Cultural Competence Training forThe MCOSA SPF-SIG Project Remedy

Thursday, August 28, 2008

“How to Communicate so Teens Listen!”

Kathleen Zimmerman-Oster, PhD

Training Objectives:

• To enhance the cultural competency skills of prevention professionals.

• To better understand today’s teens and to learn how to communicate (about underage drinking and drinking and driving) so teens will listen.

Understanding the cultures of the youth we serve requires more than words and good intentions. The journey toward cultural competence requires the willingness to experience, to learn from those experiences, and to act (Haley, 1999).

What is Cultural Competency?

• Cultural competence is defined as the ability of individuals and systems to work or respond effectively across cultures in a way that acknowledges and respects the culture of the person or organization being served.

• Culturally competent youth development workers are aware and respectful of the values, beliefs, traditions, customs, and parenting styles of the audience being served.

What is Cultural Competency?

• Lynch and Hanson's Developing Cross-Cultural Competence: A Guide for Working With Young Children and Their Families(1998) established that cultural competence is something that we work toward; it is not achieved overnight or in a single workshop setting.

• Cultural competence is said to replace earlier ideas of cultural sensitivity and awareness, which are often embraced. However, typically, no corresponding action followed as a change in individual behavior.

Dimensions of Diversity

• Age• Ethnicity• Gender• Religion• Social Economic Status• Education• Work Experience• Parental Status• Marital Status• Geographic Location• Values• Military Experience, Etc.

Macomb County Demographics(2006, Census Bureau)

• Persons under 18 years old• Persons 65 years old and over• Female persons, percent• White persons, percent • Black persons • American Indian and Alaska Native persons • Asian persons• Living in same house in 1995 and 2000, pct 5 yrs old & over • Foreign born persons• Language other than English spoken at home, age 5+• High school graduates, percent of persons age 25+• Bachelor's degree or higher, pct of persons age 25+

Macomb County Demographics(2006, Census Bureau)

• Persons under 18 years old, percent, 2006 23.3% • Persons 65 years old and over, percent, 2006 13.4%• Female persons, percent, 2006 50.8%• White persons, percent, 2006 (a) 88.9% • Black persons, percent, 2006 (a) 6.3% • American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent, 2006 (a) 0.3%

• Asian persons, percent, 2006 (a) 3.0% • Living in same house in 1995 and 2000, pct 5 yrs old & over 58.3%• Foreign born persons, percent, 2000 8.8% • Language other than English spoken at home, age 5+, 2000 12.4%• High school graduates, percent of persons age 25+, 2000 82.9%• Bachelor's degree or higher, pct of persons age 25+, 2000 17.6%

First Impressions

Vital Ingredients for Cultural Competence

• Self-knowledge/awareness,

• Experience and knowledge about a particular culture, and

• Positive change or action for successful interaction with the identified culture.

Social Perception

• Stereotype: a generalization about a group of people in which identical characteristics are assigned to virtually all members of the group, regardless of actual variation among the members.

• Prejudice: an attitude about another person or group of people based on stereotypes

• Discrimination: an action or behavior based on prejudice

Stereotypes: The Cognitive Component

Stereotyping is a cognitive process, not an emotional one.

Stereotyping does not necessarily lead to intentional acts of abuse.

Often stereotyping is merely a technique we use to simplify how we look at the world—and we all do it to some extent.

The Way We Think: Social Cognition

One explanation for what causes prejudice is that it is the inevitable byproduct of the way we process and organize information:

• Our tendency to categorize and group information, • to form schemas and use them to interpret new or

unusual information, • to rely on potentially inaccurate heuristics (shortcuts in

mental reasoning), and • to depend on what are often faulty memory processes

—all of these aspects of social cognition can lead us to form negative stereotypes and to apply them in a discriminatory way.

Perception Errors

• Misreading Non-verbal cues• The Nature of the Attribution Process• Correspondence Bias

• The actor-observer difference

Facial Expressions of Emotion

Are facial expressions of emotion universal?

