What Is Happening to Young People?
THE good news or the bad news—which do you want to hear first? When asked this question, many opt to absorb the bad news first in hopes that the good news will linger in the mind.
When we examine what is happening to young people, consider first the present state. Older people generally comment that young people today are not like youths of the past. Young people, on the other hand, resent any implication that they do not measure up to the standards of yesteryear. Nevertheless, keen observers of humanity agree that today’s youths are different.
How Different?
Although people in general believe that young people should have good manners, a sense of responsibility, and respect for others, reality often falls far short of these ideals. According to a survey published in The Independent newspaper of London, young people are “developing a ‘new spirit of rebellion’ against a world which they see as having largely failed them.” This “new spirit of rebellion” is reflected in the finding that fewer modern-day youths want to regard themselves as “sensible and responsible.” They would rather be regarded as “wild and unpredictable.”
In Britain, for example, recorded crime—most of which was committed by young people—increased tenfold between 1950 and 1993. Increased drug and alcohol abuse parallels the trend. At the same time, notes The Times of London, almost all developed countries have seen “substantial increases in psychosocial disorders among youth since the Second World War.” According to David J. Smith, professor of criminology, these disorders are “not related to deprivation or to increasing affluence in any simple way.” Research indicates that a greater distinction is now evident between young people and older ones.
Children and young teenagers today face increasing stress. Cases of suicide, attempted or successful, have become commonplace. Suicide attempts by children under 12 doubled in less than ten years, reports Scotland’s Glasgow Herald. Older children allow despair to lead them the same way. “They are the extreme end of a rising tide of psychiatric problems in the young that threaten to outstrip the services being put in place to help them,” comments the newspaper.
Who Is to Blame?
Adults find it easy to blame young people for youth’s “deviant” views. Yet, in all truthfulness, do not adults carry much of the blame for what is now happening among young people? Bullying, parental neglect, lack of role models whom youths can trust, are often cited in explanation. “Depression in the general population is no more common than it was 30 years ago,” claims Professor Sir Michael Rutter, head of Britain’s Medical Research Council Child Psychiatry Unit. “But,” he adds, “its incidence among teenagers and young adults has increased greatly. . . . There is no doubt that family breakdown plays a part; not just divorce, but the general levels of discord and conflict among adults.”
One researcher claims that young people are “rejecting conventionality.” Why? “Because the conventions are not there for them.” Take the changing views of gender roles as an example. Many young women adopt the more masculine traits of aggression and violence, while young men become feminized. How different from the norms of the past!
But why do we see such radical changes now? And what good news is there about young people today? How can they have a secure future? Our next article considers the answers to these questions.