EDITORIAL: Good news from MTV, of all places

Posted: 9/14/07

EDITORIAL:
Good news from MTV, of all places

The best way to ensure the happiness of teens and young adults is to envelope them in the embrace of family.

A new study sponsored by MTV and the Associated Press revealed the most significant factor contributing to teen happiness is family. Spiritual faith also is a vital contributor to teens’ and young adults’ emotional well-being. Conversely, many of the supposed happiness-providers that dominate teen- and young-adult-oriented media—money, fame, sex and drugs—finished far down the list. And some of them even cause unhappiness, survey respondents said.

The majority of American young people lead happy lives, the poll found. Sixty-three percent of survey participants aged 13 to 24 said they are very happy (21 percent) or somewhat happy (42 percent). Another 22 percent said they are “neither happy nor unhappy.” Only 15 percent said they are somewhat unhappy or very unhappy.

Parents and family are the far-and-away dominant factors in young people’s happiness. Asked to cite the “one thing in life that makes you happy,” 46 percent of young people named spending time with family, friends and loved ones. Seventy-three percent of survey respondents said they are very happy (41 percent) or somewhat happy (32 percent) with their relationship with their parents. Eleven percent said they are somewhat unhappy with their parents, and only 2 percent are very unhappy.

Asked to name their heroes, U.S. young adults’ top answer is their mother (29 percent), followed by their father (21 percent), followed by their parents (16 percent).

The young people also projected a positive image of family in their answers regarding their own expectations. Ninety-one percent said they believe getting married will make them happy. Ninety-two percent said they definitely (52 percent) or probably (40 percent) want to get married, and 64 percent said they “very likely” will be married to the same person their whole life.

Faith and spirituality also are important to many young people. Sixty-five percent of respondents ranked “religion or spirituality” as important to them, with 11 percent claiming it is the single most important thing in their lives, followed by 33 percent who said it is very important and 21 percent who ranked it as somewhat important. Those feelings eclipsed actual church attendance, with 36 percent of young people saying they attend religious services at least once a week and 7 percent noting they attend once or twice a month. Seventy-five percent said “God or a god-like figure” has some impact on their personal happiness.

While almost no young people suggested money or material possessions provide happiness, 70 percent said they want to be rich someday. But only 29 percent indicated they want to be famous.

The full reports on this survey are available online at www.mtv.com/thinkmtv/research and http://surveys.ap.org/. They offer volumes of information that will be enormously helpful to parents and caring adults who work with young people.

The survey reinforces the importance of strengthening parenting skills. Although peer pressure and other influences impact young people tremendously, parents still provide not only the greatest source of happiness but also the most significant influence on teens.

Churches could significantly expand the impact of their student ministries if they would include training, equipping and encouraging parents as part of their programming. Too often, churches—and especially youth ministers—feel they must shoulder the burden for spiritual formation in teens’ lives. But if we will help more moms and dads to be effective parents who provide role models for how to live lives of faith, we will enable them to pass their most important legacy—faith in Jesus Christ—on to their children.