Canada's Teens: Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow

Jane Heath teaches psychology at Ryerson Polytechnical University in
Toronto.

Canada’s Teens is a report on the third in a series of nationwide
surveys of Canadian adolescents: their beliefs, values, and sources of
enjoyment, influence, and concern. Data from the most recent survey was
collected in 2000 and compared to surveys carried out in 1984 and 1992.
Each of these surveys is based on a sample of 3600 high-school students,
aged 15 to 19. Respondents were chosen so as to be representative of the
five major regions of Canada. An appendix provides full details of
administration and sampling procedures.

Adolescent perception of and opinions on violence in schools, sex,
drugs, religion, careers, family, their future, and numerous other
topics are reported, with teens of different cohorts compared both with
each other and with their parents and grandparents. The sheer volume of
information is somewhat overwhelming, but the author’s discussions
help to clarify the statistics, and his warm and down-to-earth tone
makes this book enjoyable as well as informative. One frustration
readers may experience is Bibby’s failure, where differences in
response between groups are reported, to specify the level of
significance of these differences.

However, this book gives a clear and comprehensive picture of the views
and concerns of teenagers across Canada, and contrasts these responses
in an involving and thoughtful fashion with those of earlier cohorts and
generations. Canada’s Teens is a valuable source of information for
teachers, parents, journalists, researchers and others interested in
understanding adolescents as they see themselves (or at least report
doing so).