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The authors describe the development of one hundred thirty-six subjects, followed from infancy into adolescence, including the diagnosis and outcome of forty-three children who developed behavior problems before the adolescent period. Of the forty-three, fifty per cent recovered, and there was no significant correlation between the severity of the original disorder and outcome in adolescence. In those cases that involved the persistence of a pathogenic parent-child relationship into adolescence, one significant difference was identified between those who improved or recovered and those who became worse. This concerned the adolescents' ability to shift the focus of their activities, interests, and emotional commitments from the home and parents to extrafamilial individuals and groups. As would be expected, the adolescents who achieved this improved, and those who did not grew worse. In regard to adolescent turmoil in the entire group (rebelliousness, conflict with parents and other authority figures, negativism, impulsivity, tension, mood swings, and vacillation in goals and plans), no concrete conclusions could be drawn. Apparently, in some cases these phenomena were symptomatic of behavior disorders; in other instances they occurred in adolescents who were coping effectively and constructively with the demands of this period and showed no significant psychopathology. Some of the entire group showed no evidence of turmoil and, finally, some who showed no overt turmoil had signs of clear-cut psychopathology and disturbed functioning, with symptomatology in the areas of passivity and object relations. No a priori conclusions should be drawn regarding the significance of the presence or absence of adolescent turmoil in any specific adolescent.