Teenage Boys Talk

A survey of the thoughts and views of 50 New Zealand teenage boys aged from 13 to 18 years of age.

The views, ideas and beliefs of the boys are discussed with quotes from the interviews, in six main chapters: home life and families (parents, step-parents, siblings and family life); school (teachers, discipline, sex education and bullying); social lives (friends, parties, drugs, smoking and sex); communication (coping with problems, suicide and homosexuality); employment (jobs, career choices, the typical New Zealand male); and society and belief systems (racism, death, police, anger and religious beliefs). There are questions for parents to reflect on at the end of each chapter, but the book is not a self-help guide for problem teenagers. It is a local guide to what boys think about. The boys' comments are thought provoking.