Statistics show that in coming years there will be fewer teenagers and a growing number of adults. When you factor in a rising divorce rate and increasing affluence, it soon becomes apparent that tomorrow's teenagers will be living in smaller family units with more indulgent parents and higher disposable incomes.
| Number of teenagers | 7.74m | 7.45m | 7.08m | 6.96m | 7.11m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 2030 | |
| Year | |||||
Source: UK Government Actuary
The obvious conclusion is that we will be living in a kingdom of spoilt brats whose rebellion knows no bounds and whose every desire has to be fulfilled almost immediately. How society will cope with this generation of rampant egotists is anyone's guess.
Many child psychologists, however, disagree with this analysis. They say that we are about to enter a sort of golden age in which the young people are happier, better balanced and more socially aware than ever before.
Teenagers are more upbeat, can-do and pragmatic than they have been since the term was invented ...
"You might expect a generation of little emperors," says author and child psychologist Dr Richard Wolfson, "but the evidence suggests that children from smaller families have to compete less for parental attention and resources and become less greedy adults."
He points to studies in China, where the government has encouraged smaller families for decades now. "They show that parents of single child families compensate for the lack of socialisation by doing more with their offspring and encouraging them to play with other children."
The next generation of teenagers will have the same desperate search for identity as they always have, but they will be more socially adept and caring than their predecessors, concludes Dr Wolfson. "I guess they will be more confident, more sophisticated and more aware than any generation before them."
He is not alone in his optimism. We may all think that teenagers are naturally depressive, anarchic, angry rebels, but it seems they've rebelled against our definition of them and become a cohort of pragmatic, positive-thinking conformists.
"The baby boomer and Generation X view of teenagers as listless slackers and rebels without a cause, just isn't true any more," says Sean Pillot de Chenecey of youth marketing and forecasting company Captain Crikey. "They are more upbeat, can-do and pragmatic than teenagers have been since the term was invented. They like their parents, they want to get on in life and their time horizon is far longer than the end of the next school term."
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