Studies in adolescent values

The studies submitted here, which were published between 1983 and 1999, treat the period of 'growing up' commonly known as adolescence, as a developmental transition or series of transitions between childhood and adulthood through which most young people successfully pass. The studies utilise an open-ended questionnaire which enables young people to create their own responses to ID prompts concerning their ideals and least ideals, most and least preferred companions, use of solitude, summum bonum, most and least desired outcomes and nascent philosophies. The studies, which are divided into four sections, are preceded by an introduction which identifies the four main objectives specified by university regulations. The introduction seeks to explain the common theme of the papers; to explain the methodology; to place the articles in a theoretical context and to suggest future directions for the research. The sections comprise papers on research projects in (a) the United Kingdom, (b) France, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, (c) Japan, (d) Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United States. The final chapter is in the form of a reprise. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data reveals striking similarities between young people of different nations (eg the importance of same-age friends during middle adolescence) and also significant differences (eg the summum bonum is the family for the English, serving Allah for the Saudi Arabians and education for the Japanese and Israeli-Arabs).