One-third of teen-agers say they shoplifted in the past year, and eight in 10 teens claim to have lied to their parents about something significant at least once during the same period, according to a new report from the Los Angeles-based Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics.
The study, which surveyed the moral beliefs and conduct of almost 30,000 high school students, also found that most teen-agers have an inflated view of their own virtue. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said they are “better than most people” when it comes to doing the right thing. That perception does not match the self-reported conduct of most teens, according to the authors of the report.
“It’s alarming,” said Rich Jarc, executive director of the Josephson Institute, in a telephone interview with Carolina Journal. “We see this as indicating a decay in the moral infrastructure of our youth, and it doesn’t appear that most people are that concerned about the decay.”
Jarc admitted the results of the survey might be worse, since one-fourth of respondents said they had lied on one or more of the questions. “It’s an odd stat that shows many of them are instinctively cheating,” he said. “It’s a lack of understanding of what’s right behavior and what’s not right behavior.”
The survey generated some conflicting answers. Fifty-nine percent of teens agreed that people in the real world have to cheat in order to be successful, compared to 41 percent who disagreed. But asked whether people who lie, cheat, and break the rules are more likely to succeed, 21 percent agreed and 79 percent disagreed.
The report found a similar gap between what teens preach and what they practice. Nearly all respondents agreed that it’s important to be a person with good character, and 91 percent said that people should play by the rules even if they suffer for it. But 30 percent admitted to stealing from a store in the past year, 42 percent said they sometimes lie to save money, and 64 percent said they cheated on a test at least once.
Some teen-agers also are willing to sneak a peek at others’ homework and swipe goods from friends and relatives. Eighty-two percent of respondents admitted to copying another student’s homework at least once, and 62 percent said they did it two or more times. In addition to shoplifting, 23 percent of teens said they stole from parents or relatives in the past year, and 20 percent admitted to pilfering from friends.
“It’s a hole in the moral ozone,” Jarc said. “These young people are going to become our future bankers, government officials, and business leaders. I would be personally concerned to know that people in those positions have grown up in an environment where lying and cheating and stealing was OK.”
Jarc pointed to one statistic in particular — 47 percent of boys said they feel the need to lie and cheat in order to succeed — as alarming. “If half our young men feel that way, how much faith are we going to put in these people when they are in responsible positions?” he said.
The moral lapses among youth could be addressed if parents and teachers worked on instilling basic values in kids, Jarc said. “In many cases parents are abdicating this [responsibility] to the teachers,” he said.
David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.