ABSTRACT
The concept of a distinctive youth culture begins to look rather thin. J. S. Coleman uses two pieces of evidence to support this claim about youth culture in American society, both of which are extremely dubious. He finds that a very small proportion of boys want to follow in their father's occupational footsteps and uses this as an index of the apartness between the generations. Perhaps the most famous is that of Coleman who suggests that the adolescent is 'cut off' from the rest of society, forced inward toward his own age group, made to carry his whole social life with others of his own age. Data from M. Rosenberg's study of the self-image of adolescents in high school offers support for such an interpretation. Coleman argues that the values and social system of youth in the high school are directed away from the major social goals of adults in contemporary American society.
