Attitudes of Adolescents and Adults toward Contemporary Issues

Abstract

93 adolescents ( Mago = 16.1 yr.) and 91 adults ( Mago = 44.1 yr.) completed a 29-item questionnaire containing items pertaining to such contemporary issues as drug use, police and military authority and power, sexual behavior, and religion. Significant attitudinal differences between the generations obtained on 89.5% of the items. Insofar as attitudes toward these contemporary issues are concerned, it is concluded that evidence for a generation gap was found with this sample. The results are compared with those of other studies which have investigated the political-social attitudes of adolescents and are found to be discrepant.