Exactly when childhood ends and adulthood begins differs among cultures and over periods of time within cultures. People in some societies believe that adulthood begins with the onset of puberty, arguing that people who are old enough to have children also are old enough to assume adult responsibilities. This stage of life is often solemnized with special celebrations. In Jewish tradition, for example, the bar mitzvah ceremony for thirteen-year-old boys and the bat mitzvah ceremony for twelve-ye…
One of the more significant social changes to occur in the last decades of the twentieth century was a shift away from the "traditional" family structure—a married couple with their own child or children living in the home. The U.S. Census Bureau divides households into two major categories: family households (defined as groups of two or more people living together related by birth, marriage, or adoption) and nonfamily households (consisting of a person living alone or an in…
In the second half of the twentieth century the "stayat-home mom" became less common. In the early twenty-first century women with young children were much more likely to work outside the home than they had been three decades previously. In 1976 31% of women ages fifteen to forty-four with a child under twelve months old worked; by 2003 that percentage had increased to 53.7%, down from a high of 58.7% in 1998 (Fertility of American Women: June 2002, U.S. Census Bureau, 2003, and &#…
Almost all children are financially dependent upon their parents, with their financial condition directly dependent on how much their parents earn. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that real income rose throughout the 1990s and then declined from 2001 to 2003. The median (half were higher and half were lower) household income in 2003 was $43,318. For married-couple families it was $62,405—down slightly from the previous year (Carmen DeNavas-Walt, Bernadette D. Proctor, and Robert J. Mills, …
In the early twenty-first century America's young people could look forward to living longer than the generations before them had. The average life expectancy for both sexes of all races born in 2001 was 77.2 years, although individual expectations varied considerably according to race and gender. (See Table 5.1.) Average life expectancy for white males born in 2001 was seventy-five years, up from 66.5 in 1950. The average life expectancy for African-American males born in 2001 was 68.6 y…
Despite the controversies surrounding the quality and direction of American education, the United States remains one of the most highly educated nations in the world. According to the Digest of Education Statistics (U.S. Department of Education), in fall 2002 69.2 million Americans were enrolled students in elementary and secondary schools and colleges. (See Table 6.1.) An additional 4.3 million w…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in its 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey that almost half of high school students (46.7%) had had sexual intercourse, down from the 54% who were reported as sexually active in 1991. (See Table 7.1 and Figure 7.1.) Almost one in seven (14.2%) had had sex with four or more partners. Girls (45.3%) were slightly less likely than boys (48%) to have had intercourse, and African-American students (67.3%) were more likely than Hispanics (51.4%)…
For some young people, growing up can be troubling. While their peers are playing football, going to proms, and making plans for adulthood, a certain percentage of juveniles, for whatever reason, have brushes with the law. Each state has its own definition of the term juvenile: most states put the upper age limit at seventeen years old, although some states set it as low as fourteen. In reporting …
Prior to the early twentieth century, when the economy was primarily agricultural, most American families needed their children to work on the farm during their after-school hours and on weekends. When children finished high school—and most left before they graduated (in school year 1899–1900 only 6.4% of seventeen-year-olds graduated high school)—both male and female youth were expected to contribute their full-time labor to the family economy. All activities, including sch…
Childhood should be a time of nurturing, growing, learning, playing, and preparing for adulthood. For many children, childhood is essentially a carefree, positive experience. For many others, however, even surviving childhood is a challenge. …
A few national studies periodically survey the attitudes, opinions, and behavior of American teenagers on a range of topics. For example, since 1979 the University of Michigan has conducted the annual study Monitoring the Future; the study's primary focus is monitoring drug- and alcohol-related behaviors among American secondary school students, college students, and other young adults. Mar…