RESEARCH REPORT NO.18 "Social Influences on Adolescents’ Attitudes" by Duangduen I. Bhanthumnavin Boonying Charoenying (1974) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Purpose of the study The present study was aimed to provied some evideces on several questions about Thai adolescents’ attitudes. The first question was whether the adolescents from different types of school, different socio-economic classes and of different sexes would differ on attitudes towards themselves and their surrounding social environments. Secondly, whether being in a coeducational school or a noncoed school would differentiate these adolescents on their opinion towards peers of same and opposite sex. Thirdly, whether these urban adolescents came from different social backgrounds would differ on the amount and types of anxiety in their everyday life’s experiences. The final question was how these adolescents would evluate themselves on varionus social criteria, such as, academic achievement, good conduct, social poise, etc. Scope of the study The present study was a questionnaire-survey of various types of attitudes of 720 male and female adolescents. The respondents were students in the third year of Mathayomsuksa in different coeducational and noncoeducational schools. These students were divided according to their own report of their family income into three different socio-economic groups : upper, middle and lower classes. In addition, half of these adolescents was high academic achievers and the other half was low. All the respondents were in Bangkok or Thonburi urban areas. Method of study Two sets of questionnaires on adolescents’ attitudes were constructed and tested for their applicability. There were six subtests in these questionnaires as follows: 1. Questionnaires on attitudes towards parents and teachers. 2. Questionnaires on influences of parents and teachers. 3. Questionnaires on attitudes towards the same-and opposite-sex peers. 4. Questionnaires on the expected consequences of wrong doing. 5. Questionnaires on amount and types of state-anxiety. 6. Questionnaires on self-evaluations. These questionnaires were in the form of Likert’s type statements each accompanied by a scale of 7 units. The respondents were instructed to check one place on the scale which corresponsed to their opinion. Findings The data were scored and analyzled by computer. The analyses of variances were performed on various parts of the data. The results indicated that sex, type of school, and sociao-economic level were related to the differences in attitudes of these adolescents towards self, parents, teachers, friends and various personal issues. In particular, when responses of the male and female students were compared, the males reported experiencing significantly stronger favorable influences from their fathers than did the famales. Eventhough mothers enjoyed love and affections most from these adolescents, the girls reported having significantly more anxiety caused by their mothers than did the boys. Female students showed significantly positive attitudes towards their teachers than did the males. The greatest difference between the sexes was the attitudes towards peers of opposite-sex. As expected, male-adolescents reported signifiently stronger positive attitudes towards the opposite-sex than did the females. When the adolescents were questioned about the preferred characteristics of a friend, female respondents put significantly stronger emphasis on “good behavior,” than did the males. Finally, male and female adolescents differed from each other on attitudes towards various personal issues such as the importance of education, one’s own behavior, appearance and family status. Females felt more strongly about the importance of every issue except “family status” than did the males. Next, comparisons were made between the responses of the students from different types of schools. It was found that male students from coeducational school showed significantly stronger positive attitudes towards their mothers and teachers than did the students from the all-male schools. In addition, male students from the coeducational schools experienced significantly more positive influence from their teachers than did the students from all-male schools. More surprisingly, types of school were significantly related to variations on attitudes towards authorities being responsible for punishing wrong-doers. Among the male students, the ones who came from coeducational schools were more convinced that they would be punished by their parents, teachers, and relatives when they did wrong than did the adolescents from-male schools. On the other hand, the female students from the coeducational schools were significantly more convinced that they would be punished by laws and religion if they did wrong than did their counterpart from all-girl schools. Furthermore female students from different types of school differed from each other on the preferred characteristics of their friends. In particular, the girls form coeducational schools emphasized more strongly the “good behavior” aspect of their friends and less strongly the “good family” aspect of their friends than did the students from all-girl schools. When questioned about the originators of their anxiety, the adolescents of both sexes from the coeducational schools felt more strongly that people around them (parents, teachers, friends and acquaintances) aroused their anxiety than did the adolescents from the same-sex schools. On the contrary, girls from the coeducational schools blamed themselves more strongly for their anxiety than did the girls from all-girl schools. There was no significant differences on self-blaming anxiety among the boys from different types of school. Consistent of the above findings, the boys and girls from the same-sex schools reported having greater anxiety about various personal problems such as education, spending-money and selfish acts than did the boys and girls from the coeducational schools. Thus, it could be concluded that, the adolescents from the same-sex schools apparently admitted having greater anxiety then did the adolescents from the coeducational schools. When responses of the adolescents from the three social-classes were compared, it was found that these adolescents significantly differed from each other on three major issues : attitudes towards others, characteristics of preferred friends, and anxiety, In particular, the results showed that middle-class adolescents showed the most favorable attitudes towards their father and the lower-class adolescents showed the least, On the other hand, the lower-class adolescents showed the most favorable attitudes towards their teachers and the higher-class adolescents showed the least. Adolescents from different socio-economic levels were also significantly different from each other on the characteristics of their preferred friends. Higher-class adolescents emphasized most strongly the “good behavior” and “common interest” aspects of their preferred friends. On the contrary, the lower-class adolescents emphasized the above two characteristics least strongly but they found the “good student” and “good family” aspects of their preferred friends to be the most important. Anxiety was also an important issue which differed among adolescents from different social classes, Lower-class adolescents were the most anxious on all three issues, good grades, spending-money and selfish acts, They also reported that their father, mother, friends and relatives aroused their anxiety more then did other types of respondents. Higher-class adolescents seemed to be the least anxious of them all. Even though middle-class adolescents found “good grades” and “good behavior” highly important in their life, but they were not as anxious about these issues as were the lower-class adolescent. Conclusion The results above strongly supported several hypotheses in this study and also were consistent with previous findings on Thai and foreign adolescents. The findings from the present study suggested at least three main things, First, the important and beloved persons in adolescents’ lives were their mothers. They had the stronges influence on their attitudes and behaviors. Therefore, the mothers of these adolecents should receive greater attention from the national authorities and the schools. Secondly, the tower-class adolescents having the most social problems, would benefit greatly if their teachers were to give them more attention. Finally, contrary to traditional belief the coeducational schools seemed to produce more whole-some adolescents than did the same-sex schools. Therefore, the educational authorities should encourage the expanding of this type of school and at least maintain the quality of such schools at the present level. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SWUHOMEPAGEBack to Behavioral Science Research Institute