The answer is yes, for the six major emotional expressions: anger, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, and sadness.

All humans encode or express these emotions in the same way, and all humans can decode or interpret them with equal accuracy. Source of images: Microsoft Office Online.

Facial Expressions of Emotion

• Paul Ekman and others have conducted numerous studies indicating that the ability to interpret at least the six major emotions is cross-cultural—part of being human and not a product of people’s cultural experience.

Source of images: Microsoft Office Online.

Facial Expressions of Emotion

• Other emotions such as guilt, shame, embarrassment, and pride occur later in human development and show less universality.

• These latter emotions are closely tied to social interaction.

Source of images: Microsoft Office Online.

Culture and the Channels of Nonverbal Communication

Display rules are particular to each culture and dictate what kinds of emotional expressions people are supposed to show.

Source of images: Microsoft Office Online.

Culture and the Channels of Nonverbal Communication

Examples of display rule differences:• American cultural norms discourage emotional

displays in men, such as grief or crying, but allow the facial display of such emotions in women.

• Japanese women will often hide a wide smile behind their hands, whereas Western women are allowed—indeed, encouraged—to smile broadly and often.

• Japanese norms lead people to cover up negative facial expressions with smiles and laughter and to display fewer facial expressions in general than is true in the West.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Culture and the Channels of Nonverbal Communication

• Members of American culture become suspicious when a person doesn’t “look them in the eye” while speaking, and they find talking to someone who is wearing dark sunglasses quite disconcerting.

• Cultures vary greatly in what is considered normative use of personal space. Most Americans like to have a bubble of open space, a few feet in radius, surrounding them; in comparison, in some other cultures, strangers think nothing of standing right next to each other, to the point of touching.

Culture and the Channels of Nonverbal Communication

The important point about emblems is that they are not universal.Each culture has devised its own emblems, and these need not

be understandable to people from other cultures.

EmblemsNonverbal gestures that have well-understood definitions within a given culture; they usually have direct verbal translations, like the “OK” sign.

President George H. W. Bush once used the “V for victory” sign, but he did it backward—the palm of his hand was facing him instead of the audience. Unfortunately, he flashed this gesture to a large crowd in Australia—and in Australia, this emblem is the equivalent of “flipping the bird”!

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

It's not easy being an adolescent.

• They have to try to figure out and manage volatile and powerful emotions.

• They have to fit into a complex social network.

• They have to deal with immense peer pressure.

• They have to deal with wildly changing moods.

• They have to handle sexually maturing bodies that give rise to strong urges.

• They have to figure out what their values are going to be.

It's not easy being an adolescent.

• They have to renegotiate relationships with their parents.

• They experience a loss of talent development.

• They have to get through school.

• They have to figure out how to get enough sleep.

• They have to begin to plan their future.

• They have to decide how they are going to respond to the temptation of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs.

The Teen Brain

• From ages 13 to about age 25, a pruning and strengthening process is happening in their brains.

• Because of the huge changes happening in the teen brain, it's possible that a decision a teen makes now may affect him for life.

The Teen Brain

• From early adolescence through their mid-20s, a teen's brain develops somewhat unevenly, from back to front. This may help explain their endearingly quirky behavior but also makes them prone to risk-taking.

The Teen Brain

• The parts of the adolescent brain which develop first are those which control physical coordination, emotion and motivation.

• However, the part of the brain which controls reasoning and impulses - known as the Prefrontal Cortex - is near the front of the brain and, therefore, develops last. This part of the brain does not fully mature until the age of 25.

The Teen Brain

• difficulty holding back or controlling emotions, • a preference for physical activity, • a preference for high excitement and low effort

activities (video games, sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll), • poor planning and judgment (rarely thinking of

negative consequences), • more risky, impulsive behaviors, including

experimenting with drugs and alcohol.

