Will empowered teens raise empowered kids? Series: THE NEW AMERICAN TEEN

What does adulthood have in store for a generation of kids alreadybeing treated like adults?

The possibilities, teens and experts say, seem nearly endless.After all, their lives are all about options.

Some experts say today's teenagers might follow in their parents'footsteps--raising empowered kids who'll be their best friends andtrusted confidants.

Or they might not. Instead, experts say, the teens of today mightdecide to rebel against their own parents by returning to moretraditional family roles.

Mostly, teenagers interviewed for this series say, they justaren't ready to decide. For now, all they're sure of is that theydon't want to be tied to a single relationship, a single job or asingle plan for their entire future.

"You could see that as a function of their sense of having moreopportunities available to them," says Lois Flaherty, chairwoman ofthe American Psychological Association's Council on Children,Adolescents and Their Families.

Flaherty predicts that today's teenagers are most likely to marryand have children later in life, continuing a trend already apparentin the generation ahead of them.

Many high schoolers say they anticipate trying out multiplecareers--and many say they're likely to live in multiple places, too--before "settling down," committing to one job and one place to live.

Their fear? They might miss out on something better if they narrowdown their choices too soon.

And once they become parents, the trait that today's teenagers aremost likely to share with their own parents, experts predict, isflexibility--a willingness to try whatever parenting philosophy seemsto work.

Which might not turn out to be the "parent-as-friend" approachmany of their own parents have adopted, says Robert Billingham, aprofessor of human development and family studies at IndianaUniversity.

"The kids love it because they discover they have a lot of powerin these 'non-hierarchical' relationships," says Billingham, "andparents only like it as long as their children aren't too self-destructive. In all fairness, this does seem to work for somefamilies."

But, Billingham says, parents of younger kids already seem to bemoving away from the "parent-as-friend" model.

"Apparently, the anti-drug movement has discovered that parentsshould not be their children's best friends," he says. "We are seeingmany more anti-drug ads where the children are telling their parentsto ask questions and confront them.

"Perhaps we, as a society, are beginning to rediscover ourgrandparents' wisdom... Friendship with our children comes when theybecome adults, and we are no longer responsible for them."