ABSTRACT
On balance this seemed the right decision, it provided us with some important insights into the rapidly changing adolescent experience and largely vindicated our choice of the school years eight to ten for the main study. The qualitative data, based on interviews with the young people, explores this issue in more depth. In short, by the time they had reached sixteen (Year 11) young people no longer seemed very attracted to gathering in the parks, fields and open spaces they had frequented in previous years. Instead, pubs, clubs and the town centre had begun to loom larger in their social landscape as they simultaneously developed the appearance, confidence and social skills to gain access to these other more ‘adult’ locations. It is often noted that the age gradations of adolescence are very finely tuned, with young people moving very swiftly through a variety of developmental and attitudinal changes (Jones & Wallace, 1992, Coles, 1995). Thus our inclusion of one year eleven group in the survey also confirms that these changes are perceived as enormously important for the young people themselves; who they are and what they do.
