CivilityEveryone knows that raising teens today can be a challenge – the attitude, entitlement issues not to mention competing with their peers parents.  (In their mind only).

A new survey was recently released by Stage of Life that actually exposes a side of teenagers that is quite refreshing and very optimistic for the future of civility.

Some highlights of the survey:

  • 91% of teens say that civility, manners and etiquette are either “very important” or “important” in their lives.
  • 87% of teenagers claim they personally practice civility, good manners and polished etiquette either “all” or “most” of the time.
  • 92% of teen say they feel social media, e.g. Facebook and Twitter, is making us a less civil society

Where are teens learning manners & civility from?  YOU!

  • 97% of students learn their manners from home.  Parents – you are your child’s role model – again, we are hearing this!  Parents matter.
  • 57% also said they learn manners and civility from their place of worship.
  • 43% named school as a positive influence on their manners, in particular through their involvement in Extracurricular Activities, e.g. Music, Sports, Student Government, Theater, etc.

Where do teens learn their bad manners from?

  • 69.3% Books, media and movies
  • 65% School and classes
  • 61.5% Friends

When teens were given a list of 7 choices of their pet peeve of rude behavior, over a third choose being rude to service people such as cashiers and waiters.  Am I hearing a tone of empathy here?

Check out the entire survey and lists on Stage of Life.