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Context of the Philippine Youth Today
Appendix A
A study conducted by NFO – Trends
nationwide for Global Filipino Foundation and the Philippine
Province of the Society of Jesus and others sought to
profile the Filipino Youth of today. The study covered
home life, friends, lifestyle, hobbies, sources and
utilization of money, media exposure, attitudes, beliefs,
and values. Via multi–stage probability in sample
selection, 1,420 interviews were conducted with the
youth ranging from 7-21 years old. The sample distribution
is as follows:
| Area |
Urban |
Rural |
Total |
| Metro Manila |
357 |
------ |
357 |
| Luzon |
236 |
118 |
354 |
| Visayas |
255 |
115 |
370 |
| Mindanao |
224 |
115 |
339 |
| Total |
1,072 |
348 |
1,420 |
A. The Respondents' Profile is shown below:
Socio- demographic
Profile
47%
male, 53% female
28% out-of - school
4% married
7% formal work force – farmers/ laborers/craftsman to augment family
income
Ø
Economic Stratification
AB - own almost all
facilities inclusive of air-conditioning, piano, computer
and a vehicle.
C – own
many of the major facilities ( radio, colored tv,
refrigerator, stereo, video, washing machine, oven toaster,
telephone)
D – own
a tv set and a radio
E – own only a radio; one or two may have a tv set, but majority would have no running water.
B. The internal landscape reveal that the youth
are
Generally happy, but not
too happy: 62% somewhat happy
Degree of happiness on a 10 – point scale : 6.4
AB class
seem to be the happiest (8 or higher); Class
C has a happiness index of 6.7; Class D rated 6.3; E
with 6.2.
Personal concerns
- Being better people (characterized by discipline,
patience, industriousness; friendlier and stop vices)
: 51% of males, 42% females
- Alter their appearance to be more attractive:
13% M, 12% F
- Would like to be richer: 4% M, 2% F
Worries about uncertain
future
- Employment possibilities; unemployment or
failure.
- Quality of education; inability to earn college
degree.
- Safety and well being; fears, sickness, crime
victim, falling into vices/drugs, getting pregnant
or someone pregnant, AIDS.
- Parents dying early, separation or loss of
jobs
- Environmental pollution
Dreams and aspirations
- Vocational motivation and choice of profession
- to develop interest / capabilities /
knowledge
- to help others and to contribute to the country
- to become rich and successful
- Professional careers attract the youth
- NCR and upper middle class aspire to
be professionals, managers or executives
- Most popular aspiration - to be teachers
- Males are attracted to military career or engineering
and medical profession
- Females are attracted to teaching and nursing
Educational aspirations
- ¼ of youth concede that their chances are
dim
- More youth aspire to attend private university
- St Louis College and AMA Computer College (3%)
- Ateneo, La Salle,
UST (2%)
- UP is most aspired among public universities
Factors affecting
choices
- Quality of facilities and Teaching
- Accessibility
- Affordability of tuition fees
Source of educational
expenses
- Parents (76%)
- Relatives (12%)
- Part-time work (8%) for lower classes
General Youth Behavior Profile
General routine
: youth start the day early
- Awake by 5 am - 25%
- Awake between 5 and 6 am - 50%
- Awake by 6 am - 75%
School is accessed
via
- Walking / on foot - 65%
- By public transport - 40%
Most take 30 minutes
to reach school.
- An average of 24 minutes is spent going
to school
- Going back / home takes longer
Decision-making
- Majority have autonomy: waking up, going
to bed, clothing, friends, places to go.
- Mothers have control over 13-15 year olds
- Influence dwindles to zero over 19-21 year
olds
- Mothers have some control (23.5%) over basic
things esp. food, curfew.
Four major activities
fill up free time in school
- Homework/ assignment/ study or review notes,
library readings/ research (52%)
- Socialization or chat with classmates (43%)
- Eating (59%)
- Play sports or parlor games (21%)
Leisure activities
are generally sedentary
- Watching tv
(64%)
- House hold chores
(45%)
- Listen to the radio (43%)
- Reading (30%)
- Chat (29%)
- Listen to cassette tapes (27%)
- Watch video (23%)
- Play basketball (22%)
- Go for walk or hike (20%)
Travel
- 41% have been to another province
- 1 % have been outside the country; privilege reserved
for the upper class
Reading not a major
interest
- 57% positively disposed, mostly in the upper
class
- 37% unable to develop inclination
- 14% unable because there is nothing interesting
to read for them
Sexual Behavior
- Premarital sex is not acceptable to small
majority (58%)
- A sizable number are open to premarital sex
(41%)
- One out of four is already sexually experienced
(22%)
- Among 19-21 year olds, one out of three have
had sex
Other Experiences
- Generally, the youth experiment with alcoholic
drinks before smoking cigarette
- 56% have taken alcoholic drinks; 42% have
smoked cigarette
- 10% have tried forbidden drugs. Of these
20% came from Mindanao and C E (18%) scored the highest
in terms of exposure.
