Curriculum to Help Adolescents Cope with Stress
As part of a research project supported by the CUNY Adjunct Incubator, Camille Ferguson, an Adjunct Professor in the Urban Affairs and Planning Department at Hunter College, CUNY, is developing a research project which seeks to develop and deliver a curriculum that teaches young people (ages 13-17) of color (Black and LatinX) about the stress process and ways to cope with stress in their lives.
Thisresearch project will also gain insight into student experiences with the curriculum. Ferguson’s overall interest is focused on adolescent perceptions of their stress process in the context of neighborhood distress and unstable school policies. The results of this overall study will allow Ferguson to develop a theory about the ways Black and LatinX urban young people perceive their stress process in a way that considers their development, their culture, and the kinds of neighborhood issues they may experience. Because more and more American young people are reporting higher levels of stress and stress can have a greater negative impact on young people’s health and overall well-being than it can on adults’ health and overall well-being, this is an important issue. Further, it’s well known that living in distressed urban neighborhoods increase young people’s chances of chronic stress and much of their stress is related to school. Due to their developmental level, young people need to learn how to identify their stressors and how to deal with them. This curriculum will address this issue. The specific objectives of this curriculum include the following:
- Students identify stressors in their lives
- Students learn to be mindful of how they feel physically, mentally and emotionally when they feel stress
- Students learn about ways to cope with stress
- Students engage in yoga poses
- Students engage in breathing exercises
- Students discuss yoga principals
This project is part of the CUNY Adjunct Incubator and is co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Gittell Urban Studies Collective at the Graduate Center, CUNY.