Generation Y - Demographics

• No definitive agreement on birth years; experts say somewhere between 1978 and 1995; most say 1981 to 1993

• Children of Baby Boomers• Younger siblings of Gen Xers• Largest generation (75 million) after the Boomers (80

million), compared to the Gen Xers (40 million)• 38% of millennials identify themselves as “non-white”• Positioned in history to be the next “Hero generation”

Generation Y - They’re called…• Generation Y• Generation WHY• Generation Next• Nexers• Millenniums• Digital Generation• Echo Boomers• Boomlets• Baby Busters• I Generation• Net Generation• Netizens• Gaming Generation (along with younger• Gen Xers)

Generation Y - Characteristics…

• Techno-savvy• Connected…24/7• Self-confident• Optimistic• Hopeful• Independent• Comfortably self-reliant• Determined• Goal oriented

• Success driven• Lifestyle centered• Diverse• Inclusive• Global-, civic- and

community-minded• Pulling together• Service oriented• Entrepreneurial

Generation Y – Beliefs . . .

• Education is good

• Integrity is admirable

• Parents are role models

Generation Y:Defining life experiences…

• Grew up basking in “The Decade of the Child”—childrenon a pedestal vs. “children should be seen and not heard”

• Fathers became more involved in parenting• Came of age during a time of incredible change

andscandal within modern organizations

• Most “hovered over” generation ever in our country; unprecedented parental supervision and advocacy

Generation Y:Defining life events…

• Columbine High School

• 9-11

• Enron, WorldCom, etc.

• War in Iraq

• Nuclear threat from North Korea

• Emerging nations—China, India

Generation Y: Impact of technological advancement…

• Never experienced life without computers

• Reverse accumulation of knowledge—the younger you are, the more you know

• All information is a click away; so is the competition

• The world is a click away

Generation Y: Using technology

• 97% own a computer • 94% own a cell phone • 76% use Instant Messaging and social networking sites. • 15% of IM users are logged on 24 hours a day/7 days a week • 34% use websites as their primary source of news • 28% author a blog and 44% read blogs • 97% have downloaded music and other media using

peer-to-peer file sharing • 49% regularly download music and other media using

peer-to-peer file sharing • 75% of college students have a Facebook account[16] • 60% own some type of portable music and/or video device such as

an iPod.

Generation Y: Millennials at work…

• Work well with friends and on teams• Collaborative, resourceful, innovative thinkers• Love a challenge• Seek to make a difference• Want to produce something worthwhile• Desire to be a hero• Impatient• Comfortable with speed and change• Thrive on flexibility and space to explore• Partner well with mentors• Value guidance• Expect respect

Generation Y (and Z)

• Today’s generation of teens is vastly different from prior cohorts. While previous generations rebelled against the system, today’s teens want to excel within it.

• There is little evidence of a generation gap with today’s young people; they generally respect authority and share their parents’ values.

Generation Y (and Z)

• “Indi-filiation,” TRU’s shorthand for this tension between individualism and affiliation, can best be summed up thusly: teens want to be interesting and unique – just like their friends.

Alcohol Advertising And Youth

• By the time teenagers reach driving age they will have seen 75,000 ads for alcohol (CQ Researcher, 1992).

• American children view 2,000 beer and wine commercials per year (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1995).

• Results from one study indicate that beer advertisements are a significant predictor of an adolescent's knowledge, preference, and loyalty for beer brands, as well as current drinking behavior and intentions to drink (Gentile, 2001).

Alcohol Advertising And Youth

• The alcohol industry spends $2 billion per year on all media advertising (Strasburger, 1999).

• The beer brewing industry itself spent more than $770 million on television ads and $15 million on radio ads in 2000 (Center for Science in the Public Interest, 2002).

Alcohol Advertising And Youth

• Television advertising changes attitudes about drinking. Young people report more positive feelings about drinking and their own likelihood to drink after viewing alcohol ads (Austin, 1994; Grube, 1994).

• Fifty-six percent of students in grades 5 through 12 say that alcohol advertising encourages them to drink (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2001).

Statistics on teen driving:

• During a typical prom weekend, nearly 300 teens die in alcohol-related accidents.

• Nearly 7,000 15 to-20 -year-olds die in vehicle crashes each year.

