All Grown Up and No Place to Go spotlights the pressures on teenagers to grow up quickly. The resulting problems range from common alienation to self-destructive behavior. Quoting teenagers themselves, Elkind shows why adolescence is a time of "thinking in a new key," and how young people need this time to get used to the social and emotional changes their new thinking brings.

Many of his ideas, such as the "imaginary audience" that makes teens so self-conscious, have become seminal in adolescent psychology. In this thoroughly revised edition, Elkind also explores the "post-modern family" in which teenagers are growing up. He helps parents and those who work with youth understand teens in crucial ways, because the root of so many adolescent frictions is the gap between what teenagers need and what our culture provides.