A rchive Date
[ 10-05-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[Generation gap 2000
New Newsweek polls find teens and their parents hold vastly different assessments of everyday life
April 29 - U.S. teenagers and their parents agree that it's tougher to be a teen today than it was a generation ago. But according to new Newsweek polls of parents and teenagers ages 13 to 19, the two generations have vastly different perceptions of the threats teens face today.
Moms and dads worry more than teenage kids do about the threat of crime and violence and the allure of drugs and alcohol. And while they are concerned about their kids' growing up too fast, many parents seem unaware of the level of sexual activity among teens, the poll shows.
A majority of teens - 58 percent - say they are concerned about sexually transmitted diseases.
PARENTS AND TEENS also differ on the degree to which Mom and Dad understand what teens face in everyday life. While half (48 percent) of parents see themselves as understanding "very well" the kinds of problems and situations their teen faces, only one-third (33 percent) of teens see their parents as having such an awareness. One area in which parents may be somewhat "out of it" is in their perceptions of teens' sexual activity. When asked how many of their teenage son's or daughter's closest friends have ever had sex, two-thirds of parents (66 percent) say very few or none, while only 14 percent believe that all or most of the teens in their child's circle of friends have had sex. Teens, though, present a somewhat different picture. About half of teens (49 percent) say half or more of their teenage friends have had sex, including nearly a third (31 percent) who say all or most of their teenage friends have had sex.
The allure of sex to teens is also suggested by the relatively low number of teens (33 percent vs. 72 percent of their parents) who say they worry a lot about "sexual permissiveness in society" that encourages the young to lose their virginity early. In contrast, a majority of teens (58 percent) say they are concerned about one of the possible consequences of teen sex, sexually transmitted diseases.
According to the Newsweek poll of teens, many say they worry a lot about violence in society (59 percent), the cost of college (54 percent), not being sure about their future job opportunities (43 percent) and not having enough money to buy the things they need and want (34 percent). They're less worried about getting into trouble with drugs (25 percent) and alcohol (26 percent), the poll shows. By contrast, the parallel Newsweek poll of parents showed that 66 percent worry a lot about their teens' getting into trouble with drugs and that 64 percent worry a lot about teens' abusing alcohol.
Parents are much more worried about teen safety at school and elsewhere. More than half of parents (55 percent) say they worry a lot about their teenagers' safety on the street, and more than one-third (37 percent) worry about their safety at school. Teens are far less concerned: Twenty-seven percent say they worry about their safety on the street, while only 17 percent worries a lot about their personal safety at school.
The polls were taken as part of a package in the May 8 issue of Newsweek about what teens believe today, regarding religion, sex, race and the future (on newsstands Monday, May 1). It is the second of a four-part "New America" series in Newsweek. The package includes an essay by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton on the upcoming White House summit on teens.
ROLE OF RELIGION
Parents agree on the role of religion in teen lives today, the poll shows. Seventy-eight percent of teens say it is at least somewhat important, including 43 percent who say it's very important; 80 percent of parents agree that religion is at least somewhat important in their teens' lives. About half of teens (46 percent) and parents (51 percent) say the teens attend religious services regularly, the polls shows.
The poll shows that teens use a computer almost every day at school (34 percent) or home (48 percent), and a full 79 percent say they've never looked at or done something on the Internet that they wouldn't want their parents to know about.
For these polls, Princeton Survey Research Associates interviewed 509 parents of teenagers ages 13 to 19 and 306 of their teenage sons and daughters April 20-28. The overall margin of error based on parents' sample is plus or minus 5 percentage points. The margin of error for the teenagers group is plus or minus 6 percentage points.
© 2000 Newsweek, Inc]
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