---
title: "Youth culture"
chunk: 3/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_culture"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:59:01.670257+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

For decades, adults have worried that youth subcultures were the root of moral degradation and changing values in younger generations. Researchers have characterized youth culture as embodying values that are "in conflict with those of the adult world". Common concerns about youth culture include a perceived lack of interest in education, involvement in risky behaviors like substance use and sexual activity, and engaging extensively in leisure activities. These perceptions have led many adults to believe that adolescents hold different values than older generations and to perceive youth culture as an attack on the morals of current society. These worries have prompted the creation of parenting websites such as The Youth Culture Report and the Center for Parent Youth Understanding, whose goal is to preserve the values of older generations in young people.
There is no consensus among researchers about whether youth subcultures hold different beliefs than adults do. Some researchers have noted the simultaneous rise in age segregation and adolescent adjustment problems such as suicide, delinquency, and premarital pregnancy. However, most evidence suggests that these youth problems are not a reflection of different morals held by younger generations. Multiple studies have found that most adolescents hold views that are similar to their parents. One study challenged the theory that adolescent cohorts had distanced themselves from their parents by finding that between 1976 and 1982, their problems increased, and they became less peer-oriented. A second study's findings that adolescents' values were more similar to their parents in the 1980s than in the 1960s and '70s echoes Sebald's finding. Another study did find differences between adolescents' and parents' attitudes but found that the differences were in the degree of belief, not in the behavior itself.
There may also be pluralistic ignorance on the part of youth when comparing their attitudes to peers and parents. A study by Lerner et al. asked college students to compare their attitudes on several issues to their peers and parents. Most students rated their attitudes as falling somewhere between their parents' more conservative attitudes and their peers' more liberal attitudes. The authors suggested that the reason for this is that the students perceived their friends as more liberal than they were.
Sports, language, music, clothing, and dating tend to be superficial ways of expressing autonomy—they can be adopted without compromising one's beliefs or values. Some areas in which adolescents assert autonomy can cause long-term consequences, such as substance use and sexual activity.
The impact of youth culture on deviance and sexual behavior is debatable. More than 70 percent of American high school students report having drunk alcohol. Similarly, about two-thirds of teenagers have engaged in sexual intercourse by the time they leave high school. As drinking and having sex may be common in adolescence, many researchers include them as aspects of youth culture. While engaging in these activities can have harmful consequences, the majority of adolescents who engage in these risky behaviors do not suffer long-term consequences. The possibilities of addiction, pregnancy, incarceration, and other negative outcomes are some potentially negative effects of participation in youth culture. Research demonstrates that many factors may influence youth to engage in high-risk behaviors, including "a lack of stable role models, heightened family stresses, lowered levels of family investment, weakened emotional bonds between parents and their children, lowered levels of social capital and social control, and a lack of hope in ones [sic] future".
Teen culture may also have benefits for adolescents. Peer influence can have a positive effect on adolescents' well-being; for example, most teens report that peer pressure stops them from using drugs or engaging in sexual activity.

== Impact on society in general ==
Young people can make changes in society, such as through youth-led revolutions. Organizations of young people, which were often based on student identity, were crucial to the American civil rights movement, which included organizations like the Southern Student Organizing Committee, Students for a Democratic Society, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The Freedom Summer campaign relied heavily on college students; hundreds of students engaged in registering African Americans to vote, teaching in "Freedom Schools", and organizing the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
The American protests in the Vietnam War were also student-driven. Many college campuses opposed the war with sit-ins and demonstrations. Organizations such as the Young Americans for Freedom, the Student Libertarian Movement, and the Student Peace Union were based on youth status and contributed to anti-war activities. Some scholars have claimed that the activism during the Vietnam War was symbolic of a youth culture whose values were against mainstream American culture.
In the early 2010s, the Arab Spring illustrated how young people played roles in demonstrations and protests. The movement was initiated primarily by young people, mostly college students dissatisfied with the opportunities afforded to them. The participation of young people prompted Time magazine to include several youth members of the movement in its 2011 list of 100 most influential people. Additionally, this movement utilized social media (which is considered an aspect of youth culture) to schedule, coordinate, and publicize events.

== Youth slang ==

== See also ==

== References ==