racism, violence, and death. Each adolescent wants most of all to "be somebody," to have her or his voice heard.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814793398
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	04/01/1998
Series:	Qualitative Studies in Psychology , #10
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.78(d)

About the Author

Niobe Way, Ed. D., is Professor of Applied Psychology in the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University. She is also the founder of the Project for the Advancement of Our Common Humanity (pach.org) and the past President for the Society for Research on Adolescence. She received her doctorate from Harvard Universityin Human Development and Psychology and was an NIMH postdoctoral fellow in the psychology department at Yale University. Way’s has been studying the social and emotional development of adolescents in cultures around the world for the past three decades. In addition to almost a hundred academic journal publications and dozens of blogs written for mainstream media outlets, Way has written numerous books that include her sole-authored: Everyday Courage: The Lives and Stories of Urban Teenagers (NYU Press, 1998); and Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships and the Crisis of Connection (Harvard UniversityPress, 2011). Her co-edited or co-authored books include: Urban Girls: Resisting Stereotypes, Creating Identities (NYU Press, 1996); Adolescent Boys: Exploring Diverse Cultures of Boyhood (NYU Press, 2004). and her award-winning Growing up Fast: Transitions to Adulthood among Inner-City Adolescent Mothers (Erlbaum Press, 2001). Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, The National Science Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, The Spencer Foundation, and by numerous other foundations. Way is an internationally recognized leader in the study of social and emotional development and adolescence as well as in the use of mixed methods.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Recommended for anyone who works with inner-city youth."

-Library Journal,

"This exceptionally important book will set the standard for powerful writing about urban teenagers for years to come. Privileging the voices of inner-city teens and presenting their experiences of themselves and their worlds, Niobe Way's intelligent, subtle voice leads us to listen freshly to this group whose views are so often not heard or are distorted. She presents a brilliant example of voice-centered research and essential reading for anyone hoping to work effectively with adolescents."

-Carol Gilligan,author of In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development

Editorial Reviews

"This exceptionally important book will set the standard for powerful writing about urban teenagers for years to come. Privileging the voices of inner-city teens and presenting their experiences of themselves and their worlds, Niobe Way's intelligent, subtle voice leads us to listen freshly to this group whose views are so often not heard or are distorted. She presents a brilliant example of voice-centered research and essential reading for anyone hoping to work effectively with adolescents."

Carol Gilligan

While suburban youth violence elicits shock, similar problems are assumed to be characteristic of urban settings. This study challenges such stereotypes by exploring the ordinary lives of 24 teenagers in a Northwestern city. In this adaptation of a larger, government-funded study of high-risk behaviors, Way (psychology, New York Univ.) follows in the tradition of Carol Gilligan (In a Different Voice, 1982) and others by focusing on subjects' perceptions of their world and the implications for an understanding of adolescence as a developmental stage. Topics include betrayal, trust, racism, sexism, single motherhood, and death. Contradictory and surprisingly conservative viewpoints are expressed by these young people, who seem to value relationships and community above all. Though based on a small sample, the book is meticulous, provocative, and innovative. Recommended for academic collections and for anyone who works with inner-city youth.--Antoinette Brinkman, Southwest Indiana Mental Health Ctr. Lib., Evansville

Library Journal

Developmental psychologist Way interprets first-person accounts of what it means to be among the nearly 40 percent of poor and/or ethnic minority adolescents in the 1990s, drawing upon 71 interviews (protocols appended) with a sample of the 95-plus percent who do not meet the media stereotypes of destructive urban teens or superheroes. With relational themes clustered in conceptual matrices, and statistics belying perceptions of the degree of high-risk behavior among youth, she challenges the pathological pictures which emerge from quantitative studies representing them in preconceived categories. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

"This exceptionally important book will set the standard for powerful writing about urban teenagers for years to come. Privileging the voices of inner-city teens and presenting their experiences of themselves and their worlds, Niobe Way's intelligent, subtle voice leads us to listen freshly to this group whose views are so often not heard or are distorted. She presents a brilliant example of voice-centered research and essential reading for anyone hoping to work effectively with adolescents."

-Carol Gilligan,author of In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development

"Recommended for anyone who works with inner-city youth."

- Library Journal

From the Publisher