Medicine, Mind and Adolescence 1998, XIII, 1-2
SCIAT
QUESTIONNAIRE:
SOME OPINIONS AND VALUES OF YOUTH
Imer Paolo Callegaro1
SOME OPINIONS AND VALUES OF YOUTH
Imer Paolo Callegaro1
Buy full article
Abstract
The Sciat, written by Prof. Brera, was administered to students of the first and fifth level at the following high schools: Istituto Professionale di Stato, Istituto Tecnico Commerciale and a Liceo Ginnasio, from the period of October to November 1996.
The questionnaire was aimed at helping the youth to reflect upon some basic topics and to become aware of their resources and possibilities. About one quarter of the questions were open-ended and focused on the meaning of life and its value. The 23 questions focused on five principal topics and the replies were evaluated by comparing the data among students from the different high schools, between males and females, and between the first and last years of each high school. The principal results are as follows:
1. Ability to perceive risk: 5.5% of the samples (7.5% in the first and 3.3% in the fifth, 3.6% of the males and 6% of the females) never reflect on the risks and consequences of their own pleasant experiences, and the 36.7% do it only sometimes. Facing the possibility of having a new experience, 15.6% of the interviewed people judge what others think to be more important than what they themselves think.
2. Opinion on some values: 98.4% said they are open to experiencing new things. They are interested in music (7.8%), sport (7.3%), and behavioral psychology (7.2%), but less so in philosophy (6.2%), religion (5.8%), and politics (5.3%). The most highly endorsed values were friendship (9.3%), truth (9.2%), love (9.1%), mother (8.9%), father (8.8%), brothers (8.6%), communication (8.5%), good health (8.4%), social involvement (7.6%), God (6.9%), beauty (6.3%), wealth (6.1%).
3. Developing inner resources and coping abilities: confronting relationships with others, 94.5% recognize that they have personal resources and 9.4% recognize that hey have social resources enabling them to resolve problems. They think that to be worthy to be considered a “Human Being”, a person must create inner resources (74.2%) as well as being useful to others (71.9%). 8.6% did not reply to this question.
4. Meaning of Life: to the question “What is the meaning of life?” 7.8% did not reply. (4.5% of the first class and 11.5% of the fifth class), 23.4% think that life has an objective meaning in itself, 72.7% that life might be different from person to person and life’s value is to be found either in its purpose, or in the possibility in loving and being loved, or in its being either a trial or a highway. To the question “Is it worthwhile living life?”, 12.5% did not reply, 29.7% believe that life is always worthy of love, 57.8% deem that reciprocal love and help, friendship and affection, family, knowledge, life’s purpose, positive results, make life worthwhile.
5. Judgment on “Declaration of Human Rights and Duties”: 91.4% share completely and 8.6% share partially this Declaration. 5.5% are willing to spread the declaration themselves among their peers by their example, 41.4% by discussing it, 52.3% are willing to use both methods.
Youth are open to new possibilities, recognize that they have resources to utilize, are open to fight for their rights and they still believe in the important values of society. But often, they cannot translate this into a life project. Notable are the high percentage of students that did not respond to the questions on the significance of life. The frequency by which youth are influenced by others and do not reflect on the consequences of their actions, partly explains their insecurities, their inconsistent behavior, and their risk taking. It is the parents and teachers task to help them to channel their capabilities into a life project that corresponds to their deepest expectations (“their ideal self”) helping them to experience the mystery of life and of the universe which surrounds them, guiding them to experiences themselves, to reflect on life’s basic questions through projects of education and promotion of health both in the school and the community.
Key Words: adolescents, opinions, values, meaning of life.
1. Correspondence to: Imer Callegaro MD, Via Costa, 53, 35032 Arquà Petrarca (Pd). E-mail: imerpaolo@libero.it
