The context of adolescents' lives.(Statistical Data Included)

Adolescents today live in a country that is more diverse than the one their parents knew as teenagers. Increased mobility and communication have made the gap between rich and poor more visible, and tensions between racial and ethnic communities more apparent. Some young people, especially blacks, encounter racism and prejudice, just as their parents and grandparents have. Many teenagers of Hispanic descent, meanwhile, were born outside the United States; adolescence may therefore be a more difficult transition for them than for native-born teenagers. (6)

Young people increasingly spend part or all of their youth in single-parent families, families with two working parents or "blended" families; as a consequence, they tend to have less-consistent adult assistance and supervision. In addition, adolescents and their families are often less tied to their communities than were past generations.

More education is needed by young people today to get a good job, but even a college degree is no guarantee of achieving economic independence and job security. Violence is commonplace in many communities. And AIDS has cast the threat of death over sexual relationships at a time when sexual messages pervade virtually all aspects of American life.

In sum, it is a confusing, and at times even frightening, period to be a teenager in America, and to be a parent of a teenager.

Shared Values

Despite their experimentation and apparent rejection of adult values, adolescents share many of their parents' goals and perspectives, including values that affect their sexual and reproductive lives. For example:

* Most teenagers consider responsibility, honesty, self-respect and hard work important values. (7)