Attitudes of High School Students and Their Parents toward Contemporary Issues

Abstract

46 high school students ( Mage = 17.6 yr.) and a sample of 23 of their parents ( Mage = 45.1 yr.) completed a 36-item questionnaire containing items pertaining to such contemporary topics as drug use, sexual behavior, religion, and civil rights. Ss lived in a non-college, working class, semi-rural community. Whereas other studies of attitude differences toward contemporary issues between adolescents and adults assessed populations living in “college towns” and showed that the generations differed about 85% of the time, the present study found the adolescent and adult groups differed on only 50% of the questionnaire items. Moreover, the differences in attitude appeared to reflect more a difference in intensity of attitudes than one of direction. These results appear to support the position of Adelson (1970).