Author:
Clydesdale, Timothy T. (Timothy Thomas), 1965- author.
ImprintChicago : The University of Chicago Press, [2007]
Imprint2007
Descriptionxi, 265 pages ; 23 cm.
Note:Introduction: an unexpected journey -- Four teens -- Starting points -- Navigating relationships, managing gratifications -- Working for money, spending for fun -- Cognitively sharper, intellectually immune -- Narrowed perspectives, broader implications -- Methodological appendix.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-253) and index.
Note:"Wild parties, late nights, and lots of sex, drugs, and alcohol. Many assume these are the things that define an American teenager's first year after high school--but the reality is quite different. Tracking the day-to-day lives of fifty young people, Tim Clydesdale reveals how teens settle into manageable patterns of substance use and sexual activity; how they meet the requirements of postsecondary education; and how they cope with new financial expectations. Most of them, we learn, handle the changes well because they make a priority of everyday life. But Clydesdale finds that teens also stow away their identities--religious, racial, or otherwise--during this period in exchange for acceptance into mainstream culture. This results in the absence of a long-range purpose for their lives and imposes limits on their desire to understand national politics and global issues, which in turn undermines their ability to reconstruct their lives when tragedies occur." --Page 4 of cover.
