Kids These Days: What Americans Really Think About the Next Generation
Kids These Days: What Americans Really Think About the Next Generation
A Report By Public Agenda For Ronald McDonald House Charities on Behalf of The Advertising Council
Written by Steve Farkas and Jean Johnson with Ann Duffett and Ali Bers
Click here to download the full text of this report (pdf)
Introduction
A recent survey by the Princeton Survey Research Associates showed that almost three-quarters of the American people think that young people with a poor education, poor job prospects, and problematic values now pose a greater danger to the United States than any threat from abroad.[1] Thankfully, the end of the Cold War has far reduced public fears of foreign enemies, so it is hardly surprising to find people focused so definitely on a domestic concern. But the image evoked by this finding is somehow disturbing. Are Americans really afraid of the next generation? Do they really see the country’s young people-or some group of them at least-as “the enemy within?”
Plenty of Symptoms
Grousing about the next generation, of course is a time-honored activity among older citizens, and surveys have captured public concern about teenagers in particular for decades. [2] However, the complaints of adults are not the only sign that all is not well among the nation’s young. Drug use is on the rise among adolescents. Teen suicide has increased. One in Five of the nation’s children live in poverty. About 1 in 3 American children do not live in an intact two-parent household. Half of the country’s public high school students say drugs and violence are serious problems where they go to school. Seven in ten say cheating on tests and assignments is commonplace. [3]
There are many indicators that something is wrong. Political leaders, along with liberal and conservative advocates, have offered competing diagnoses and solutions. But how to typical Americans think about and define the problems facing the country’s children and teens? What, if anything, do most Americans think can be done to improve the condition and prospects for the nation’s youth?
The Public Agenda Study
To find out, Public Agenda, a nonprofit research and education group based in New York, conducted an in-depth study of the views of the general public, along with those of African American, Hispanic, and White parents. The study also included focus groups in New Jersey, Colorado, and California and a shorter survey of youngsters themselves-those between the ages of 12 and 17. (For more details on how the research was conducted, see the Methodology section.) Kids These Days is our report on the major findings from this research.
To our knowledge, Public Agenda’s research is the most wide-ranging and in-depth examination of American’s views on this issue conducted in recent years. It was underwritten by Ronald McDonald House Charities and conducted on behalf of The Advertising Council, both organizations having committed themselves to ambitious and sustained efforts to improve the lives of children. Ronald McDonald House Charities will use findings from the Public Agenda study to guide its 100 million dollar commitment in giving to children’s programs. The Advertising Council will do likewise as it launches a decade-long effort to mobilize citizens to volunteer in their own communities in efforts on behalf of children and teens.
A Specific And Clear Message
But the implications of this research are far broader. As we describe in detail in the following pages, the public has a quite specific analysis of what troubles the nation’s youth and a surprisingly clear set of recommendations. The findings show a public that is anguished about our young people but not bereft of ideas about how to help them. Americans see the potential for solutions in the public schools, law enforcement, community groups, religious bodies, charitable activities, and-albeit much less hopefully - government and the media. What’s more, there is a widely-shared, and strongly-felt, definition of the problem. Americans from around the country, from different walks of life, from different racial and ethnic groups, with children and without them, are in ample agreement on what could and should be done.
As an opinion research organization, Public Agenda is continually interested, even fascinated, by Americans’ views on the challenges facing today’s world. What Americans have to say about the nation’s children and youth, we are convinced, is more than merely interesting. Kids These Days charts a course for designing public and private policies and programs for children that can win broad public support. More important, this study – if opinion leaders will listen carefully – offers the key to rebuilding Americans’ confidence in the future.
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the full text of this report (pdf)
[1] Princeton Survey Research Associates (sponsored by Newsweek and NBC News). National telephone survey of 656 adults, conducted April, 1997. “Which of the following is a bigger threat to the United States… foreign nations working against us, or young Americans without education, job prospects or connections to mainstream American life?” Foreign nations, 18%; Young American’s, 74%; Don’t know, 8%."
[2] For example, Princeton Survey Research Associates has conducted many surveys that include questions on attitudes toward teenagers, including the Family Circle Family Index, for Family Circle magazine in June, 1993 and Speaking of Kids – A National Survey of Children and Parents (June 1991), conducted for the national Commission on Children.
[3] After hitting a low of 27% in 1992, the percentage of high school seniors who have used any illicit drug in the past twelve months has increased each year, reaching 40% in 1996. Source:
