The recent spate of school shootings underscores the fact that many adolescents in the U.S. are at risk for psychological distress, and that many of the most disturbed youth do not receive appropriate mental health services. For adolescents in general, the statistics and trends pointing to the unhealthy psychological state of modern youth are not cheerful, “Antisocial and disruptive behavior have increasing stability with age, thus underscoring the more intractable quality of dysfunctional behavior as youth age. While psychiatric inpatient admissions for other age groups have declined, adolescent inpatient admissions to psychiatric facilities have increased. The Federal Bureau of Investigation tallies show that 1.75 million juveniles under age 18 were arrested in 1990” (Crespi, 1995, p. 735). Adding to these statistics, child abuse levels are on the rise and these facts combined with the developmental challenges of adolescence have important ramifications for counselors who work with adolescents.
When it comes to minority adolescents, the challenges for counselors are increased because of different cultural, socio-economic and other factors that present special obstacles within the client-counselor relationship. The Hispanic minority is expected to be the largest minority percentage-wise in the U.S. sometime early in the 21st century. The literature illustrates that Hispanic youth are even more at-risk for delinquent behavior because of various socio-economic and cultural factors. Many conditions of Hispanic existence in the U.S. are disadvantaged compared to non-minorities or even other minorities. A disproportionately large number live in urban and rural areas that are economically disadvantaged. Where Puerto Ricans are concerned, there are four factors which place them at risk for delinquent behavior, “low income, low levels of educational attainment, chronic unemployment or underemployment, inadequate or little tr...