• Crash rates are highest among teens in their first few hundred miles on the road, with 60% of those crashes the result of inexperience.

• Two of every three teenagers who die in crashes are passengers in a vehicle driven by another teen.

The Reality

“Motor vehicle crashes claim over 5,000

teen lives annually. It’s almost as if the

September 11 terrorist attacks happened

twice every year.”

Note: Drunk driving is a serious problem, but one that accounts for less than 25 percent of all teen crash fatalities.

A Focus on Root Causes

• Social: simple peer pressure nudges teens towards risky driving habits. Research shows that the presence of other teens in a car being driven by a teen significantly increases the chances of a crash – whether or not the passengers are explicitly urging the driver to make unsafe traffic maneuvers.

A Focus on Root Causes

• Biological: an issue of brain development. Recent advances in neuroscience tell us that key parts of the brain’s decision-making circuitry do not fully develop until the mid-20s. So, in actual driving situations, teens may weigh the consequences of unsafe driving quite differently than adults do.

Current Teen-Driver Efforts: A Wide-Angle View

• Changes in Driving Instruction and Technology

• Vehicle Safety Improvements

• Current Public Awareness Campaigns

• Targeting Alcohol-Related Fatalities

• Graduated Driver Licensing Laws

Strategies for Change

• Teen participation

• Grassroots empowerment

• Rigorous measurement and accountability

Allstate’s Key Findings:

• “The chief implication of this work is that strategies that rely on appealing only to adolescents’ logic or providing them with facts are unlikely to significantly reduce risk-taking in adolescents”

• The idea: creating a “brand” for this issue that becomes shorthand to teens for a variety of messages – rational and emotional – that need to be conveyed as part of a safe-driving campaign.

What Works for Teens:

• Despite what most parents think, teens value their advice. More than half of teens of all ages (57%) say that family, rather than friends or school, is the most important thing in their lives right now.

• Teens who report having conversations with their parents about alcohol and drug use are more likely to stay drug-free, compared to teens who do not talk about substance abuse with their parents.

What Works for Teens:

• Nearly 60 percent of teens who drive say their parents have the most influence on their driving.

• Yet, teens have reported seeing their own parents talking on a cell phone while driving (62%), speeding (48%), and not wearing a safety belt (31%).

• Sixty-six percent of teens say they care about their parents’ opinion on cell phone use while driving.

Focus Group A: Comments

• “It really depends on how you are raised. Parents who are involved and talk with their kids about alcohol don’t tend to use.”

• “Youth who have witnessed addiction directly tend not to use.”

• “Youth who understand the physical consequences of alcohol on the body and brain are less likely to use.”

Focus Group A: Comments

• Youth say it is easy to get alcohol. They can often get it from the store even when underage. If they can not, they can get it from parents or older friends or pay a homeless person to buy it for them.

• Youth are not really scared about getting caught by the police.

Focus Group A: Comments

• You won’t get caught if you’re “smart about it”.

• When youth get pulled over, police response is inconsistent. They do not always get an MIP or DUI.

• Youth say they might think twice about going out after drinking if they were sure that there would be consequences.

Focus Group B: Comments

• Know teen language, but don’t use it in a presentation.

• Don’t try too hard to be cool and be a like a teen.• Be confident that you know what you are talking

about.• Share consequences both legal and physical.• Ask questions and play games and other

interactive activities.

Emerging Technologies

• Social Networking

• Online TV - On Demand

• Lights, camera, action!

• Gaming in the virtual world

• A cellular world

Help Teens Translate the Digital & Pop Culture World 

• Know your own beliefs regarding pop culture so you can set guidelines for your teen.

• Get educated. Find out what music, Web sites and other media interest your teen. These will change, so ask often.

• Learn how to analyze media messages, so you can help your teen translate them.

• Engage in media use with your teen and get comfortable with new technologies, especially if your child is using them. Use these opportunities to talk about what is credible and why.

• Encourage teens to think critically about what they hear, see and read.

