ABSTRACT
The key elements in the adolescent's progress towards adulthood in modern society may be seen in terms of absorption and adaptation. The major impact of unemployment on adolescents may be its ultimate effect on socialization and the transition from adolescence to adulthood. It is only when a number of negative factors impinge on the individual concurrently, and cumulatively, to create a focal issue, that unemployment becomes an ordeal like other adolescent crises. The importance of sexual behaviour, drinking, and drug-taking may be that they link to other adolescent leisure pursuits involving peers, and influenced by peers; yet paradoxically reflect attempts to act like adults. The individual adolescent should learn as a key priority to be an active agent in shaping and determining his or her own social development in the process of transition from childhood to adulthood in modern society.
