After months of conducting studies, last week the Pew Research Center released its findings on the daily lives of American teens.
Most teens–70 percent–say depression and anxiety are major problems they see amongst their friends. They also say they feel great pressure with 61 percent feeling pressure on getting grades, 29 percent feeling pressure to look good, 28 percent feeling pressure to fit in socially and 21 percent feeling pressure to be involved in extracurricular activities, including excelling at sports.
Only 4-6 percent say they don’t feel pressured to use drugs and drink alcohol.
A majority of those surveyed–59 percent–plant to attend a four year college after high school but less than half–47 percent–seeing themselves getting married while only 41 percent see themselves having children. Only 13 percent say they feel pressure to help their family out financially.
Religion is not a priority with American teens with only 8 percent saying they are involved with religious activities however the same percentage say they feel pressure to be sexually active.
More than a quarter of teens–29 percent–wish they had more good friends and 26 percent get excited by something they study in school. Less than a quarter–23 percent–worry about not having enough money for daily expenses.
Most teens–54 percent–say they never feel targeted by law enforcement while 40 percent insist they don’t ever get in trouble in school.
Asked about family interaction with school work, 31 percent of teens say they get help or advice from their parents with homework or school projects and 19 percent say they regularly get into arguments with their parents. More teens–53 percent–insist their fathers are more likely to spend too little time with them while 39 percent say their mothers are more likely to spend too little time with them. However most teens–65 percent–say they spend the right amount of time with their parents while 9 percent say they spend too much time. A majority of teens–59 percent–say they get a hug or kiss from their parents every day or almost every day
The survey of 920 American teens between the ages of 13 to 17 was taken from Sept. 17 through Nov. 25 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.8 percent.
Contact Ed at Ed.Dean@FloridaDaily.com.
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