Problems of Youth
The problems of youth are numerous and varied. However in contrast with those of adolescence. the problems facing youth are better defined. The college student in his or her graduating year must decide whether to take a job or to continue with formal education. When the young man begins working, he must 'somehow adjust his need to get started early with his desire to raise a family at a time when he can least afford it financially. Particularly for the young woman, the best years biologically for having children come at about the same time that both husband and wife have to work in order to establish a home of their own. Youth sometimes spends money before learning how to make it.
On the job youth must look for an opportunity where anticipations can be realized and enthusiasms rewarded. One may not succeed at first. But youth has one big advantage: Disappointments are soon overcome by hopes for a better future. Dissatisfaction with one job may be remedied by taking another. The opportunities for youth in our changing, expanding economy 'build up attitudes of both confidence and defiance-just the reverse of the feelings of the older person. A youth at the worker level, regardless of his limitations in education, is optimistic about the future. His physical strength and vitality to some degree make up for his lack of training and experience. Desires that are not readily fulfilled today may be tomorrow. The more highly educated youth shares in this optimism, but with a greater sense of reality. Understanding the problem lessens that satisfying feeling of confidence in the future. This caution is characteristic of the college sophomore, who begins to sort out emotional and intellectual problems with some sophistication.
