Adolescent Development and Rapid Social Change: Perspectives from Eastern Europe. - Review - book review

Adolescence, Fall, 2000

VAN HOORN, Judith L., KOMLOSI Akos, SUCHAR, Elzbieta, & SAMELSON, Doreen A. Adolescent Development and Rapid Social Change: Perspectives from Eastern Europe. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2000. 309pp. $21.95 (p).

In times of dramatic social changes, adolescents are the last children of the old system and the first adults of the new. The Hungarian and Polish adolescents documented in this book can be considered the omega-alpha generation of the great social, political, and economic changes that occurred during the late 1980s and early 1990s in central and eastern Europe. Adolescent Development and Rapid Social Change addresses the psychological consequences for these young people who came of age during a time of such uncertainty. In Part 1, adolescents at historical crossroads, chapters include: the omega-alpha generation; the interview. In Part 2, Hungary, chapters include: an introduction to Hungarian history and an orientation to the Pecs and Budapest studies; the Pecs study; the Budapest study. In Part 3, Poland, chapters include: an introduction to Poland and its history; the Gdansk study. In Part 4, conclusion, the final chapter is: growing up in changing times.