ABSTRACT
Growing up in America produces many problems as one moves toward adulthood. Both parents working, broken or single-parent families, multiple moves, and too little money are substantial factors that are properly blamed as a cause of adolescent problems. However, among affluent two-parent families, too many advantages, too little to do, and boredom are blamed for some of the same problems. Many decades ago, adolescence was a low-pressure, slow changing process during which one moved from parental and home dependence to complete independence. In many ways we have prolonged the supervision and control of adolescence, with at least one third of Americans going on to college. For poor, inner-city kids and some others, the responsibilities of adulthood are foisted on them by a somewhat hostile society who have poorly prepared them for the responsibilities of American adulthood. This latter group have often been short-changed in education, more often than not come from a single-parent home, are raised with simply insufficient resources, and almost always have many peer-group exposures to substance use from early life. A recent conference on the characteristics of healthy adolescent development reported that 20% of “normal” adolescents have persistent psychological symptoms sufficient to impair their ability to function at least at times. 1 AH would agree that adolescence is a most difficult time. Between the ages of 9 and 17 years the individual is expected to become an adult and assume a role in 252society, yet parents are so involved with the responsibilities of their own lives that appropriate attention to growing up is not given.
