Real Life Interviews

Questions:

1.       What is your name and age?

2.       Do you feel you are well informed on the challenges and choices that teens are making these days?

3.       What are some challenges that teens are facing these days?

4.       As a teen what ware some challenges that you faced?

5.       Name some decisions that you feel teens should be making.

Participant 1:

1.       Cathy Clayton, 53 years old.

2.       Yes.

3.       Drug and alcohol abuse, skipping school, friends and family problems, teens could be struggling with anything really.

4.       Pressure to do drugs and go out and party and lie to my parents, times have changed but the same old peer pressure situations are still around.

5.       Teens should say no to people who try to force them to do things they don’t want to do and stay away from situations that will have negative consequences.

Participant 2:

1.       Cali Clayton, 20 years old.

2.       Yes, it hasn’t been that long since I was a teen.

3.       Partying, texting and driving, lying, smoking. Everyone wants to be popular and a lot of teens think they have to do dangerous things to be one of the cool kids when in reality their real friends should accept them whether they do those things or not.

4.       A lot of smoking. I went to an arts school with a lot of burnout kids who thought they needed drug abuse for “inspiration” or other dumb excuses. I always rose above but I lost a couple of friends who couldn’t say no.

5.       Teens need to decide to be their own person. They need to make good choices that they know will benefit them and make their parents proud. If they have to look over their shoulder while they’re doing it, it’s not a decision they should be making.

Participant 3:

1.       Cash Clayton, 18 years old.

2.       Yes, considering I am one.

3.       Drugs, sex, and alcohol abuse.

4.       Like I said, sex, drug and alcohol abuse, it’s all still an issue. Teens knowhow to say no to these things but they don’t because they’re scared of the consequences it’ll bring. They should be scared of the consequences of making these dangerous decisions.

5.       I think that teens need to calm down and make decisions like volunteering or choosing to not go to a party they know will be drugs and alcohol at. It might be hard but it will benefit them in the long run. I think teens know the decisions that they need to make, they just choose to make the wrong ones.

In conclusion, it seems that teens in the community are facing problems with school, friends, significant others, drug and alcohol abuse, and other dangerous issues. It seems the main issue with teens is the lack of ability to say no and state their place. Teens need to step up and learn that resisting bad choices now will benefit them much more in the long run.