Modern Australian teenagers, to a great extent, can be considered to be living completely opposite lives to adolescents within Amish communities. This can be exemplified through concepts of family, roles and status, conflict, cooperation and decision making, gender, communication and power, authority and influence. All of these concepts will be explored in order to discover the key differences and similarities between the vastly different cultures of modern Australia and Amish communities.
Similar to most of these concepts, it was obvious where differences could be found among the cultures whereas similarities were hard to uncover. Comparing the two different family structures is difficult when they are made up completely different. Amish
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The similarities come from the Amish tradition of Rumspringa and the growing independence of Australian teenagers, which they typically gain at eighteen. Rumspringa can create conflict within the community due to the conviction of teenagers distributing drugs within the Amish community becoming more common. 9 This comes after the teenagers experiment with alcohol and illicit substances for the first time and can lead to a range of serious issues within the community. This is also an issue for Australian teenagers who too often delve into the world of drugs and alcohol which can cause issues and conflicts to arise, both socially and legally. Commerce is also a source of conflict within both Amish and Australian communities. Money often becomes too powerful and out of hand, creating conflict between people and businesses. Money often signifies success, especially in Australian society, therefore it turns to a competition to who can be best. A significant difference among the communities come from cooperation. The Amish community is based on a system of cooperation where the community comes together to work towards an end goal, an example of this being barn raising. While Australians do have a sense of community, help is usually done indirectly through things such as financial donations to a charity rather than participating in helping themselves. Within an Amish community, decision-making is done by the ministers, bishops and deacons for the entire community and the men within the family whereas Australian communities have the majority of decisions made by government institutions for the wider community and by both parents in a