The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager

The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager


Ch. 4 Family Values
(Pg. 58-61)


I found the section on family values extremely interesting. Before reading this section I knew that it was common for families to live all together in colonial America and that children were expected to help out from a young age. After reading this section I better understood why the adolescent roles were extremely important economically. Often the teens worked a more physically demanding job and did so for many hours a week. Therefore they were paid more than there parents on most occasions. The parents generally could not perform the same tasks a young adult can. I found it particularly interesting because I can not imagine bringing in more money than my parents, especially in adolescents.


Today’s teens commonly work part time jobs and earn significantly less then their parents. The government has mandated child labor laws for two main reasons in my opinion. First and foremost to protect young children from unfair working environments and abuse, secondly, to keep young adults in school. Higher Education has become of utmost importance.


Spending habits have also made a drastic change since colonial times. In colonial days, teen’s earnings went towards food, housing and survival. Today teens spend their money on clothes, tanning and other material objects, not always necessary to survival. It was interesting to think about how earnings and spending habits have significantly changed in my own life and compare it to how they have changed in general.