Lifelines and Risks: Pathways of Youth in Our Time

by Robert B. Cairns, Beverley D. Cairns

In this work, Robert and Beverley Cairns follow the pathways of 695 young people growing up in the 1980s and 1990 their educational successes and failures, their friendships, their families, their loves - in short, the events and feelings they experienced in the course of living. The focus is on risks - the events that produce serious and permanent impairment of psychological and emotional development, or injury and death - and lifelines - the avenues by which redirection and help may be provided. They consider the specific risks of violence, deviant social groups, school dropout, suicide, threats to self-esteem, and substance abuse. Lifelines held out to these youth include persons - parents, friends, teachers, spouses, lovers, relatives, or children - and internal values, beliefs, and maturation.

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 1994