Today

1
Todays youth the real Greatest Generation?

• The good news Teens today think and act a LOT
  better than their parents generation -- Baby
  Boomers -- did as kids or does now.
• The bad news Baby Boomers are the worst
  generation in the history of the species (but we
  have good excuses).
• Mike Males, University of California, Santa Cruz,
  mmales_at_earthlink.net

2
America is a high-risk society

• We suffer levels of murder, gun violence, drug
  abuse, drunken deaths, unplanned pregnancy, HIV,
  poverty, homelessness, imprisonment, obesity,
  civic apathy, and other crises that far exceed
  those of any other Western nationand many
  developing countries.
• Our worst, fastest-growing problems with drugs,
  serious crime, imprisonment, mass violence, HIV,
  and anti-social attitudes are not among youth,
  but middle-aged grownups
• We can face our real problemsor we can keep
  blaming them on our kids

3
Americans love being terrified of our kids

• Epidemic teen suicide
• Junior high sexual revolution
• Youth violence, bullies, mooks
• Suburban heroin, meth, steroids, oxycontin
• White kids in crisisworst ever
• Girls mean! violent! gangs!
• Too fat! Too thin!
• Cybervictims! Cyberpredators!!
• School shootings (we only care about white ones)
• Killer teen drivers (its their bad brains)
• Underage drinking (so unlike overage drinking)
• No values, worse morals
• Are adolescents natures worst mistake?

4
Talk about any other group in society the way we
routinely talk about teens, its called hate
speech

• Mass negative stereotyping
• Generalization from rare events
• Scapegoating for all major social problems
• Harsh standards not applied to other groups
• Claims of innate, biological dangerousness
• Demands for mass controls
• Isolation, fears of hidden threats
• Odes to superiority of dominant group (adults)

5
Expert fraud

• Its not just the media
• August researchers, institutions are behind the
  most inflammatory falsehoods about youth
• Examples? Pick your own state (California is
  badMinnesota also has terrible examples)

6
Todays youth suffer rising drug abuse and
arrestsof their parents
7
Those anti-drug ads should be advising kids how
to help parents
8
Minnesota teens much safer today
9
Murder is now at 30-year low
10
Self destruction is down sharply
11
Gun deaths go in cycles
12
Drug abuse is middle-aged crisis
13
Teen car wrecks dropped sharply ---until we
started fixing them
14
Teen-driver facts you never hear

• Of every 10,000 16 year-old drivers
• 9,998 will never cause a fatal wreck
• 9,700 will not cause even a minor injury
• 8,500 will not be in so much as a fender-bender
• Fatal crashes involving 16 year-old drivers are
  so rare they have to be measured per 10 million
  trips

15
And it gets worse

• In 2003, adult drivers killed 2,000 teenagers (3
  times more than the other way around)a fact not
  one safety lobby mentions
• 17 year-olds and 45 year-olds are equally likely
  to drink alcohol and to binge drink
• Yet, 45 year-olds are 60 more likely to drive
  drunk and kill someone, and 5 times more likely
  to die from alcohol overdose, than 17 year-olds
  are
• 45 year-old men cause more fatal alcohol-related
  traffic accidents than all teenage girls combined
• Half of all teens who die in alcohol-related
  crashes are killed by drunken adult drivers age
  21 and older.

16
Suppose we applied such statistical bigotry to
adults?

• Blacks, Latinos, Californians, New Yorkers, and
  southerners would be under constant curfew
• (statistically higher murder and violence
  rates)
• Whites would be banned from all drugs
• (higher suicide and overdose rates)
• Middle-agers would be placed in surveillance
  programs
• (fastest rising drug abuse, crime, HIV
  rates)
• The elderly would be banned from public
• (highest violent death rates)
• Men would have no rights at all
• (dont even start)

