Attenuation of the mother-child bond and male initiation into adult life

Promoting Ethnic Identity Development in African American Youth: The Role of Rites of Passage

Contemporary adolescent rites-of-passage interventions within the African American community are designed to positively influence the ethnic identity of African American youth through activities that provide historical and cultural information, teach intellectual and social skills, and promote values that are consistent with African American culture and community needs. Unfortunately, it is unclear how consistent these interventions are with current developmental research and theory. This article presents and describes the adolescent developmental pathways paradigm (ADPP), a rites-of-passage modelforAfrican American youth that provides a developmentalframework for ethnic identity development and integrates it into the current literature on adolescent rites of passage. Particular attention is given to the ecological context within which adolescent-focused interventions currently operate and have been shown to be effective. The implications of the ADPPfor adolescent development, community empowerment, social change, andfuture research are also discussed.

Life structure revitalization: an adult developmental approach to psychodynamic psychotherapy

In this paper we, first, briefly review existing efforts to integrate adult development theory into psychodynamic psychotherapy. Next, we examine the concept of life structure and discuss its evolution across the eras and periods of the adult years. We explore the added concepts of the core self, the vital life structure, and life structure management skills. In so doing, we provide a context for proposing a new definition of the primary task of treatment: to help patients develop life structures that ensure a good fit between internal aspects of the self and the roles, relationships, and activities that comprise their lives. The creation of a life structure that is as fully expressive of the core self as reality permits increases patients' sense of vitality and well-being.