FACES OF YOUNG AUSTRALIA (PICTURES: Courtesy of Mission Australia). What do young people value? • Friendships/relationships • Being independent • Feeling needed/valued   What are the most concerning issues to young people? • Alcohol and other drugs • Bullying/emotional abuse •Coping with stress

16th November, 2004

DAVID ADAMS

Young Australians value friendships, their independence and the feeling of being needed or valued, according to a new survey.

The survey, carried out by Christian community service organisation Mission Australia, also found that alcohol and drugs, bullying and emotional abuse, and coping with stress are the three issues that young people are most concerned about.

This year’s survey was the third Mission Australia has undertaken. It involved about 8,500 young people aged between 11 and 24 years from across Australia. Surveys were completed online and at schools and colleges.

Anne Hampshire, national manager of research and social policy at Mission Australia, says responses to the question what young people value - which was asked for the first time - show that young people are “pretty people-centred”.

“Things like financial security dropped down the list...” she says. “They’re very people-centred responses. Young people are saying they really value friendships and relationships.”

“I think that’s really encouraging when we hear so many messages about economics and that being the driver for people generally. It’s really heartening for us to hear that young people are stressing relationships...”

The survey shows that 80.2 per cent of respondents ranked friendships and relationships of chief importance, followed by ‘being independent’ at 46 per cent and ‘feeling valued/needed’ at 45.1 per cent.

Fifty-one per cent of female respondents placed a high value on ‘feeling needed/valued’ compared with only 37.5 per cent of males.

In terms of what most concerns young people, Hampshire says issues such as alcohol and drugs, bullying and emotional abuse and coping with stress have increased in importance to young people when compared with previous surveys.

“Coping with stress the year before last about 24.2 per cent of people were concerned about it,” she says. “This year it’s 35.1 per cent and it’s also increased in its rank.”

In the previous two surveys depression and suicide were of most concern to respondents, however for this survey the issue was split into two separate categories - suicide/self harm and depression - which were ranked most important by 33.7 per cent and 29.9 per cent of respondents respectively.

Hampshire says the survey results will help Mission Australia in its work with young people as well as inform the broader community, including teachers, parents and other young-oriented organisations.

“Young people are obviously coping with a lot of pretty complex issues at a young age,” she says. “They’ve got a lot happening in terms of school and family - a lot of them are working and involved with employment. It’s now a pretty stressful life for young people but once we actually know the sorts of issues that are of a concern to them, we as a community are much better placed to actually respond to them appropriately.”

The survey also asked where young people go for advice and support if they had a problem. Friends were ranked by 86.1 per cent of respondants as being in the top three answers followed by parents (71.1 per cent) and relatives or family friends (62.7 per cent). The poll also shows a considerable decline in the percentage of young people who saw school counsellors or guidance officers as an important source of support - from 27 per cent of respondents in 2003 to 13.7 per cent in the most recent survey.

“Again that’s incredibly useful knowledge for us,” says Hampshire. “If we know what issues they’re concerned about, if we know who they’re going to, we can actually help provide better support networks among friends, we can actually support parents more effectively and perhaps we can actually help support the wider family network because some young people are going to them as well.”

Another first-time question asked young people to name three organisations they value.

“The wisdom before we asked that question was that probably we thought people would say sporting heroes or pop stars and things like that,” says Hampshire. “But actually what turned out was young people overwhelmingly mentioned family members and friends as the people who they admire. So again, that’s a pretty encouraging sign.”

The survey shows that while young people are engaged in sport and art-related activities in clubs and youth groups within the community, they are also increasingly becoming involved in volunteering, particularly as they enter adulthood, with about a quarter of 20 to 24-year-olds in the survey indicating they were doing so.

- www.missionaustralia.com.au