17
How to rig a study

• To MINIMIZE differences between groups, COMBINE
  very different behaviors into BROAD categories
  (I.e., equate occasionally carrying a pocket
  knife and having shot someone under the general
  category Weapons Violence)
• To MAXIMIZE differences between groups, divide
  similar, preferably RARE behaviors, into NARROW
  categories and proclaim vast risk differences
  (I.e., if 6 in 10,000 teen drivers is in a fatal
  accident, vs. 2 in 10,000 40-year-olds, depict
  teens as three times more deadly)

18
How to rig a study (2)

• Deplore behaviors of disfavored groups while
  conveniently ignoring equally bad behaviors of
  favored groups.
• Repeatedly declare 5 million teenagers are
  binge drinkers, putting their lives and others
  at risk
• Never mention The same surveys show 12 million
  people in their 30s, 11 million in their 40s, 6
  million in their 50s, and 4 million over age 60
  are also binge drinkers

19
How to create a panic (1)

• Tell scary stories, buttressed with scary
  statistics that have nothing to do with the
  stories
• Example Kids are using heroin, kids are getting
  addicted, kids are dying. Last year, a record
  1,500 Californians died from heroin overdoses.
• Never mention 90 of Californians who die from
  heroin are over age 30 teens comprise fewer
  than 1, and age 20-24 just 5, of heroin deaths

20
How to create a panic (2)

• Selective amnesia
• Example When I was growing up, kids didnt get
  shot at school.
• Forget inconvenient facts
• Olean, NY, December 1974 12 dead or wounded at
  high school by student gunner
• San Diego, CA, March 1979 9 killed or wounded
  by teen girl at elementary school
• Stockton, CA, January 1989 26 killed or injured
  by gunman in Stockton school massacre

21
Is poverty a risk?

• It may be the only important one
• Adult risk behavior, also tied to poverty, is the
  biggest predictor of teenage risk behavior
• Unpopular points? You bet.

22
Does poverty matter? Gun
deaths, 2000-2003

• Californias richest 500,000 teens
• Total 40
• Accidents 5
• Suicides 21
• Homicides 14
• Safer than Canada

• Californias poorest 500,000 teens
• Total 421
• Accidents 11
• Suicides 20
• Homicides 390
• Like war-torn nation

23
Teen pregnancy is much higher for poorer
populations

• Births by Californias poorest 10 of teens
• Mother lt18 3,452
• Mother lt15 179
• (like Guatemala)

• Births by Californias richest 10 of teens
• Mothers lt18 345
• Mother lt15 8
• (like Denmark)

24
Black youth show much higher murder and poverty
rates than white youth
25
It isnt racepoorer white youth also show more
violence
26
Within any urban area, teen birth rates rise
dramatically with poverty levels
27
A new kind of smoking?

• Student Their (avg
  age 21) parents
• Smoked in past year 64 34
• Smoked in past month 39 31
• Smoked in past day 21 29
• Heavy daily smoking 3 13
• Based on survey of 700 UC Santa Cruz students,
  2003-04

28
Whats so different about America?

• A good thingour diversity.
• Minorities as percent of citizens
• Japan 1
• Netherlands 2
• Germany 3
• United Kingdom 4
• Australia 8
• Canada 13
• USA 32
• California 55

29
Postfigurative culturesDuration
1 million yearsCharacteristic Traditional,
stable, unchangingStructure Adult/ancestor
symbolized cultures future, which is familiar to
adultsSocialization task Teach children to
emulate adultsPrefigurative culturesDuration
last 100-200 years, especially last 40 years in
U.S.Characteristics Accelerating social and
demographic changeStructure child, not adult,
symbolizes cultures future, which is largely
unknown and therefore seems menacing to
eldersSocialization task Children will not
emulate adults.
Source Margaret Mead, Culture and Commitment,
1970
30

• In societies undergoing rapid social change
  adults will come to see teenagers as the advance
  wave of an invading army a threat to whatever
  order, values, and goals their parents cherish.
• - Margaret Mead, Culture and Commitment, 1970
• Two-thirds of adults polled say todays young
  people will make the world a worse place.
• - Public Agenda, 1999