I was doing some research for my talk today at Grace Christian School (the school I graduated high school from), and I came across a report that I had seen on Ypulse and had been meaning to read for a long time.
The Horatio Alger Report called, “The State of the Nations Youth” gives some information based on a phone survey of 1,006 students ages 13-19, and it touches on various topics that would be interesting to any youth worker in the US.
Some things I found interesting:
- As recently as 2003, 75% of teenagers said they felt hopeful and optimistic about the future of the country. This year, however, barely half (53%) of students feel hopeful and optimistic about the future of the country a 22-point decline in five years.
- 53% of those surveyed would describe themselves as religious.
- Only 46% report that their parents have rules about how they can use the internet.
- 64% of teenagers say that they spend some time each week practicing a sport for an average of 10.3 hours per week.
- Almost four out of five students (79%) say that getting good grades creates a problem for them. Fourty-five percent say that it creates major problems for them.
- 88% use the word “confident” to describe themselves.
You can download the PDF of the full report here.
