Parents and mentors of adolescents are facing both an opportunity and a crisis. American teenagers are at intensified risk in regards to violence, mental illness, abuse, neglect, inadequate education, substance abuse, poverty, and other sources that could undermine their ability to have healthy, freely chosen lives.

Adolescence, however, is also a time of opportunity, not merely risk. While it brings profound change to our adolescents, its very plasticity offers us ways to mend the past as individuals, as families, and as a society.

Dr. A. Rae Simpson in her landmark study Raising Teens: A Synthesis of Research and a Foundation for Action (pdf) offers some of the good news . This report details the research and conclusions upon which the Kids These Days! Job Description for Parenting Adolescents is built.
Here are some excerpts about the good news from Dr. Simpson’s work:

* Teens themselves acknowledge the influence of parents, reporting in studies that their parents remain critically important as guides, mentors, sounding boards, and advocates.
* Given a chance, many teens excel in sports, school, community service, the arts, and other areas, contributing substantially to the American economy, social fabric, and culture.
* About half of American teens volunteer for a community organization, participate in after-school activities besides sports, and attend religious services.
* Some of the most characteristic traits of adolescents are also in our favor, such as their curiosity, courage, passion, skepticism, adventurousness, and fresh perspective.
* Also hopeful are examples of communities that are mobilizing on behalf of teens.
* Major societal initiatives have made significant inroads into some of the toughest problems for American adolescents by building on existing assets.
* African Americans now complete high school at rates comparable to European Americans, (although rates for Hispanic and Native American youngsters, among others, still lag substantially behind).
* After years of disheartening increases, teen birth and pregnancy rates have been declining (although they are still high.

Dr. Simpson also summarizing the grim statistics, gathered by the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development in 1995. They concluded that fully half of American adolescents were at "moderate or high risk of damaging their life chances by multiple high-risk behaviors and school failure."

In anticipation of the increasingly complex demands of adult living in the United States, American teens are facing higher and higher expectations for intellectual, social, and emotional competence while at the same time (symptomatic of the stresses), many of the measures of physical and emotional well being for teens are alarming:

* The suicide rate for youths 15 to 19 doubled between 1970 and 1990; up to ten percent of today’s teens are estimated to attempt suicide each year, with at least twice as many seriously considering it; rates among Native American and Hispanic teens are higher than those of European Americans, and are climbing among African Americans.
* Close to a third of high-school seniors are binge drinking.
* Over 100,000 youth each year are homeless or runaways without a secure place to stay.
* Fully five percent of teens worry about the source of their next meal.
* Close to half of teens report that they do not feel safe from violence in some aspect of their home, school, or community life. Most do not feel that they are valued by people in their community or that they have caring adults and role models around them.
* One in five teenage girls will face an unwanted pregnancy.
* By almost all measures, African American, Hispanic, and Native American youth endure the hardship of fewer resources, higher risks, and greater stress than do their European American counterparts.

While the role of parents bears the greatest significance and responsibility, parents of adolescents frequently express the need for more and better information and support, as well as frustration that it is not more readily available or accessible. There exists, therefore, a significant opportunity to provide more and better resources within the media for parents of teens, as well as those who support the parents of teens.

Kids These Days! aims to respond to parents’ requests for more support by providing easily accessible parenting information which is universal, well-established and practical.
through Alaska’s Public Radio Network.

Contact Information
Phone: (907) 321-3460
Fax: (907) 586-1450
Email: kidsthesedays@gci.net

Alaska Initiative for Community Engagement
1111 West 9th Street,
Juneau, AK 99801
alaskaice@aaab.org