The Changing Adolescent Experience: Societal Trends and the Transition to Adulthood

by Edited by Jeylan T. Mortimer , Reed W. Larson

• ISBN13: 9780521814805
• ISBN10: 0521814804
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-10-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The path adolescents take from childhood to adulthood is a product of social, economic, political, and technological forces. These forces may facilitate youth's preparation to become healthy adults, or they may leave youth unprepared for adulthood. Knowledgeable projections are vital in shaping the agenda for research; for alerting educators, policy makers, and practitioners to new issues; and for formulating thoughtful responses to emerging dilemmas. This book focuses upon the future of adolescence in postindustrial societies. The authors identify some ominous societal changes that will affect youth: unstable job markets, competition for public resources due to an aging population, and widening income gaps between 'information workers' and low-skill workers. But they also observe opportunities created by information technology, innovations in health service delivery and criminal-justice rehabilitation, and the resourcefulness of a new generation. This volume examines these and other macro-structural changes that will impact adolescents' lives and their futures as adults.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	vii
Preface	ix
Macrostructural Trends and the Reshaping of Adolescence	1	(17)
Jeylan T. Mortimer
Reed W. Larson
Youth in Aging Societies	18	(34)
Elizabeth Fussell
The Transition from School to Work	52	(36)
Alan C. Kerckhoff
Criminal Justice in the Lives of American Adolescents: Choosing the Future	88	(41)
Francis T. Cullen
John Paul Wright
Adolescent Health Care in the United States: Implications and Projections for the New Millennium	129	(46)
Elizabeth M. Ozer
Tracy Macdonald
Charles E. Irwin, Jr.
Youth and Information Technology	175	(33)
Ronald E. Anderson
Social Space, the Final Frontier: Adolescents on the Internet	208	(42)
Kate Hellenga
Approaching Policy for Adolescent Development in the 21st Century	250	(23)
James Youniss
Allison J. Ruth
Index	273