NCJ Number
78071
Date Published
1981
Length
27 pages
Annotation
The problems of the adolescent Hispanic female in the areas of education, employment, and health are discussed, with emphasis on their impacts on delinquency, and recommendations are offered to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Abstract
The summary report of the Vice-President's Task Force on Youth Employment states that two out of every five Hispanic 19-year-olds lack a high-school diploma and that young Hispanic women have the poorest graduation rate of any group among the Nation's youth. Even for the young Hispanic women who receive a high-school diploma, the employment opportunities are not much better than for the drop-outs. In a school curriculum that heavily reinforces traditional sex-role stereotypes, Hispanic women are not prepared with the employment capabilities and survival skills needed to meet the life situations likely to be thrust upon them. The Hispanic family subcultural values further hamper the employability of young Hispanic females by emphasizing compliance to male-dominated familial, social, sexual, and religious conventions. The likely burden of an adolescent pregnancy is another barrier to employment. The overall rise in premarital sexual activity among Hispanic youth is alarming. The inability of Hispanic females to find role models and educational and social services that would equip them to find fulfillment in normative employment roles places them at high-risk for delinquency. Intervention in the cultural and personal problems of Hispanic youth to prevent antisocial behavior can best be accomplished in Hispanic communities by agencies knowledgeable in the cultural and socioeconomic characteristics of the Hispanic community and which use the communication vehicles familiar to Hispanics. Appended are data on youth employment and descriptions of projects targeting Hispanic youth. Twelve footnotes are listed.