Some growing pains of adolescence -- mood swings,
rebelliousness, and voracious curiosity -- have long been real
pains for parents, teachers, and other adults. Young people were
bucking authority before the word "teenager" entered the mainstream
American vocabulary in the 1940s. A look through the Gallup Brain,
Gallup's online public opinion database, reveals that teens'
misbehavior has been part of the national dialogue for almost as
long.
Fifty years ago, Gallup asked Americans why teens
get into mischief -- and their reasons sound painfully familiar to
those commonly offered today. In 1954, Gallup asked Americans:
"There's been a lot of discussion recently about our teenagers
getting out of hand. As you see it, what are the main reasons for
their acting up?" Some of the most common responses were:
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- parents not strict enough/not enough discipline/don't exercise
enough authority
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- parents' fault/improper home life/no home training/don't set
proper example/broken home/lack of supervision
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- parents have outside interests/not enough interest in kids/not
home enough/neglect/lack of parental love
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- children have too much freedom/late hours/freedom too
young
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- children have too much money/too many material
possessions/pampered/too many places to go and too much to do
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- parents both working
A Teen Is Born
Before World War II, Americans went from childhood
to adulthood in short order -- children were considered fit for
work and marriage once puberty was complete. But with the great
surge of prosperity after the war, most middle-class teens did not
need to work. They had more leisure time and more money to
spend.
Television brought the world into everyone's living
room, and along with it, ads for all kinds of new products, many of
them targeted specifically to teens. Advertisers coveted them; rock
and roll defined them, and sociologists began to study them. A
distinct youth culture was born, and the American teenager was here
to stay.
Crime and Punishment
With the intense focus on teens, examining their
behavior -- both negative and positive -- took on new importance.
To help discern the reasons for teens' rebellious behaviors, Gallup
questioned Americans in 1954 about their own teen years: "Looking
back to when you were a teenager yourself, what kinds of punishment
seemed to work best on children your age who refused to behave?"
Forty-three percent said "physical punishment" and used words like
"beating, shellacking, strap, stick, and spanking" to illustrate
the point. Twenty-seven percent mentioned depriving children of
things they like, and taking away privileges.
Physical punishment as a remedy for bad behavior
continues to resonate with a majority of Americans. In 1997, Gallup
asked U.S. parents if they approved of spanking children. Sixty-six
percent said yes, and 82% said that they had been spanked as
children. In 1946, 74% of parents said they approved of spanking.
In the same 1946 survey, 84% of parents said they had been spanked
as children.
How to Solve the Problem
In the 1950s, Americans had definite ideas for
solving the problems of teenage misbehavior; most of them are still
commonly heard today. Gallup asked in 1954: "Well, as you see it,
what do you think is the best thing that could be done to cure
these conditions among our teenagers?" Americans responded:
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- more supervision at home/pay more attention to teens/parents
teach them and make them aware of their conduct
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- stricter rules of discipline/cut out kids' freedom/stricter
laws/parents should discipline them
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- closer home ties/more understanding at home/happier home
life
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- parents stay home more/mothers stop working
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- more group activities/YMCA/teen clubs/community
clubs/educational programs
Misbehavior and Media
Along with the growing ranks of affluent,
middle-class teenagers, the mid-20th century also
brought increasing teen crime. In the 1950s, Americans were very
concerned about the factors contributing to teen crime; the U.S.
Senate even assigned a subcommittee to study the problem.
"The child today in the process of growing up is constantly
exposed to sights and sounds of a kind and quality undreamed of in
previous generations," stated a preliminary report for the1954
Senate Investigation of Juvenile Delinquency in the United States.
Some of the "sights and sounds" referred to in the report were
comic books, television, and radio. In 1954, Gallup asked, whether
any blame for teenage crime could be placed on comic books and on
television and radio. Seventy percent of Americans agreed that
blame could be assigned to these, with about one in four saying a
great deal of blame was in order.
