Main finding:
When teens and preteens were asked to vote for their 'top 3' issues with their parents, approximately 10% of all the votes cast were cast for each of the following three issues:

• Parents worry about me too much
• Boyfriend/Girlfriend issues
• Chores

--so these are the TOP 3 ISSUES among teens/preteens responding to this poll.

"Academics" and "my attitude-lack of respect" each received 9% of the total votes cast. "Parents don't respect me, treat me like a child" followed, with 8.2% of all of the votes, and "my moodiness" received 7.6%.

See the results of the "Good Stuff" poll--the areas parents are happiest with in their relationships with their teens/preteens.

See teen vs. preteen results.

Go to Age/Gender Differences discussion.

See separate chart for preteens.

For a list of all the issues teens/preteens could select from, see the Poll.

Compare results this quarter with prior quarter's results.

To continue, scroll down....

Who responded to the poll?
By far the largest group (80) of respondents were TEEN GIRLS, followed distantly by 30 boys (25 teenage and 5 preteen).

Interpreting the colored bars:

Girls vs. Boys Chart:

All Respondents:
this bar shows what proportion of the total number of votes cast by the entire group of poll respondents went to a particular issue as one of the "top 3" in their relationships with parents.

votes by GIRLS:
this bar shows what proportion of the total number of votes cast by ALL GIRLS (both teenage and preteen-age) went to a particular issue as one of the "top 3" in their relationships with parents.

votes by BOYS:
this bar shows what proportion of the total number of votes cast by ALL BOYS (teenage and preteen-age) went to a particular issue as one of the "top 3" in their relationships with parents.

Teen vs. Preteen Chart:

All Respondents:
this bar shows what proportion of the total number of votes cast by the entire group of poll respondents went to a particular issue as one of the "top 3" in their relationships with parents.

votes by ALL TEENS
this bar shows what proportion of the total number of votes cast by ALL TEENS (both boys and girls) went to a particular issue as one of the "top 3" in their relationships with parents.

votes by ALL *PRETEENS
this bar shows what proportion of the total number of votes cast by ALL PRETEENS (both boys and girls) went to a particular issue as one of the "top 3" in their relationships with parents. Because *pre-teens voted for issues that did not even make it onto the screen for teens, we have created a results chart devoted to preteens' issues.

*Only 12 pre-teens participated in the poll, so results for the pre-teen group are less reliable than those for the larger teen-age group.

More.... about interpreting this chart. 

Age and gender differences:
The charts show that there were interesting differences in responses by BOYS vs. GIRLS, as well as by TEENS vs. *PRETEENS. (Preteens are defined in the poll as people between the ages of 9 and 12; teens as those between the ages of 13 and 20.)

*Only 12 preteens participated in the poll, so results for the preteen group are less reliable than those for the larger teenage group.

Girls:

The top 3 issues for girls as a group are:

• boyfriend/girlfriend issues
• parents worry about me too much, and
• chores

Girls cast slightly more votes for "boyfriend/girlfriend issues" than for ANY other, followed by "parents worry about me too much." This differs from the overall proportion of votes (i.e., cast by the entire group of respondents), in that the entire group ranked these two issues as about equally important. You can see that there is a sizeable showing on "parents worry too much" by PRETEENS. It is the increased votes by preteens that affected the overall proportion of votes for this issue, reducing the all-girl votes' importance slightly.

Boys:

The top issues for boys as a group are:

• academics
• chores [each received equal votes]

and

• my attitude/lack of respect
• parents don't respect me, treat me like a child [each received equal votes]

The chart shows that boys as a group found the first two overall-vote-getters, "parents worry about me too much" and "boyfriend/girlfriend issues" slightly less worrisome than "academics" and "chores," their top issues, each receiving 12% of their total votes, followed by "my attitude" and "parents' don't respect me, treat me like a child," each of which received 10.8% of all boy votes. "Parents worry about me too much," one of the top 3 issues overall, received only 8.4% of votes by boys, while "boyfriend/girlfriend issues," the GIRLS' top issue, received only 7.2% of boy votes, along with "sibling issues." "Moodiness," a relatively important issues for GIRLS (7.7% of girl votes), received only 3.6% of boy votes!

Preteen vs. Teen differences:

Only 12 preteens participated in the poll, so results for the preteen group are less reliable than those for the larger teenage group. The differences between patterns of preteen vs. teen votes is, however, interesting. The top issues for preteens are:

• my attitude/lack of respect
• my room
• my moodiness
• parents worry about me too much [the last three all received equal votes]

In contrast, the top issues for all-teens are:

• boyfriend/girlfriend issues and
• chores [these two received same votes]
• academic problems
• parents worry about me too much [the last two received almost the same votes]

See a separate chart showing preteen voting results.

See results of PARENT POLL.

Questions about the poll? Write to us! 

Main finding:
When teens and preteens were asked to vote for the 'top 3' things they feel best about in their relationships with their parents, approximately 20% of all the votes cast were cast for

• "my achievements."

This main area of satisfaction was followed by approximately 12% of the votes for each of:

• "discussions we have" and
• "moral values I stand for"

--so these are the TOP 3 AREAS OF GOOD FEELING in the parent-adolescent relationship among teens/preteens responding to this poll.

"My progress in becoming more adult" came in fourth, with 10.7% of the total votes cast.

See separate results for preteens.

List of all the areas teens/preteens could select from

Results of separate poll of Issues with Parents

For more, scroll down....

Who responded to the poll?
By far the largest group (80) of respondents were TEEN GIRLS, followed distantly by 30 boys (25 teenage and 5 preteen).

Interpreting the colored bars:

Overall:
this bar shows what proportion of the total number of votes cast by the entire group of poll respondents went to a particular issue as one of the "top 3" areas of happiness in their relationships with their parents

votes by GIRLS:
this bar shows what proportion of the total number of votes cast by ALL GIRLS (both teenage and preteen-age) went to a particular issue as one of the "top 3" areas of happiness in their relationships with their parents

votes by BOYS:
this bar shows what proportion of the total number of votes cast by ALL BOYS (teenage and preteen-age) went to a particular issue as one of the "top 3" areas of happiness in their relationships with their parents

votes by *PRETEENS
this bar shows what proportion of the total number of votes cast by PRETEENS (both boys and girls) went to a particular issue as one of the "top 3" areas of happiness in their relationships with their parents. Because *pre-teens voted for issues that did not even make it onto the screen for teens, we have created a results chart devoted to preteens' issues.

*Only 12 pre-teens participated in the poll, so results for the pre-teen group are less reliable than those for the larger teen-age group.

More.... about interpreting this chart.

Age and gender differences:
Unlike the results of the poll of issues with parents, the chart of results for votes in areas of satisfaction shows that there were no striking differences in responses by BOYS vs. GIRLS or between either of these groups and the total body of respondents.

Because only 12 preteens participated in the poll, results for the preteen group are less reliable than those for the larger teenage/overall groups. However, preteens showed some interesting differences from the other groups. (Preteens are defined in the poll as people between the ages of 9 and 12; teens as those between the ages of 13 and 20.)

The top 3 areas of satisfaction for preteens are:

• "my achievements"
• "activity parents and I do together"
• "sharing new things I learn with my parents or my family"

Because preteens voted for areas that did not even make it onto the screen for teens, we have created a chart devoted to preteen results.

See results of PARENT POLL.

Questions about the poll? Write to us!