At end of the session, the participants will be able to:
  1.  Refer to theories and concepts while dealing with school-related adolescent problems
  2.  List possible factors that influence adolescent development
  3.  Understand the teachers' roles in guidance at school
  4.  Suggest some guidance services at school to facilitate the whole-person development of students
  5.  Suggest strategies / programmes to prevent problems in adolescence
  6.  Design a class guidance activity to help students develop stress management skills
  7.  Identify their roles in the whole school approach of guidance at school
  8.  Apply theories and give sufficient rationales for any intervention plan
  9.  Develop different skills (e.g. communication, helping, critical thinking and problem-solving skills) to tackle novel 
       situations and ill-defined problems

Case 1:

A 17-year-old Japanese boy, John (pseudonym) suffers from a social disorder known in Japan as hikikomori, which 
means to withdraw from society. 

Three years ago, a classmate taunted him with anonymous hate letters and scrawled abusive graffiti about him in the 
schoolyard. The bullying made John very unhappy in school and began to play  truant. Then one day, he walked into 
the family's kitchen, shut the door and refused to leave. Since then, he hasn't left the room or allowed anyone in. 

The family responded passively and softly as everybody says give it time,  it's a phase or he'll grow out of it. His mother 
takes meals to his door three times a day. The toilet is adjacent to the kitchen, but he only baths once every six months. 

One psychologist has described the condition as an "epidemic", which now claims more than a million sufferers in their 
late teens and twenties. The trigger is usually an event at school, such as bullying, an exam failure or a broken romance. 

(Source: BBC news; Japan: The Missing Million:, 20/10/2002) 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/2334893.stm
       

Case 2: 

The number of young people who spend their lives locked in their bedrooms has tripled in the past two years to as many 
as 18,500, a welfare group's estimate shows. 

In Hong Kong, the welfare group warned the latest figure was only the tip of the iceberg because most cases did not come 
to light until their families sought help. 

From the cases that the group handled, some had isolated themselves for as long as six years, with the youngest being just 
12. About 80 per cent would kill time surfing  the internet or playing computer games. Fifty-two per cent would watch 
television and 39 per cent would idle away the hours in a dark corner at home. 

Characterised by their lack of self-esteem and self-confidence, these young people usually did not perform well at school, 
and almost 60 per cent only had Form Three qualifications at most. Many of them become evasive and eventually choose 
to lock themselves up in their  bedrooms during the day and only came out to have food or take a shower. 

(Source: South China Morning Post, 15/1/2007)