Internet Lingo

• POS - Parent Over Shoulder

• PIR - Parent In Room

• P911 - Parent Alert

• PAW - Parents Are Watching

• PAL - Parents Are Listening

• KPC - Keeping Parents Clueless

Texting

• 143 - I love you

• JK - just kidding

• 411 - information

• L8R - later

• BCUZ - because

• LOL - laugh out loud

• BTW - by the way

• NE1 - anyone

• CU L8R - see you later

•

• NP - no problem • F2T - free to talk• OMG - oh my god• H&K - hugs & kisses• Thx - thanks• GUDLUK - good luck• TTYL - talk to you later

• IDK - I don’t know• UR - you’re

Chit Chat

• Teachable Moments

• Continuous Conversations

• Role Modeling and Guidance

• Prior Use– Be Honest– Be Specific– Be an Example– Be Convincinable

Communication – Getting Started

• Start by understanding some of the reasons teens say they drink:– Bored and drinking gives them something to

do – Feel pressured by others to do so– Trying to escape from the challenges of their

lives– It’s a way to celebrate or blow off steam

Communication:Armed with Information

• Understand the statistics, what % of kids are using, what are the drugs of choice, etc.

• Know the physical consequences and dangers.• Listen to them and respect what they say. • Make clear your expectation that your teen not

drink. • Discuss laws about underage drinking, including

the age 21 law. • Be prepared to answer tough questions about

your use.

The Five Key Steps of Emotion Coaching:

• Become aware of the child’s emotions;• Recognize the emotion as an opportunity

for intimacy and teaching;• Listen empathetically, validating the child’s

feeling;• Help the child find words to label the

emotion he is having; and• Set limits while exploring strategies to

solve the problem at hand.

Additional Strategies:

• Avoid excessive criticism, humiliating comments or mocking your child

• Use “scaffolding” and praise to coach you child

• Ignore your “Parental Agenda”• Create a Mental Map of your child’s daily life• Avoid “Siding with the enemy”• Think about your child’s experiences in

terms of similar adult situations• Don’t try to impose your solutions on your

child’s problems

Additional Strategies:

• Empower your child by giving choices and respecting wishes

• Share in your child’s dreams and fantasies• Be honest with your child• Read teen literature together• Be patient with the process• Understand your base of power as a parent.• Believe in the positive nature of human

development

Perception Checking

• Step One:

• State the factual observation

• Step Two:

• Provide two possible explanations

• Step Three:

• Ask Why? “Could you please tell me why?”

Door Slammers

• "You are too young to understand." • "If you say that again, I'll..." • "That's none of your business." • "I don't care what your friends are doing!" • "We'll talk about that when you need to know." • "That's just for boys/girls" • "Why are you asking me that?" • "You don't need to know about that." • "Don't come to me if you mess up."

Door Openers

• “What do you think?" • "Would you like to share more about that?" • "That's a good question." • "I don't know, but I'll find out" • "I'm interested in what you are saying." • "Do you know what that means?" • "That sounds important to you." • "Do you want to talk about it?"

Communication Tips

• Know when your child or teen group is most open to conversing with you. Adolescents tend to be more talkative at night, so take advantage of their “inner clock.”

• Stand side-by-side instead of facing teens directly. Teens are most likely to open up when they don’t feel like you’re staring them down.

Communication Tips

• Talk to teens when they’re engaged in another activity that isn’t too distracting. They’re more likely to share their feelings while shooting hoops, having a snack, or sitting in the car (when you’re the driver).

• Let teens vent, within reason. Train yourself to listen to the emotional subtext beneath the drama. Often what teenagers are really trying to say is, “I’m scared,” “I’m confused,” or “I’m afraid you’re disappointed in me.”

Communication Tips

• Be specific -- and take a positive approach. For example, you could ask, “What did your teacher say about your terrific term paper?”

• Allow extra time before responding. Teens need time to sort through feelings and gather their thoughts, and can’t always express them at once.

