Goaded into calling avuncular host Bill Grundy 'a dirty f****r', the Pistols became public enemy number one.

Middle England and its press were apoplectic. Giving rise to the infamous 'The Filth and the Fury' headline, outraged commentators focused on what was seen as moral degeneration. Where would it all lead?

Thirty years on, Generation X stands at another crossroads. Having pogoed their way to 'Anarchy in the UK', the generation that eschewed the repressive stranglehold of state, church and hierarchy faces the bitter taste of its own nihilistic medicine. Now that the disaffected youth of the '70s are parents themselves, a whole set of teenage problems confronts them. And cussing and contempt for society are only the half of it.

In Ireland, the very people that paved the way for the Celtic Tiger appear at a loss as to how to parent their cubs. From underage sex to binge-drinking and increases in mental health problems, liberal parenting looks more like parents losing the plot. Or is it?

There is no doubt anti-social behaviour is on the rise, but is that because there's an increased focus, or because teen behaviour is more dramatic now? And if parents aren't giving their kids too much freedom, they're putting too much pressure on them to achieve. Today we hear more of 'helicopter parents', those who constantly push their kids to achieve more. As a result, more middleclass families are churning out soulless, vacant offspring, without any idea of who they are or what they want to do.

In her book, The Price of Privilege, American psychologist Dr Madeline Levine argues that affluent parents are pushing their children to be competitive . . . at the cost of their future mental health.

"Children from affluent homes are three times more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression than the average teenager. This puts them at greater risk of drug abuse, eating disorders and self-harm."

In September . . . in fact the day after we witnessed the annual excesses of a generation, flush with their parents' cash and liberal attitudes, also known as Junior Cert results night . . . a group of 100 intellectuals across the water penned a letter to the Daily Telegraph calling for a re-evaluation of childhood.

Championed by Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood, they wrote a devastating attack on modern parenting and its consequences.

"Children are apparently more miserable than ever before. They are forced into a premature adulthood. The recreational play their parents enjoyed has been displaced by computer games and television. Life, as with their parents, is lived at a frantic pace: and young minds, still forming, cannot cope."

The letter provoked one of those seismic bouts of self-doubt that parents are prone to, with a long debate punctuated by a healthy level of cynicism towards the idealised musings of a bunch of old fogeys longing for a golden age that never existed. But for parents, the problem is that more and more studies seem to convey a growing feeling that a lot of children are very troubled these days.

The shocking findings of the Clonmel Report, released last month, appear to bear out some of their concerns. Examining the mental health of 75% of school children in the town, the report found one in five teenagers experiences a significant psychological disorder and almost one in six has seriously considered suicide, with 9% attempting it.

The first study of its kind in Ireland, the findings, which are hardly confined to an urban blackspot, also show children under the age of 11 are being clinically diagnosed with alcohol dependencies. According to Maeve Martin, the project's principal clinical psychologist, the report shows "huge gaps" in support services. It's a finding many who work with teenagers will be familiar.

Mick Wallace, Wallace Construction "I coach under 16-18 soccer in Wexford and there's a huge problem with suicide. Wexford has one of the highest rates in the country.

I find kids come to me to talk about issues they're not going to their parents about and that's usually down to a repressive environment in the home. There are big issues with the parent-child relationship. I'm not a perfect parent, but kids should feel able to talk to their parents . . . I've learned that much."

Father-of-four, Wallace believes it's essential to give kids the opportunity to express themselves, but they also have to be taught discipline.

"It's much harder to be a teenager now compared to when we were kids. We were much less streetwise and there was a harmlessness. But now there's a huge pressure to perform, to be cool, to succeed."

While kids are good at putting up a front, Wallace believes they're much more insecure and a lot of work needs to go into helping them feel good about themselves.

"Consumerism has been a big factor in creating this. I think we're living in a great economy now, but not a great society.

"Take bullying . . . technology has made it a lot easier on those websites. It's terrible you can be publicly denounced or ostracised at that age."

Not a traditionalist, he thinks a big problem is spoiling kids with things parents know are bad for them but they've lost the ability to say no. But, he concedes, "it's difficult to be a good parent and not ostracise your kids."

Arthur Godsil, school principal Arthur Godsil, principal of St Andrew's College, Dublin, doesn't agree that teenagers are suffering from the excesses and pressures of modern life.

