Teenage
Outlook-Synovate India Survey
Teenagers feel parents contribute much more than teachers, their peers, or the media in shaping their values and beliefs.
| Agreement | |
| Are parents and teenagers unable to truly communicate with each other? | |
| Teens who say "yes" | 56% |
| Parents who agree | 54% |
| *** | |
| Both teens and parents agree that a communication gap exists, in particular Calcutta (63%) and Chandigarh (70%) teens, and parents in Calcutta (64%) and Bangalore (62%). | |
| Can teenagers speak to their parents about their love life and sexual behaviour? | |
| Teenagers who felt they could not | 73% |
| Parents who believed such issues weren't being communicated | 68% |
| *** | |
| 47% of Calcutta parents felt their children could communicate, but just 23% of their teens agreed. 68% of teens and 79% of parents also felt parents whose children were having sex should talk to them and persuade them to stop. | |
| Is it OK for teenagers to have sex? | |
| Teens who thought it wasn't OK | 90% |
| Parents who thought it wasn't OK | 93% |
| *** | |
| Some Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta parents felt age 20 was old enough; other parents and teens preferred to wait till marriage. Parents seemed harder on drinking--90% of teens said "no" to drinking under age 16; 98% of parents concurred. | |
| Who contributes the most to shaping the values and beliefs of a young person? | |
| Teenagers who say their parents were the biggest factor | 50% |
| Parents who say they play the largest role | 49% |
| *** | |
| Both teenagers and their parents are clear that parents have the largest impact on nurturing, far more than do factors like school, peers or the media. | |
| Some Disagreement | |
| Do teenagers get enough privacy from their parents? | |
| Teenagers who said they got adequate privacy | 50% |
| Parents who felt teens got enough privacy | 63% |
| *** | |
| Calcutta showed the greatest satisfaction: 61% of teens and 81% of parents said teens had enough privacy. Calcutta also showed the most agreement that teens really needed a separate room (90% of teens and 87% of parents). | |
| Should parents know all their teenage children’s friends and about their background? | |
| Teenagers who agreed | 74% |
| Parents who wanted to know | 84% |
| *** | |
| In Chennai, 41% of teens felt it wasn't necessary, against just 11% of Mumbai teens. Chennai parents seemed the least anxious; 24% believed this wasn't important, against just 7% of Mumbai and Delhi parents. | |
| Is it OK for parents to insist on knowing where their children are and where they plan to go? | |
| Teenagers who felt it was alright | 74% |
| Parents who felt they needed to know | 88% |
| *** | |
| Teens in Bangalore and Chennai (30% and 34%) sounded quite independent—believing their parents did not need this information. But 91% of Mumbai parents and 93% of Calcutta parents felt they had to be informed. | |
| Is there too much explicit content (sex, violence, etc) in the media for teenage minds? | |
| Teens who thought so | 63% |
| Parents who agreed | 72% |
| *** | |
| Delhi and Chennai teens seemed more liberal, with 43% in both cities saying the media didn't carry excessive explicit content. Meanwhile 46% of parents in Delhi agreed with that, against just 17% in Chennai. | |
| Clear Disagreement | |
| Is it OK for parents to go through their children's cupboards and papers without asking them? | |
| Teens who wanted their privacy respected | 55% |
| Parents who felt they should respect this space | 37% |
| *** | |
| 73% of Calcutta teens valued their space. Many Calcutta and Chennai parents (47% & 50%) felt this space should remain private. Yet many Delhi (76%) and Chandigarh (71%) parents felt they didn't need their children's permission. | |
| Is the internet a bad influence on teenagers? | |
| Teens who felt the net wasn’t a bad influence | 55% |
| Parents who weren’t wary of the net's influence | 37% |
| *** | |
| Many teens (a whopping 80% in Calcutta) didn't feel the internet was particularly pernicious. Yet only Calcutta and Chennai parents (47% & 43%) really supported the internet. | |
| Is easy availability of or access to mobile phones a bad influence? | |
| Teenagers who disagreed | 55% |
| Parents who disagreed | 30% |
| *** | |
| Calcutta and Bangalore teens (64% & 70%) were particularly pro-mobile phone. Parents however were consistently against them in all the centres polled. | |
| Do teenagers today face a lot of peer pressure to break taboos? | |
| Teens who agree that they do face such pressure | 46% |
| Parents who believe that teens face it | 62% |
| *** | |
| Teens seemed split on the issue (45% said they didn’t face such peer pressure). Parents, other than in Delhi, where 66% said there was no peer pressure to break taboos, clearly believed the pressure was real (62-74% across centres). | |
The survey was conducted among parents and teenagers in Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Calcutta and Mumbai. In all, 422 boys and girls in the age 13-17 age group were interviewed, as were 415 parents of teenagers.
