What’s really going on in the hidden world of today’s teenagers?

To get below the surface, Chap Clark spent a year in a high school and interviewed dozens of students about everything from their families and social lives to their loneliness and insecurity. An alarming picture emerged: adults have abandoned kids to navigate the ever-lengthening and ever more difficult transition to adulthood on their own, and the results are devastating. Unable to cope with the pressures of expectations and hurt of abandonment, teenagers retreat to their own world of youth culture to survive, and few adults care enough to engage them there.

Here Clark and Rabey sum up the provocative research, which was detailed in Clark’s bestselling book Hurt, and lay out practical ways caring adults can have a profound impact on teens. This book is an essential guide for youth pastors and volunteer leaders, educators, counselors, parents, and all adults seeking to reach out to today’s adolescents.