Center for Youth Studies - Overall Outsiders Survey Results

etween January and March, 2010 a series of three surveys were administered through youth pastors and/or youth workers to youth outside the church. A happiness survey designed to determine what causes youth pleasure and/or makes them feel satisfied, a concerns survey designed to indicate what contemporary youth are most concerned about, and an influences survey. The following are the average results for those surveys.

Happiness Survey Results: A total of 66 youth (35 Males and 31 Females), aged 11-19, were surveyed using questionnaires. Youth were asked to rate 16 (sixteen) items on a scale of 1 to 16, 1 being that which makes, or would make, them most happy and 16 being that which makes them least happy. The following graph indicates the average results for each item:

Overall, youth indicated that family (with an average response of 4.70 ) made them most happy, while popularity (average response of 10.80) made them least happy. Friends (average of 5.35) and grades (average of 5.67) were the second and third most influential.

Influences Survey Results: A Total of 68 youth (37 Females and 31 Males), aged 11-19, were surveyed as above. Youth were asked to rate 20 (twenty) items on a scale of 1 to 20, 1 being that which shapes or influences the the most and 20 being that which influences them the least. The following graph indicates the average results for each item:

Youth indicated parental influences as the most influential on their lives (an average response of 2.28 for mothers and 4.51 for fathers), with siblings and friends as third and fourth most influential. Pornography for youth inside the church was rated as the least influential, with an average response of 17.35.

Concerns Survey Results: A total of 71 youth (32 Females and 42 Males, while 8 did not indicate gender in their reponses), aged 11-19, were surveyed as above. Youth were asked to rate twenty-five (25) items on a scale of 1 to 25, 1 being that which is their main or top concern and 25 being that which is their least concern.

Youth indicated wars as their biggest concern, with an average response of 7.73, and street violence (average response of 9.27) as their second highest concern. Drop-outs, truancy and disrupting class was their least concern, with an average response of 14.30.