Societal Trends and the World of the Adolescent (IN: Preventing Adolescent Suicide, ed. by D Capuzzi and L Golden)

This chapter discusses societal changes & their impact on adolescent development. The rapid growth that makes adolescence a time of difficult adjustment also must interact with such powerful forces as the onset of the “information society” & its ubiquitous computers, intense competition for fewer jobs, restructuring of traditional sex roles, the threat of nuclear war, AIDS, substance abuse & the erosion of the nuclear family. The result is that today’s teenagers experience enormous stress.