Adolescent Socialization in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Book excerpt: Adolescent Socialization in Cross-Cultural Perspective: Planning for Social Change presents a theory of socialization and explains how the theory was formed, developed, and changed. This book describes a cross-sectional research project that uses innovative research methods for comparing people from vastly different cultures. Organized into seven chapters, this book begins with an overview of the premise that the better one learns how to solve problems in one's environment, the better one is able to cope with a rapidly changing society as one grows older. This text then proposes that the family provide an initial arena within which the needs of the individual and the rudiments of the social structure are confronted. Other chapters consider the approach to solving the methodological problems posed by attempting to test the theory by means of a cross-national study. The final chapter deals with the results of the cross-national study. This book is a valuable resource for sociologists.