Coming of age in America is an increasingly lengthy, challenging, and fascinating process. It represents the most dramatic example of the complex processes involved in negotiating a critical period of normal development. It illustrates the shifting interplay between the biological, psychological, and cultural demands on the individual. At the present time much of the focus of attention has been on the failures of coping in this era, especially as indicated by higher suicide rates, prevalence of drug abuse, and increase in violent behaviors. (39 pp.)
Download Tag: Beatrix Hamburg
Social Change and the Problems of Youth
The kinds of behavior that reflect the developmental status of the young person are, at times, interpreted as evidence of a “generation gap.” There is a need to examine whether the problems of the youth are, in fact, merely the most recent version of perennial “growing pains” or whether they instead represent a major discontinuity with the cultural institutions of the past century, i.e., a true generation gap. If the latter is so, it would suggest that our cultural institutions are no longer adequate to the task of socializing children for their adult tasks and challenges. This paper will attempt to look at these issues.(68 pp.)
