We're hitting the one-year anniversary of President Obama being sworn into office, and you might be hearing a lot of chatter from the media and other people about what life in the U.S. is like at the moment. We know we're hearing it. "Will the economy get better?" "What will the next year be like?" "Can we be proud of our country at the moment?"We were interested to see the results of an online survey conducted by KidsHealth.org and TIME For Kids magazine. They asked 1,000 kids aged 9-13 how they felt about things in their lives and the United States in general. Here are some of the results; do they match up with the way you feel?
- Only 18% of tweens totally agree that the U.S. economy is strong and only 23% totally agree that people in other countries respect the United States.
- When asked to grade how well President Obama is doing his job so far, tweens scored him this way: A (19%), B (30%), C (24%), D (10%), and F (17%). (You're doing okay, Mr. President, but it looks like you need to try harder in 2010!)
- The economy is the #1 priority for pre-teens, with 45% telling President Obama it is the most important issue he should work on.
- Two out of three tweens agree with the statement, "My future is going to be great."
- 94% of tweens say that in the United States, it's possible for kids to grow up to be anything they want.
- 51% of tweens think the world will be a better place in 10 years.
- 90% of tweens think they will see a woman elected President of the United States in their lifetime.
- When asked "What do you want to be when you grow up," the most popular professions for girls are teacher (17%) and vet (12%) vs. athlete (15%) and video game designer (9%) for boys.
- 39% of tweens think math is the school subject most important to the success of their future careers, followed by reading (20%), science (13%), and technology (10%), among others.
- Only 1 in 4 tweens think money is most important for their future careers, with 53% of kids choosing "How much I will enjoy my job" as first on their list of priorities.
- Almost 52% of tweens spend less then an hour each day playing outside, with 16% reporting they spend no time at all. However, they spend 1 or more hours each day on the following activities: playing video games (45%), watching TV/movies (79%), or using the computer or IM-ing (51%).
- Nearly 18% say their families eat dinner together less then 1-2 times a week, with 8% reporting eating dinner together less then 2-3 times a month.
- 1 in 4 kids tweens their family's money situation is either "not good" or "bad" and 63% of kids say they worry about money "a lot" or "sometimes."
- 75% of tweens chose a family member as the person they look up to most, with 2 out of 3 kids choosing a parent.
For more poll fun, check out all the topic pages of IML; there's a different poll on each one! We love checking in to see how the votes are going on these questions.
