Table Of Content01_Pre.qxd 4/20/04 5:48 PM Page i
Oxford Medical Publications
The End of Adolescence
01_Pre.qxd 4/20/04 5:48 PM Page ii
This page intentionally left blank
01_Pre.qxd 4/20/04 5:48 PM Page iii
The End of
Adolescence
Philip Graham
1
01_Pre.qxd 4/20/04 5:48 PM Page iv
1
Great Clarendon Street,Oxford OX2 6DP
Oxford University Press is a department ofthe University ofOxford.
It furthers the University’s objective ofexcellence in research,scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide in
Oxford New York
Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai
Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi
São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto
Oxford is a registered trade mark ofOxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc.,New York
© Oxford University Press 2004
The moral rights ofthe author have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published 2004
All rights reserved.No part ofthis publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing ofOxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law,or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics rights organization.Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside the scope ofthe above should be sent to the Rights Department,
Oxford University Press,at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
Library ofCongress Cataloging in Publication Data
(Data available)
ISBN 0 19 8526245 (Pbk)
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Typeset by Cepha Imaging Pvt.Ltd,Bangalore,India
Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd,King’s Lynn
01_Pre.qxd 4/20/04 5:48 PM Page v
Acknowledgements
I have had useful discussions about different aspects ofthis book’s contents
with the following,all ofwhom have been generous with their encouragement:
Jill Barton,Michael Burawoy,George and Moira Cyriax,Paul Ennals,Nori
Graham,Anna Graham,Daniel Graham,David Graham,Peter Hindmarsh,
Robin and Inge Hyman,Bryan Lask,John and Janet Murphy,Stanley and
Judy Price,Laurence and Mary Shurman,Gillian Tindall,Barbara Tizard,
Dan Weisselberg and Susan Woollacott.
I am especially grateful to Nicola Hilliard,Lisa Payne,and Marjorie Smith
who read and made comments on the whole ofthe book in its penultimate
draft.
The publications ofthe Trust for the Study ofAdolescence,founded and led
by John Coleman,have been an invaluable source ofinformation.The mem-
bers of the staff of the Library and Information Centre of the National
Children’s Bureau,London have gone out oftheir way to be helpful throughout.
It has taken me a long time to write this book and I have had many helpful
discussions about the ideas in it with friends and colleagues.I apologise to
those whom I have failed to list,though I suspect some may be grateful not
to be associated with some ofthe more provocative suggestions I have made.
Ofcourse,those I have listed should in no way be regarded as endorsing any of
the book’s contents.
01_Pre.qxd 4/20/04 5:48 PM Page vi
This page intentionally left blank
01_Pre.qxd 4/20/04 5:48 PM Page vii
CONTENTS
Introduction 01
1 The unpopular age 05
2 The invention ofadolescence 25
3 Teens in the family 45
4 More cheerful than moody 69
5 Everyday hassles,conflict,and crime 91
6 Sex:same hormones,different lives 117
7 Alcohol,drugs:having fun or playing with fire? 149
8 Eating well and feeling good 173
9 Schools:the solution or the problem? 189
10 Leisure and work 213
11 Joining up the teens again 231
Further Reading 255
Index 263
01_Pre.qxd 4/20/04 5:48 PM Page viii
This page intentionally left blank
02_Intro.qxd 4/20/04 5:49 PM Page 1
Introduction
Now that women have been liberated,the grey power ofthe elderly has been
asserted,racism is publicly ostracized,and facilities for the disabled are legally
required in all public places,the teens have become the last group whose dis-
empowerment is invisible because it is so much taken for granted.In many
ways,of course,the teens are only too visible—they are always making the
headlines.But too often these merely confirm their stigmatized position in
society.The word ‘adolescent’has again become,as it has in the past,a term of
condescending mockery.
In this book I have tried to take a critical look at the way western society
thinks about and treats those in their teen years.I have then gone on to suggest
ways in which the adult world might rethink its attitudes to the young so that
they are more in line with the way they think and behave rather than with the
way those in the media and even sometimes those who write textbooks make
them out to be.
In the first chapter,I have tried to give an idea ofthe diversity ofteenage life
and personality,suggesting that such diversity defeats all attempts at general-
izations about the teen years.I then go on to describe some ofthe myths about
adolescence and the travesty ofthe truth they represent.I suggest that the idea
that the teen years are a separate phase oflife,clearly different from the years
that come before and after is seriously flawed.I introduce one of the main
themes ofthe book—the ways in which adult society fails to take into account
the competence ofyoung people and refuses to allow them to use their skills.
The adult world,I suggest,infantilizes and disempowers young people,often
with disastrous consequences.In Chapter 2,I provide a historical account
of the development of modern day views about adolescence.I suggest that
the evidence from historical times and from studies oftraditional societies,
even from non-human primates,strongly suggests that adolescence is what
the adult world makes ofit rather than that there is any particularly ‘natural’
way for the young to behave.
In Chapter 3,I discuss the different ways in which parents and those in their
teens interact together and how the evidence strongly suggests that the best
outcomes for children’s personalities occur when parents begin by carefully
observing the way their children feel and behave in different circumstances
when they are infants and toddlers,responding to them as individuals.Ifthey
Description:On television, in the newspapers, even in textbooks of psychology, the teen years are portrayed as 'bad news.' Adolescents are seen as moody, rebellious, promiscuous, immature, aggressive and lazy. Their behavior is seen as getting worse as we move into the twenty first century. In fact the majority
