My son is an alien: A cultural portrait of today's youth

Extract

Marcel Danesi, My son is an alien: A cultural portrait of today's youth. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. Pp. 240, Pb $22.95.

Marcel Danesi's My son is an alien is a concise, informative guide for parents and teachers seeking to understand adolescent behavior. In what is largely a descriptive account of the teenage experience, the author touches on a range of topics from adolescent sex to gang involvement and drug abuse. Danesi and his research assistants interviewed 200 young people in nine North American cities between 1999 and 2002 to explore their attitudes toward sex, music, drugs, school, and a range of other subjects. The participants ranged in age from 12 to their early 20s and were evenly divided along gender lines and among early, middle, and late teens.