• Skip to content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Shop ModernMom
  • Become An Insider

ModernMom

The premiere destination for moms

  • Parenting
    • Pregnancy
    • Baby
    • Kids
    • Tweens and Teens
    • ModernMom Monday Videos
  • Cooking
  • Living Healthy
    • Breast Cancer
    • Health & Fitness
    • Body after Baby
    • Beauty
    • Relationships
    • Love
  • Lifestyle
    • Crafts
    • At Home
    • Education
    • Travel
    • Pets
    • Decorate
    • Money
    • Brooke Burke
  • Celebrate
    • Holidays
      • Easter
      • Valentine’s Day
      • New Year’s
      • Christmas
      • Hanukah
      • Halloween
      • Thanksgiving
    • Birthdays
    • Parties
  • Must Have
  • Contests
  • Entertainment

How Concerned Should We Be About Our Teens

January 2, 2017 by Leslie Morgan Steiner

I am raising three teenagers. Their behavior frustrates me. The risks they take terrify me. But a new Federal survey conducted among 50,000 teenagers shows that I’m dead wrong to be so amped up. Because today’s teens are actually far more mature and responsible than I was at their age.

Here’s the good news for 2017.  American teenagers today

  • Have sex less
  • Drink less
  • Binge drink less
  • Watch TV less
  • Use heroin less
  • Smoke less
  • Fight less

Than parents who grew up in the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Some highlights: teen smoking has decreased dramatically, down from 70% in 1991 to 32% in 2015. Binge drinking is down from 31% to 18%. Drinking (period) is down by nearly half. Suicide attempts have decreased from 29% to 18%. Despite increased legalization, marijuana usage is down for the third year in a row. Over 93% of teens use seat belts. Almost 60% use condoms.

There is, of course, bad news. Vaping is up. Social media usage, including cyberbullying, is rampant. Teens seem to consistently find new ways to abuse drugs, with the latest being prescription medication stolen from adults’ medicine cabinets. And, disturbingly, kids today eat fewer vegetables than we did.

None of these problems should be dismissed. We parents are not all cleared to go on an adults-only cruise to Cabo for the next ten years. We still have teenagers to raise.

But we can back off and sleep a bit more easily.

Government awareness campaigns, and advocacy groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, have powered the declines in smoking, drinking, and risky driving behaviors. Adult and government intervention can change teens’ behavior, no matter how much they roll their eyes at us. Additionally, experts believe that one of the key explanations for today’s responsible teens is that parents now are closer to, and communicate more openly with, our kids than prior generations. This seems to be driving down teen pregnancy rates and other behaviors that wreak havoc with teenagers’ lives over the longterm.

So: talk to your kids about the risks of being a teenager. It’s a critical part of parenthood, and it works. In closing, consider this observation:

 

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”

 

The Greek philosopher Socrates, who lived from 469-399 BC, reportedly said this about the next generation. But like Socrates over 2000 years ago, we parents who fret and complain are almost universally wrong about today’s teenagers. They are clearly among the best-behaved teenaged cohorts since Socrates, although this may be hard to prove because the government data only goes back to 1972.

 

 

Comments

comments

Filed Under: Parenting

About Leslie Morgan Steiner

Leslie Morgan Steiner is the editor of the best-selling anthology Mommy Wars: Stay-at-Home and Career Moms Face Off on Their Choices, Their Lives, Their Families. Steiner regularly discusses working motherhood on the Today Show, MSNBC, and in Newsweek,Vanity Fair, Parents, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. Leslie lives with her three children a few blocks away from her Wasband in Washington, DC.

Reader Interactions

Primary Sidebar

Tell a friend

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Search

ModernMom Boutique

ModernMom TV

Featured

Six Reasons to Have Six Kids

When people hear that I have six kids, the reaction is … [Read More...] about Six Reasons to Have Six Kids

Must Have

winter

Pre-Holiday Must-Haves

"It's beginning to look  a lot like Christmas..." The … [Read More...] about Pre-Holiday Must-Haves

Did you know?

What Will Draw Smells Out of a Closet?

What Will Draw Smells Out of a Closet?

Different Kinds of Textures for Children

Different Kinds of Textures for Children

Cravings & the Sex of the Baby

Cravings & the Sex of the Baby

How to Help Young Kids Lose Weight

toddlers and frequent urination

Toddlers and Frequent Urination

Freeze Cooked & Smoked Ham

How to Freeze Cooked & Smoked Ham

Mild Cramping During Early Stages of Pregnancy

Footer

  • About Us
  • Contact ModernMom
  • Advertise With Us
  • Press
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contributors

Copyright © 2021 Modern Mom. All Rights Reserved.

Reproduction of any portion of this website only at the express permission of Mom, Inc.

The information provided on ModernMom is for educational use only. It should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.