Range of Psychological Functioning in "Normal" Late Adolescents

AT THIS time there is much misunderstanding and confusion about the behavior of American youth, particularly college students. One of the reasons for this confusion is the lack of studies of normal adolescents. Few psychiatric studies of nonpatient subjects have been reported. Many of our Psychiatric theories about adolescence are derived from treatment of disturbed patients. The consequent generalization of hypotheses from sick to relatively well populations may often be fallacious. There is a need for more research on various kinds of "normal" populations, especially adolescent normals. Grinker et al¹; Offer²; Smith et al³; and Masterson and Washburne⁴in recent years have investigated normal adolescents. Masterson and Washburne⁴used a normal control group of 101 adolescents seen initially at an average age of 16 years. Sixty-eight were boys and 33 were girls. He found 41 subjects