- Suicide is an option of 2 out of 10 youths
(19%) with those in NCR and Mindanao scoring the highest
(20%), C E (24%) and females (23%) are most disposed
Values and Beliefs
Values
- Family, education, love, friendship and
money, in that order, are important
- education takes a backseat to family
- middle
and upper classes put more importance to love
over education.
- Once married, one prioritize love over
education and money over friendship
- Youth are not clear why the following are
wrong:
- pre-marital
sex (52%)
- heavy
gambling (51%)
- hazing
(51%)
- phone
or internet sex (45%)
- Given a list of 20 activities, the majority
consider 13 to be clearly wrong:
- forbidden
drugs (76%)
- cheating
on boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse (67%)
- stealing
(64%)
- use of violence
to solve problems (57%)
- committing
adultery (55%)
Gender Issues
- youth are still somewhat conservative, yet
apply double standard rule
- more open to changes in man’s role
- more resistant to changes in women’s
role
- women are more
open than males to breaking stereotypes.
- Many females believe men should learn
- home economics (65%) and
- do
housework (54%)
- Not many youths think that women
- should
learn carpentry (25%)
- do
electricals (16%)
- join government
(10%)
Icons
- Ideal looking persons
- medium
height (79%)
- brown
skinned (76%)
- black hair (88%)
- round
eyes (62%)
- medium
nose (64%)
- fair skinned (26%)
- kinky
eyes ( (30%0
- high
nose (35%)
- Parents as ideal males/females
- mother
(57%)
- father
(52%)
- the
rest see others as ideal or have no one in mind.
- Top celluloid favorites
- Actors : Ramon Revilla Jr., Robin
Padilla, Rico Yan,
- Actresses : Judy Ann Santos, Sharon Cuneta,
Claudine Barreto
Religion
Ø Catholic Church
membership may decrease in the next generation
Ø Contrary to popular
belief, we are no longer a nation of believers
F Big majority still assert
belief in God/Supreme Being (88%)
F Minority acknowledges
the existence of heaven (42%)
F Much less, of hell (21%)
or life after death (21%)
Ø Church involvement
among the youth is low (18%)
F Choir members (81%)
F Altar/mass servers (4%)
Ø Youth trust priests
and nuns almost equally ( 73% and 70% respectively)
F Youth in Mindanao
are less trustful of them
F Surprisingly, upper class
have relatively low level of trust in priests
and nuns even if proportion of believers in this economic
class is higher than the others.
F The older the respondent,
the less trustful of priests and nuns.
Ø Vocation
F There may be one for
every ten males who will prefer priesthood
F Possibility of vocation
is higher in VisMin and among
the lower classes
F Vocations, rare among
16-21 year olds.
F. Sense of Community and Nationhood
Ø There is low awareness,
even apathy, towards cultural values and national affairs.
F Only 37% could recite/sing
the National Anthem
F 28% could recite the
Panatang Makabayan in its entirety
Ø Of National Heroes
F 93% mentioned Jose Rizal
F 63% Andres Bonifacio
F 38% Apolinario
Mabini
F 25% Emilio Aguinaldo
Ø Contemporary Political
Figures
F Awareness diminishes
as it goes to the national level.
- 75% identified
their barangay captain or
mayor.
- 50% know
their congressional representatives, and
- 27% can
name the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
F Awareness of Senators
is poor. Only those in NCR ,
and are belonging to the upper class and older youth
have adequate knowledge of public servants.
F 70% say that their trust
in Philippine Politicians range from very small to uncertain,
most being uncertain 40%.
F Trust in politicians
is lower among females and declines with the age of
the respondents.
Ø The youth have
clear idea of what a leader should be.
F Work for the good of
others not themselves (61%)
F Sincere (58%)
F Fulfill promises (57%)
F Religious and God-fearing
(47%)
F Hard working (46%)
Ø Sense of Nationhood
F Youth take pride in certain
Filipino qualities even if seemingly lacking in interest
in national concerns
F Youth are ashamed of
corruption in government and politics (24%); the social
climate; Filipinos’ penchant for tardiness, the
mañana habit, crab mentality
and other negative qualities
F Given a choice, 82% would
still remain Filipinos over other nationalities.
Ø Environment
F 87% of the youth worry
about environmental problems.
F A good third are in fact worried.
By way of conclusion, the
2001 Youth Study’s “Wrap Up” Section
is quoted in toto. While comprehensive in its summary,
it fails to provide the most salient data on the Religious
preferences and Belief System of the youth today.
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