ALMOST half of the youths in Davao City, also known as millennials, aged 13 to 24 years, drink, smoke and engage in sex some with multiple partners as 15.
These are some of the negative findings of a survey conducted by the University of Mindanao’s Institute of Popular Opinion (IPO).
In a briefing during yesterday’s Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM Annex at Ecoland Subdivision, Dr. Adrian Tamayo, a stalwart of the IPO, said that the survey was conducted May 24 to 30 among 264 youth respondents.
He said “this survey aims to describe the Davao youth relating to their association, what is important to them, who bear large influence on them. “
He said the sample was obtained using a 3-percent margin of error and 95-percent confidence level, adding that the intention is to overlap child-bearing years, working years, and school years of the commonly ascribed as youth.”
The survey reveals 4 in 10 Dabawenyo smoke cigarettes. They started smoking at age 12, though common age to start smoking is 18. They said they are influenced by friends (97 percent) while others are influenced by their own relatives (3 percent).
Drinking came somewhat accessible to the youth, 5 in 10 youth drink. Some said started drinking as early as when when they were 12 years old.
Common age to have started drinking is 18 years old. They drink once a week (71 percent). Strongest influence is friends, 98 pecent of them revealed.
Survey found that 23 in 50 Dabawenyo youth are engaged in sex. A small margin indicated that they started having sex as young as 10 years old (1%). Most common age in having sex is 18 years old. Of those who had sex, 45% mentioned that it was not in a formal relationship. Average partner they have had is 2.2, a maximum of 15.
Family structure, time, and sources of information. The sample was largely composed of 16 years old (18 percent ), 24 years old (16 percent). Of the 16-year-old youth, 74 percent are females, 15 percent males and 11 percent LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.) Among the 24
years old, 64 percent are males, 27 percent females and 9 percent LGBT. The structure of Davao family remains intact with 41 in 50 youth revealing that they have strong and intact family
On the other hand, 17 percent reveal that they are from a broken family, nine in 50 youth are from a broken family. By gender incidence, it was observed to be higher among females: 5 of them are females, 3 are males and 1 LGBT.
Davao youth spend most time with family. Characteristically, family time is resting time. A Davao youth spends an average of 8 hours per day with family. On average, they spend 5 hours per day with friends and 4 hours in the internet. Their recreation time such as playing games (online or otherwise), watching movies or going out takes 3 hours per day. Indicatively, their friends’ time is a combination of the internet time and recreation. However, they allot 2 hours for physical development such as fitness and health including that for improvement of the mind.
Their most common source of information is TV where they spend an average o f 4.67 hours per day and on social media with 4.38 hours. They also listen to radio though at much lesser time with 1.6 hours and newspaper with 1.14 hours average per day.
Their membership span from sports to environmental groups: 49% of youth are members of sports and recreation; 29% are members of church and religious; 20% into civic organizations; 1.2% as members of socio-political and 1.1% in environmental (1.1%).
Then they are asked if they go to church, 87 in 100 are churchgoers, 3 don’t go to church while the other 10 did not indicate an answer. Those who do not go to church are mostly males.
Of the 87 churchgoers, 60 of them visit the church once a week, 18 of them visit once a month, and only 8 come to church every day, 1 either goes to church once every 3 months or once a year.
Most important. The youth were asked of what they value; they are asked to rate using a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 as highest. The Dabawenyo youth’s most important thing is family (9.3), country (8.5), physical health (8.5), mental skills or abilities (8.2) as extremely important. These are those that they hold very dearly, the most values treasures. These are those that they will not give up whatever circumstances are.
Their belief in a God (7.8), money (7.6), friends (7.4), neighbors (7.1) and ownership of gadgets are those they view as important to them. These are those that they could turn to when they have nothing else to do. These are also important but are of lower intensity when it comes to keeping them as valued treasures.
While education (5.9), venues to express views (5.7), their boyfriends and girlfriends (5.5), and basic necessities (4.8) are those that are somewhat important. These are those that they can forego given circumstances in life.
Concluding remarks
The Dabawenyo youth generally have functioning family. In fact, family is the most important to them. They obtain information from the TV and the social media. Radio and newspaper are less attractive to them. They prefer sports and recreation for an organization, others are into religious groups. 9 in 10 youth go to church but very minimal does it daily.
However, there is the trouble of the youth at the doorstep. Alcoholic drinks are most accessible to them. After getting drunk, there is potential of sexual activities. This is evident in the average sexual partners they had; they had more than 2 sexual partners who are outside of formal relationships.
At greater instances, their friends influence them to smoke and drink alcohol, and at times into sex. This poses health risks, and reduction of values and virtues among the youth. It was noted that this usually happen at age 18.
This brings into question how the elder members of the household spend time with the younger members. A family time well-spent reduces the influence of friends and increases values of the youth. ###
