What are parents biggest concerns for their teenagers? Drugs and alcohol are not the top fear
Nov 29, 2018
Move over sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. The three biggest fears parents have for their teenagers today are technology, bullying and poor mental health.
That’s according to the newly released American Family Survey by the Deseret News and Brigham Young University. But experts also warn that overly fearing technology and the internet has the potential to cause its own set of problems.
The American Family Survey asked nearly 500 parents of children between 12 and 17 to choose up to four concerns from a list of 15. Fifty-three percent reported overuse of technology as their biggest worry on the list, followed by 45 percent who picked bullying and 36 percent who were concerned about mental health issues.
Just over a third of parents were also worried about family breakdown/divorce and pressure to use drugs or alcohol, according to the nationally representative poll conducted online by YouGov for the Deseret News and the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University.