Credit: Frank DiMeo/University Photography

The process that makes human beings human is breaking down as disruptive trends in American society produce ever more chaos in the lives of American children. The gravity of the crisis threatens the competence and character of the next generation of adults -- those destined to be the first leaders of the 21st century, according to five leading Cornell professors in a new book.

"The signs of this breakdown are all around us in the ever growing rates of alienation, apathy, rebellion, delinquency and violence among American youth," says first author of the new book, The State of Americans: This Generation and the Next (Free Press, 1996), Urie Bronfenbrenner, the Jacob Gould Schurman professor emeritus of human development and family studies and of psychology. "The causes of this breakdown are, of course, manifold, but they all converge in their disruptive impact on the one institution that bears primary responsibility for making and keeping human beings human in our society: the American family."

The status of American children and families as they move through their life course is, in Bronfenbrenner's words, "ever more desperate." The book presents, for the first time, a wide array of data to show how relationships among these devastating trends can be recognized and systematically examined.

Co-authors are Peter McClelland, professor of economics; Elaine Wethington, associate professor of human development and family studies; Phyllis Moen, the Ferris Family Professor of Life Course Studies; and Stephen J. Ceci, the Helen L. Carr Professor of Developmental Psychology, all at Cornell. The book was written with the help of Helene Hembrooke, Pamela Morris, Tara White and Alanna Gelbwasser, research associate, graduate students and undergraduate student, respectively, all at Cornell.

This interdisciplinary group -- which includes experts in economics, psychology, developmental psychology, sociology, biology and education -- points out that the disruptive trends, which started largely in the 1960s and 1970s, have escalated to "a critical stage that is much more difficult to reverse."

"The main reason is that forces of disarray, increasingly being generated in the broader society, have been producing growing chaos in the lives of children and youth, not only in the home but also in other settings as young people move beyond the family into what are often disrupted and disruptive child care arrangements, classrooms, schools, peer groups, neighborhoods and entire communities," the authors write in their preface.

With 148 figures that detail these and related trends, this 305-page, fully referenced book is intended for decision-makers in both the private and public sectors as well as for the interested public. The authors show the nature and compelling gravity of the crisis confronting the nation. Each of the seven chapters begins with a brief introduction, followed by numerous graphs and tables and a descriptive list of the trends, and concludes with implications for the future. A summary of these chapters follows:

• "Youth" documents beliefs and behaviors that threaten the development of youths' competence and character, such as trends regarding trust, truancy, cheating, delinquent behavior, drug and alcohol use and religious attendance, and beliefs about out-of-wedlock births and planning for the future.
• "Crime and Punishment" focuses on the prevalence and social impact of violence committed by youth. It details such trends as rates of homicides, youth violence and incarceration rates by gender and race, and government spending for justice and corrections compared to that for higher education.
• "Economic Developments" shows how the American dream is faltering with "pieces of the American pie" becoming increasingly unequal. Its scope ranges from trends in wages, income, poverty, welfare benefits, education and employment to trends in the federal deficit and expenditures and consumer-saving patterns.
• "American Families" depicts profound structural changes that have been occurring in the family and how family structure (such as divorce, single parenthood, out-of-wedlock births) affects children and their income, education, sexual activity, teen parenting and poverty.
• "Poverty and the Next Generation" traces the changing nature of American poverty for families with young children and the impact that growing up in poverty has on children as they grow older. It summarizes trends among children living in poverty, government benefits and their relation to family structure and poverty.
• "American Education" looks at test scores, international comparisons, television viewing, adult literacy and wages by literacy levels.
• "Changing Age Trends" shows how today's social trends are occurring within an aging population that is transforming the country. It discusses age changes in life expectancy, health status by age, the need for assistance by age, nursing homes, gender and racial differences, financial trends, employment and government expenditures.

The authors deliberately avoid policy recommendations, choosing instead to let the various data series highlight a set of interrelated national problems. The book concludes with a summary of problems, emphasizing particularly those linked to economic and cultural trends. The latter are particularly worrisome, as the authors note: "Something is terribly wrong. . . . Something has gone awry ... in a society in which more and more teenagers are becoming unwed mothers, in which teenagers murder teenagers with impunity, in which civility, community and safety are fast disappearing."

While such problems are not easily alleviated or solved, they must become the focus of a national agenda, the authors conclude, driving home their point by citing Erich Fromm's chilling observation: "The history of man is a graveyard of great cultures that came to catastrophic ends because of their incapacity for planned, rational, voluntary reaction to challenge."

Yet, Bronfenbrenner adds: "It is still possible to avoid that fate. We now know what it takes to enable families to work the magic that only they can perform. The question is, are we willing to make the sacrifices and the investment necessary to enable them to do so?"

U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan called the book "a first-rate analysis of the varied societal problems that have beset us since the 1960s. The State of Americans is a culmination of decades of research by leading scientists on disparate topics molded into a singular vision of the present and the future."

William Julius Wilson, the Lucy Flower University Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at the University of Chicago, said about the book: "We are experiencing dramatic social and economic changes that will profoundly affect the future of the nation. The State of Americans is by far the best and most accessible work that documents and analyzes these trends. This book is so interesting, clear and well organized that many readers will find it difficult to put down."

The project was supported by the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Institute.