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The article presents a discussion on the youth culture in the United States and Great Britain and the growing disinterest in school. The article is a replication of a previous study related to British schools, concerning involvement in youth culture and the school orientation of the student. Adolescence is a time of stress and educational decision making. There are two dominant adolescent life styles available to the student. Firstly, that of the official pupil role-involving the acceptance of values and norms held by the school. Secondly, there is the teenager role, which is basically an inversion of the pupil role. For many students the school has nothing to offer, and thus the pupil role lacks appeal. These disinterested students subsequently seek, through the teen culture, another means of gratification and status reward. The pupil role, then, is representative of the adult society, and the teenager role represents a youth culture that holds values and norms that are opposite to those of the adult society. Adolescents involved in the youth culture will demonstrate their membership in distinctly characteristic ways: by dressing and adorning themselves in styles not shared by their parents. There are two different attitudes that young people may show in their choice of styles: one is to strive for real individuality in dress and manner, the other is to express solidarity with fellow teenagers by wearing what serves as their uniform.

There are many stereotypes current in Great Britain concerning adolescence; probably the most widely held is that this is a period invariably marked by rebelliousness and friction with authority be it parental, school, university or police. It is also believed that for young people in particular, kinship ties and obligations are irksome and the nuclear family is claustrophobic and restrictive. While such an account may be valid for geographically mobile, urban, highly educated, middle class families in Great Britain and the U.S. It has been noted carefully that young people have a considerable influence on the market in a few areas of consumer durables, the general assumption has been made from this that young people have a lot of money to spend. Finally there is a common belief that young people are now sexually permissive as seldom before, while their parents are separated from them by a wide "generation gap" and are disapproving and obstructive. Unfortunately previous findings on the place of residence of unmarried people are scant and scattered and census material is of no help.