Hurt 2.0: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers
Overview
What do teenagers really think about adults? If you think you know the answer, you may be in for a surprise. According to Chap Clark, today’s adolescents have largely been abandoned by adults and left to fend for themselves in an uncertain world. As a result, teens have created their own world to serve as a shield against uncaring adults.
Based on six months of participant-observer research at a California public school, this book offers a somewhat troubling but insightful snapshot of adolescent life. It will surprise and enlighten parents, youth workers, counselors, pastors, and all who want to better understand the hearts and minds of America’s adolescents.
Hurt provided a vivid and insightful view into the world of today’s teenagers. Now, leading youth ministry expert Chap Clark substantially updates and revises his groundbreaking bestseller. Hurt 2.0 features a new chapter on youth at society’s margins and new material on social networking and gaming. Each chapter has been thoroughly revised with new research, statistics, quotations, and documentation.
Whether you’re a pastor, youth leader, or layperson, this collection will enhance your understanding. All Scripture passages in Hurt 2.0: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers link to your favorite Bible translation in your library. You can perform powerful searches by topic and find what other authors, pastors, and theologians have to say, making this collection ideal for studying youth evangelism.
- Integrates new observations and studies from the last decade
- Offers insight into adolescent life
- Features a new chapter on youth at society’s margins
- Part 1 The Changing Adolescent World
- The Changing Face of Adolescence
- Abandonment—The Defining Issue for Contemporary Adolescents
- The World Beneath
- Part 2 The Landscape of the World Beneath
- Chapter 4
- Peers
- School
- Family
- Sports
- Sex
- Busyness and Stress
- Ethics and Morality
- Partying, Gaming, and Social Networking
- Kids at the Margins
- Part 3 Where Do We Go from Here?
- What Do Midadolescents Need?
- Five Strategies to Turn the Tide of Systemic Abandonment
Top Highlights
“Adolescence, then, is a psychosocial, independent search for a unique identity or separateness,19 with the end goals being a certain knowledge of who one is in relation to others, a willingness to take responsibility for who one is becoming, and a realized commitment to live with others in community.” (Page 9)
“Adolescence is not a blend of both child and adult, nor is it an expanded phase of either. Adolescence is a unique phase of life that must be understood and dealt with on its own merits.” (Page 9)
“The first shift was the way in which the definition of family was radically altered from the long-held definition of ‘two or more persons related by birth, marriage or adoption who reside in the same household’39 to the current definition of a free-flowing, organic ‘commitment’ between people who love each other.” (Page 16)
“For the adolescent who is trying to hold on to something, at times anything, that is stable and safe, societal mores and parental choices concerning divorce, adult sexuality, and the trend for unmarried parents to cohabitate while children are in the home has had a noticeable impact.” (Page 16)
“The second shift involved how we view the institution of the family itself. We moved from a culture with a divorce rate that affected 2 percent of the married population in 1940 (264,000)41 to a society in which 43 percent of first-time marriages end in separation or divorce within fifteen years of marriage, as of 2002.42 Recent statistics show that in 2008, 67 percent of children ages zero to seventeen lived with two married parents, down from 77 percent in 1980.” (Page 16)
Clark gives evidence in this book as to why he is one of the brightest figures in the field of youth ministry. Hurt provides more insight into what young people feel and how to deal with their feelings than almost any other book that will come your way.
—Tony Campolo, emeritus professor of sociology, Eastern University
What makes Hurt so valuable is that it marries the very best of careful scholarship with a deep compassion for kids. Clark is not just an academic who offers thoughtful ethnographic research. He’s a frontline youth worker who still spends time with these students even after all the data has been collected. This important book will be very helpful to youth workers, parents, counselors, and educators alike.
—Duffy Robbins, associate professor of youth ministry, Eastern University
Based on solid research and years of insightful observation, Clark’s Hurt serves to open the eyes of parents, youth workers, pastors, educators, and youth-serving professionals to realities from which the church has too often chosen to look away. Hurt’s ‘world beneath’ is a world we must visit if we hope to be significant people through which the Gospel speaks. If we hope to point the hopeless to true hope, these realities must be faced, understood, and addressed. Hurt offers a deep and penetrating look into the contemporary adolescent experience that will serve us well as we work to have a prophetic, preventive, and redemptive influence on the world of today’s youth culture.
—Walt Mueller, president, Center for Parent/Youth Understanding
Clark has been stepping inside the world of teenagers for many years. This book is a unique invitation for us to join him in their world. When we finish this journey, we will care more about kids and understand who they are and the challenges they face.
—Denny Rydberg, president, Young Life
The expanded and updated version of Chap Clark’s Hurt, this book is a must-read for parents and youth ministry workers who want to serve students with the utmost effectiveness. Clark does an excellent job blending the research on the actions and behaviors of teenagers, what impacts their lives, what many of them are thinking, and whom they are most likely to listen to. Any concerned parent, senior pastor or youth ministry leader who wants to understand ‘the world beneath,’ which our teenagers live in, should have a copy of this book and review it with your spouse or ministry teams.
—Outreach
- Title: Hurt 2.0: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers
- Author: Chap Clark
- Series: Youth, Family, and Culture
- Publisher: Baker Academic
- Publication Date: 2011
- Pages: 272