Research Memo #1

Hypothesis:

Most teenagers are rebelling against their parents. One reason why this is occurring is because of the curfew their parents are giving them. They think they are independent and don’t have to listen to their parents. There are also multiple other reasons this is occurring, but the curfew issue is becoming the biggest issue on teenage rebellion. One of my questions was, “which age group is the most rebellious toward their curfew?” I think the most rebellious age group would be from 14-17. These are the years a kid hits their teens and start hanging around peers they should not hang with. My hypothesis is Teenagers are rebellious against their parents’ curfew because they believe to be more independent, and they think they can take care of themselves.

Context:

My target audience would be teenagers that range from14 to 17 years of age. I chose this group of respondents because I want them to see their issues on rebelling because of a curfew as a problem that needs to get resolved. My results that I have captured are reliable and yet valid. The results I have used have come from the answers amongst my peers and some reliable websites. These results are not skewed to make you look at different sides of the issue; they came from a certain age group that I targeted towards.

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Results:

Age group: 14-17	Agree (number out of 25)	Disagree (number out of 25)
Curfews cause teenagers to be more rebellious.	72%	28%
Kids should have curfews until they move out.	68%	32%
Parents should compromise a curfew with their teen.	80%	20%
Parents can and should be fined for teenagers being out too late.	28%	72%
Government should be in charge of making a curfew for all teenagers to follow.	10%	90%
Teenagers rebel because they think they are independent.	68%	32%
Teenagers are rebellious because they think they can take care of themselves.	52%	48%

Data Analysis:

Teenagers are rebellious because of their independence role.

·      Teenagers think that as they get older that they can just swarm away from their parents whenever they want, and make themselves seem as an independent person. A major sign of this will be ignoring their parents. This is one of those things that if one their friends do it then they will. According to Empowering Parents.com, teenagers need to know where the line is drawn. Parents do not need to lower their value of power against their teenager when they disagree with something.

·      Teenagers also think that they can take care of themselves since their getting into, or about to get into high school. They see their friends driving themselves, getting jobs, going out without permission, and they follow their steps. According to Empowering Parents.com, do not ever let them get away with inappropriate behavior anytime. Parents are saying inappropriate behavior is “a phase”, and they are correct. This is the way teenagers will behave when they are trying to find their own identity and know who they are.

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​·      Teenagers also think that hanging out at late time of the night is more important than following their curfew. This also ties back to the independence role in teenagers. They want to be more independent and make their own decisions instead of being tied down with a curfew their parents gave them. In a teens world, a curfew isn’t ​going to overcome the value of their time they spend being out with their friends.

Follow-up:

My hypothesis is correct based on my results and databases I have found. When I was looking over my survey results, I found that teenagers do actually follow their curfew, but they didn’t receive a curfew they agreed on. I found that data very surprising, because most teenagers you hear about have a curfew they don’t agree on and they do not follow it.

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Conclusion:

I want to include more data in research memo #2 about why the curfew is a main factor to teenage rebellion against their parents. I want to tell how to solve this problem, and maybe I can come up with some solutions too. No, I have not really changed my research questions, but I am thinking about rearranging it so I can come from a different view in the next research memo.