Communication Tips

• Realize that kids communicate in different ways than you did. Encourage your teen to describe her world by asking open-ended questions, such as “What did Lucy say then?” “Was Matt there, too?” or “What did you think about that?”

Communication Tips

• Keep in mind that adolescents are sensitive, emotionally vulnerable, and easily hurt. Trying to help them lighten up with a little humor usually backfires and makes them feel that you don’t take their problems and feelings seriously.

Communication Tips

• Talk casually about a wide range of subjects -- favorite TV shows, music, food, sports, and politics. The bulk of your conversations should be positive and help you get to know each other better.

• Try to acknowledge their viewpoint with statements like, “Good idea” or “That sounds like a tough problem” or “Wow! You did a lot today.” Ask if they want advice, and be prepared to take no for an answer.

Communication Tips

• Understand that teens often don’t know what’s motivating them. You can help by asking, “How did that make you feel?” or “How did that strategy work for you?”

• Accept that some issues just can’t be resolved. It’s time to let go and move on.

8 Talk-Blockers

• Body language. Avoid gestures like shrugging your shoulders or leaning back with arms folded, which a kid is likely to read as, “I don’t accept you.” And don’t stand above her -- if your teen is sitting or is shorter than you, sit down.

• Facial expressions. Beware the scowl, the raised eyebrows, the rolled eyes, the smirk. They don’t like it any more than you do.

8 Talk-Blockers

• Nonverbal sounds. Skip the heavy sighs and groans. (You probably do it without even realizing!)

• Tone. Are you talking to your teen in the voice you’d use with a friend? Keep it casual and conversational.

• Yelling. If you’re not careful, your voice may go up a level. Moms need to use their “indoor” voice, too.

8 Talk-Blockers

• Talking too much. Bite your tongue -- literally if necessary. Count to 10 and give your child plenty of time to formulate his thoughts.

• Sarcasm. Don’t try to be funny; hypersensitive kids may feel insulted. Save your sparkling wit for grown-ups.

• Anger. Stay as relaxed as possible, even if you have to say, “I need some time to calm down -- let’s talk later,” and come back when you’re cooler.

Put it in Writing

• Because it is illegal, I promise not to drink alcohol or take drugs. I will not drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. I pledge not to get in a car with someone who has been drinking alcohol or doing drugs. If I find myself in a situation where I feel unsafe or uncomfortable, I promise to call you, my parent or guardian, for a ride home. I commit to this pledge and recognize there are consequences for every decision I make. I promise to call you, my parent or guardian, for a ride home. I commit to this pledge and recognize there are consequences for every decision I make.

Put it in Writing

• As your parent/guardian, I promise to make myself available to you. You can count on me any time day or night. I promise that I will agree to pick you up, no immediate questions asked. When we are safe at home, I pledge to respect you and listen to what has happened and help in any way I can.

“Whoever tells the storiesdefines the culture”

• As teens learn and share their stories, they build a greater sense of community within their family and/or group.

• When we tell and listen to each other’s stories, we learn tolerance, compassion and acceptance, and we develop an appreciation and respect for diversity.

What storytelling can do:

• Storytelling improves communication between family or group members and promotes understanding across generations.

• Storytelling provides opportunities to share values in a non-threatening and engaging way.

• The truth clothed in a story, is always easier to share and hear. Stories allow teens to make healthy choices about who they are as individuals.

• Storytelling is an interactive activity that can engage teens.

• Telling and listening to stories enhances a sense of wonder and curiosity, and promotes the use of imagination and creative thinking of teens.

Summary: Steps to Take

• Guard against your own errors in judgment.• Understand and empathize with teens and their

challenges and development.• Become an Emotion Coach• Get to know what’s “in” for teens. Engage them

and ask them.• Learn to use teen technology.• Educate teens about modern understanding of

brain development.

Summary: Steps to Take

• Improve the quality and quantity of your conversations with teens using strong listening and communication skills.

• Use the perception checking strategy.• Use the storytelling strategy.• Improve driving skills with a variety of

interactive strategies.• Use written contracts to clarify

expectations and agreements.