ADOLESCENCE - A CULTURAL DILEMMA

Abstract

Alienation, militancy, bizarre dress and drug abuse are four characteristics often associated with adolescents, as individuals or as groups. If these associations gel into a superordinate category of "Hippie" or "Yippie," the response of the adult world is, at least, hostile, if not frantic. What is it in current youth culture that so disturbs contemporary adult society? What is it in adult society that has given rise to a distinctive youth culture? What are the effects of two coexisting cultures on society, the family, and the individual? How are we going to cope with, if not integrate these two cultures? These are the issues addressed, incompletely to be sure, in this paper.