A Closer Look at Behaviors, Needs, and Circumstances of Adolescents in the United States

Francisco A. Villaruel, Daniel F. Perkins, Lynne M. Borden. Community Youth Development. Programs, Policies, and Practices/Sage Publications, 2003.

Overview
Health and well-being of adolescents across the country is uneven. Some are doing quite well, others are doing very poorly. More youth are graduating from high schools than ever, and a larger number are involved in some form of higher education. Between 40 and 54% of high school students report having participated in a volunteer or a community-based service program at least a few times in the previous year.

Continuing problems

Academic failure

Although the gap between black and white students' achievements has narrowed since 1970s, there are still substantial racial and ethnic group differences in academic performance. The proportion of youth dropping out of high school without completion increases with age and is especially high among Hispanic youth and adolescents living in poor communities. 

Poor physical and mental health 

Some students are still becoming sexually active quite young, 8% of students report having sex before the age of 13. The rates of sexual activity are especially high among black youth living in poor communities. 

Smoking has declined in the last several years, although nearly 63% of adolescents have tried cigarettes by the 12th grade, and 31 are currently frequent smokers. 

The prevalence of obesity among adolescents in the US has almost doubled over the last three decades.

Violent behavior

In 1997, homicide was the second leading cause of death for young people. 

Poor economic and family circumstances

An increasing number of teenagers were living most of their adolescent years in single-parent homes. As for economic circumstances, 18% of young people under 18 lived below the poverty level in the beginning of 2000s.

Use of time

Compared with young people in Europe and Asia, teenagers in the US have more discretionary time - only about 20% of their time is spent in school. Limited time is spent on schoolwork. Most of their discretionary time is spent on 'watching TV' or 'hanging out with friends'. Besides, there were about 8 million children aged 8-14 who spent their free time without adult supervision during nonschool hours. The reason for that are: increased work hours, welfare reform, limited availability of good youth programs. There is evidence that teens left alone in nonschool hours are more likely to be engaged in sexual intercourse, alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, etc. 

My conclusions

These data mean that many teenagers need support. Staying the way they are right now, they are likely to join racial and ethnic minority groups. And community programs could become important tools in dealing with such programs. Participation in voluntary activities during nonschool hours could help increase initiative, improve positive relationships with peers and adults, reduce risk behavior. At the same time, community programs cannot solve all the problems, because there are still poor schools and poor medical care, bad neighborhoods, etc.