The particular significance of the threat of nuclear war in relation to the lifeview of the 270 Midwestern adolescents in our study appears manifest in the high level of awareness and concern a majority show regarding the imminence of nuclear war — its unlimitability, unsurvivability, and probability in their lifetime — and in the significant correlations demonstrated: The most highly threatened are also the more pessimistic about the future — for both the world and themselves, the more sceptical of the efficacy of socio-political activism, and the more critical of adult stewardship. The intensity of these youngsters' feelings about the threat of nuclear war, their uncertainty about the future, and the depth of their disappointment and disapproval of adults' management of these matters and world affairs may be testimony to a substantial compromising of trust and faith in the parental generation.