Hwk 53

While taking this survey I was in deep thought thinking about each of the questions while answering them. All the questions I answered related to me in one way or another, but I never seem to realize much about it. It’s something that is just there and I can relate with, but taking the survey makes me think more about all the questions I answered. I was able to take some time and actually think about my family and friends and what I believe in. I feel like I don’t even know my self that much, but after taking the survey I was able to gain more insights about my self that I was not aware of before. I think it was a nice way to make me aware of my surroundings and take some time out to think of topics that are not usually thought about on a daily basis. I feel like I answered all of the questions pretty honestly and this is why I was able to learn more about myself. Some questions that made me stop and think were the ones about my family, even though I was able to answer right away I was able to create some thoughts about what I was asked. It was a nice way to figure out where I stand in all aspects of my life.

While discussing the survey results in class there were many different insights from students gained on different sections of the survey. Cindy noticed that the results on the family section of the survey seemed too good to be true. “The statistics were of a TV show family.” (Cindy). I agree with Cindy on that comment because I feel like many of us don’t really seem to care much about our family these days. I’m not saying that I am a part of this because I personally am very close to my family and care about them very much. After looking over the results for the family section, I thought about it for a few minutes and it seemed to me that these results were just not clicking in. I feel like people now days don’t seem to have to have much respect for their families and want to be on their own so they can have their independence. They don’t seem to show much love or affection for the people they are blood related to. I think I was similar to some results of this survey, but not all of it. At some points while reviewing the results I felt like a lot of people were either not being honest or they just like to make others believe something that they honestly do not engage in doing so, just so they can fit in with the crowd. For example, the questions about being drunk or using illegal drugs; the majority of the answers were leaning towards no, which to me seems funny. A lot of people in our school act like they are used to committing such acts, but I feel like they are either pressured into doing it or they just say they have been a part of such an act, yet in reality they are just trying to patch up the truth.

After viewing the results in the 2007 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey I was able to compare with the results from our school survey. When looking at the topics related to alcohol and drug use, it can be seen that the results in our class survey are unlikely to be true. The results in the survey about youth risk behavior seem to be more accurate and are answered more honestly. 40.4% of the 51 kids who took the school survey state that they have never been drunk. The answers in the other survey state that 75% of the people taking have had an alcoholic drink once in their life time. Even though there is a difference between being drunk and having an alcoholic drink, I think that the results in our school survey are not very accurate. Another question that I compared was the one about being sexually active. In the results of our school survey, 17.3% say that they are sexually active. Looking at the results in the youth risk behavior survey, 47.8% of the students have had sexual intercourse. This shows that not many people in the class survey were being honest. If they were being honest, they seem to cover up the truth just so they can fit in with the crowd and be known as something they are truly not. I was expecting a higher percentage of students to be sexually active in the class survey because of the vibes I receive from many people in our school. A similarity I noticed between the school survey and the youth behavior survey was the results for the questions about drug use. In the school survey, 53.8% of the survey takers stated that they have never used illegal drugs. In the Youth behavior survey, 38.1% of the students said they have used Marijuana once or more in their lifetime. I feel like these results are accurate since the percentages make sense. There are many comparisons and differentiations that can be seen between these two sets of results. I think that the results for the school survey are less accurate compared to the results in the behavior survey because of some of the percentage gaps.