Case Details
This case study is about 16 year old Martha. Martha lives with her mother and he father lives abroad. She has two younger siblings, aged 4 and 2 years. Martha’s mother is in a ne relationship and her boyfriend has moved into the family home. Martha used to play under 14 s football but she has given that up and now spends most of her time listening to music and socialising with her friends. On several occasions Martha has gone to house parties binge drinking and not returned home that night. This is causing Martha’s mother considerable stress and is affecting their relationship. Martha has completed her Junior Certificate but has no interest in school or having a career. She has decided not to return to school as …show more content…
Every society has its own culture that is learned through family, education, peer groups and the media. Every culture also has subcultures. A subculture is when a group of people create a separate culture within the lager culture that they belong to. Subcultures require commitment, identity, distinction and autonomy. Subcultures often bring people together who do not feel part of the bigger culture. It gives people a sense of identity. Youth subculture is a large part of Western society and often helps adolescents in their transition from childhood to adulthood (Coyne & Donohoe, 2013). The most noticeable charactertics of youth culture are behaviour patterns, peer influence and material culture. Common behaviours for adolescents involves refusing to conform to social norms and expectations and rebelling instead. This rebellion is usually shared with peers through a common interest, ranging from listening to a particular genre of music to fighting or drug use. In Martha’s case, she has rebelled by giving up playing football and binge drinking and staying out at weekends. Adolescents tend to have very tight social groups outside of the family and use fashion as a symbol of their interests and individuality. Some may claim territory as demonstrated by street gangs. Peer influence is a huge part of adolescents. Peers become must more important …show more content…
In the 2011 census, 1,491 females between the ages of 15 and 19 were described as lone parents while they were 12,003 females between the ages of 20 and 24 years recorded as lone parents. It has been suggested that the average age of first sexual intercourse experience is 13.5 years of age. It is usually unplanned, a one night stand and over half will not use a condom or any other form of contraception (Mayock & Byrne, 2004). This is a stark contradiction to Irish laws as the age of consent for both sexes is 17. Irish society has historically been very opposed to sexual behaviour before marriage but in recent times this has changed as young people are holding more liberal views than the older generation. Between 1973 and 2005 the proportion of Irish people that believed sex before marriage was ‘always wrong’ fell from 71% to just 6% (Layte, et al.,