"In my 30 years working with children, the ones I've come across are more sophisticated in the choices they make and much more independent of thought than our generation."

Godsil sees teenagers reaping the benefits of technology, increased freedom and liberal parenting. "They have stronger social conscience and are much better equipped to deal with life and the challenges of the modern world. Of course, not all children match up to these levels, there are always those who don't do the right thing at the right time."

Success at St Andrew's is based on a strong school ethos which allows students to make mistakes. "We try not to be too judgmental and to provide a disciplined environment as opposed to punishment."

Developing self-esteem is the key to nurturing healthy children, says Godsil. "This leads to confidence and the ability to make good decisions. Don't sweat the small stuff.

It's important for parents to listen. If you're nagging all the time, they won't want to be with you. So hold your fire for the important stuff."

Bernardette Coyne, marketing consultant Managing director of Research Solutions and mother of three, Bernadette Coyne believes many of the difficulties associated with teenagers are related to affluence.

"It's causing us to over-compensate. With affluence, a lot of parents, particularly mothers, fall into the guilt trap. But parents are kidding themselves if they're giving kids 'things' rather than time.

"It's also about keeping up with the Joneses. It takes a degree of confidence and assertiveness to not fall into the yummy mummy syndrome. We think we should have it all, motherhood, family and we're all more hungry for success. And that filters down into our attitudes and trends in parenting.

"My eight-year-old daughter has friends who have more than six activities a week. But they've no time to relax. I did that once, but now I think two or three is plenty."

According to Coyne, young children's lives are micromanaged in an attempt to give them everything their parents didn't have, but parents forget that kids need downtime too.

She believes a woman can combine a career and motherhood, if they're prepared to take risks Initially her husband gave up his job to be with the children and then three years after starting her successful company, she sold it for 3m. Now she manages the company for new owners Amarach Consulting, but time off to be with her children was the deal-maker. "I negotiated eight weeks holidays a year. So we plan around school holidays."

Her husband recently set up Play Barn activity centre, which allows him more flexibility with childcare. While Coyne concedes that not all parents are in a position to do what they did, the important thing is adapting to the changing circumstances of family life.

"It's difficult to have two high-flyers in the house . . . somewhere along the line the children lose out. But you can't do everything . . . you have to delegate."

Stephanie Calman, author In Confessions of a Failed Grown-up, Stephanie Calman says, "grown-up-ness is a conundrum, you're expected to achieve it with no real training". Likewise with parenting.

"Having broken free from some of the most repressive aspects of previous generations' parenting, you might question whether today's self-serving children, by turns wannabe princesses or monosyllabic, sullen young men are simply the result of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Or is that just the way teenagers are? Isn't there supposed to be a time when you don't fit in and don't do what your parents want?"

Professor Michael Fitzgerald, child psychiatrist "Teenagers have always been difficult, " says Professor Michael Fitzgerald of the Department of Pyschiatry at Trinity College, Dublin.

"Shakespeare referred to it in A Winter's Tale, as a terrible time between 12 and 25 which was better off forgotten. And there are biological factors at play which make teenagers very volatile. But we seem to be having a much more difficult time in handling them than ever before. Parents don't seem to have a compass, many don't have strong values and this aggravates the teenage condition. In an effort to be liberal, they've by and large taken a laissez-faire approach, which is equally as dangerous."

Fitzgerald also casts a cold eye on our new-found wealth. "The Celtic Tiger hasn't helped the mental health of children. With wealth you have an associated increase in problems and decreased social capital."

A far greater problem for all of us, he believes, is the influence mass media is bringing to bear on what we perceive to be normality.

"Behaviour is no longer defined by the church, it's defined by the soaps and reality TV, both for parents and for children.

The problem is, these are not real. There's a different world on TV now and we're being exposed to unreal ideas of what we want, what real life is and how we should behave.

"Take suicide . . . there's a huge rise in the number of children expressing suicidal thoughts. We found in a sample study of primary-school boys that 15% thought life was not worth living at all. But 50 years ago, kids that age wouldn't have known what you were talking about. We're finding society is changing because of copy-cat effects and, as a result, conditions such as suicide and depression are now part of general discourse."