Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Macrostructural Trends and the Reshaping of Adolescence
- 2 Youth in Aging Societies
- 3 The Transition from School to Work
- 4 Criminal Justice in the Lives of American Adolescents: Choosing the Future
- 5 Adolescent Health Care in the United States: Implications and Projections for the New Millennium
- 6 Youth and Information Technology
- 7 Social Space, the Final Frontier: Adolescents on the Internet
- 8 Approaching Policy for Adolescent Development in the 21st Century
- Index
- References
8 - Approaching Policy for Adolescent Development in the 21st Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Macrostructural Trends and the Reshaping of Adolescence
- 2 Youth in Aging Societies
- 3 The Transition from School to Work
- 4 Criminal Justice in the Lives of American Adolescents: Choosing the Future
- 5 Adolescent Health Care in the United States: Implications and Projections for the New Millennium
- 6 Youth and Information Technology
- 7 Social Space, the Final Frontier: Adolescents on the Internet
- 8 Approaching Policy for Adolescent Development in the 21st Century
- Index
- References
Summary
The chapters of this book provide a wealth of information about major economic, demographic, political, and cultural conditions that could have an impact on adolescence in the century we have just entered. Eschewing catchy “futurism” with lists of predictions about tomorrow's world, the authors offer careful analyses of the issues that adolescents are likely to face and the kinds of policy decisions that need to be made to deal with education, work, and other issues, intelligently and equitably. We know that the details of how adolescents live their lives and the place of adolescence in the life course have changed markedly over the past two hundred years since the Industrial Revolution (Gillis, 1981; Kett, 1977). We know also that change of an equally dramatic sort has occurred even during the 20th century (Modell, 1989). What we don't know is what further changes will occur as we face yet another transformation in the large social context that constitutes Western society and its globalizing economic and political outreach.
The authors of these chapters present a wealth of evidence that should spark reflection and spur action by researchers, educators, youth advocates, practitioners, and policy makers. It follows from this material that we cannot simply continue the kind of work we have done for the past several decades. If we do, we will have missed the opportunity to create new, more supportive institutions for adolescents' development and allowed unfortunate inequities to expand, dividing further youth who happen to be born in more or less auspicious circumstances.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Changing Adolescent ExperienceSocietal Trends and the Transition to Adulthood, pp. 250 - 272Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002
References
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