Wartime Recreation for Adolescents

Abstract

cient recreational opportunities for adolescents, and therefore was not in position to meet the accentuated problems which war brought to the group just under military age. The great bulk of participants in the programs of both voluntary and public agencies are preadolescents and early adolescents. Boys' Clubs, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, settlements, and boys' departments of YMCA's register mainly those under fifteen, and the preponderant ages are younger. Playgrounds and community centers operated by school boards and park boards also attract children, chiefly. It is true that older adolescents do participate in all these programs, but prewar community studies show a sharp drop of registration in voluntary and public programs at fifteen. The Girl Reserve Clubs of the YWCA, the Hi-Y Clubs of the YMCA, older Boy and Girl Scouts, Jewish community centers, and the Catholic Youth Organization provide opportunity for a limited number of adolescents in a fraction of the American communities. The depression decade brought concern for 18to 25-year-old youth, as shown by studies of the American Youth Commission; but it took the war to focus concern upon the neglect of the 14to 18-year-olds. Three factors may account for this lack of recreational programs for adolescents. There is an impression that high school students are so busy with study and school extracurricular activities that there is no need for specially designed programs for them. However, analyses of student participation in school extracurricular programs reveal that many high school students are not so occupied in their leisure. A second factor may be that this inbetween age is a difficult one with which to deal. The boys and girls are neither wholly children nor adults, and their relationship to adult leadership is colored by their struggles for emotional and supervisional emancipation from parents. A third reason may be that adults are usually conservative about coeducational activities for adolescents. Parents are prone to think at whatever age their children display interest in the opposite sex, that it is too early and ought not to be encouraged. Youth agencies have tended to avoid much coeducational activity, limiting such events to occasional parties during a year. Adolescent boys and girls have sought activities with each other outside of organized recreation by hanging soda fountains, bicycle riding, milling around on the streets, and even sitting on curbs. During war, community agencies, such as schools, park boards, and voluntary agencies, have increased co-ed swims, parties, and games for adolescents. However, co-ed clubs and special-interest groups for teen-age boys 145