Declining Teens

They felt better in the 1960s

First the good news. Fully 85% of normal American teen-agers say they feel happy most of the time. Now the bad news. In fact, things have been going downhill since the early 1960s. Three Chicago-area researchers surveyed 1,331 adolescents, the majority in the Midwest, during the early 1960s and another group of 1,385 in the late 1970s and in 1980. Those in the first group were more confident and trusting, felt greater affection for their families and mastered "their inner feelings and impulses" better. The '70s teen-agers were less secure, had more problems and more worries about their bodies, described themselves as more easily hurt than the earlier group, and had lower ethical standards. "Over approximately an 18-year period," say Psychiatrist Daniel Offer and Psychologists Eric Ostrov and Kenneth I. Howard, "the self-perceptions of American teen-agers apparently have become decidedly less positive."

Their survey, to be published by Basic Books in September under the title The Adolescent: A Psychological Self-Portrait, also finds that girls feel worse about their bodies than boys and are less open to sexual feelings. In both decades, the majority of adolescents seemed to be unafraid of sex, but the second group seemed no more sexually liberated than the first. In the 1960s, fewer than one often felt "sexually way behind" other youngsters, and by the 1970s more than one of five felt that way. The authors are not sure why the '70s youngsters scored lower than their predecessors, but they think that Viet Nam, Watergate, a fumbling economy and a rising divorce rate have something to do with it. Though the study has an upbeat ending--most teen-agers are in good shape psychologically--about 20% report feeling empty emotionally, are confused most of the time, and would rather die than go on living.

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