Adam Dannenberg Psychology 102 3/15/01
             Summary of a Professional Journal Article
             Today's teenagers differ from the teenagers of the past in that society has changed dramatically. In Victor C. Strasburger's journal article "Sex, Drugs, Rock 'N' Roll Revisited", originally in Clinical Pediatrics, Nov. 2000, Vol. 39 Issue 11, p.657, his overviews are on today's issues that teenager's face in the United States. He discusses teenage violence, the abuse of alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking, and the topic of sexual activity and sex education and the concern of all of these to the nation. Is today's generation of teenagers more into what of the past generations of teenagers did and now know is wrong, but not while they were doing it? Or is it the way that society has changed and the way they are adapting to its changes?
             Today compared to the past is a totally different. There has been changes in everything we do, in what we wear, how we think and act, what is viewable on TV and heard on the radio, what we say, and the technological advances that we have discovered. Strasburger said, "Yes, juvenile violence has actually decreased in the late 1990s,(n1) but now we have a very new and real phenomenon of mass schoolyard shootings." He also said, "Marijuana and cocaine are dangerous drugs, yes, but they are not killing teenagers. Tobacco and alcohol are. According to the most recent data, 31% of 12th-graders have engaged in binge drinking within 2 weeks of being surveyed, and nearly 35% smoked cigarettes within the past month."(n2) Next he said, "We try to scare them away from sex, too, and with HIV and AIDS, it's a lot easier than it used to be! Yet nearly 40 studies show that comprehensive sex education makes kids smarter about sex but doesn't increase their rates of sexual activity. An!
             d giving kids access to birth contr...