ABSTRACT
Two major reports on young people appeared in 1995. The first, by Michael Rutter and David Smith, is a detailed examination of the scientific evidence available to answer the question whether psychosocial disorders exhibited by young people have become more or less frequent over the last fifty years. This comprehensive report, compiled from research conducted in European communities (including the United Kingdom), reviewed the social and economic changes that had occurred over the last fifty years and how these changes had affected the lives of youth. While the authors conclude that there was a gradient rise in disorder, the worsening living conditions, migration from rural to urban living or rise in unemployment do not account for this increase. However, they do highlight the problems that arise from lack of parental support and family discord. Rutter and Smith go on to say that uncertainty about the future, and sexual freedom with a wider range of standards, may also contribute to young people’s increasing stress. There was found to be a decline in self-control arising from changes in moral conceptual thinking and a weakening of internalised values. The most striking conclusion was that ‘opportunity may be the most important factor’ (1995:786) that contributes to the rise in crime and suicidal behaviour. That is, the circumstances in which young people find themselves, along with controls, ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ (or lack of such controls), exercised through the family, school and community. They add that ‘there has been an increase in individualism…an emerging emphasis on individual empowerment, equitable remuneration and a broader and more sceptical political awareness’ (1995:804).
