Most Valued Opinions

Parents are the Biggest Influence on Children

In an age when children are often thought to be disrespectful of their parents, our survey showed that this is definitely NOT the case.

We had 1,446 responses to this week’s poll about the most valued opinions of children and no less than 803 of those (55%) said they had more respect for their parents than for anyone else. All of which is very good news for parents but not such good news for the police who only managed to secure 4% of the votes! Four times the amount of children give more weight to the opinions of their friends than to the opinions of the police.

Religious leaders fared little better (6% of the vote) whilst brothers/sisters secured 8% of the vote.

MORE SURVEYS CAN BE FOUND HERE

Respect for your Parents

Adam Sandler said, “Now that I’m a parent, I understand why my father was in a bad mood a lot”. Maybe it’s worth taking time out now and again to think about the sacrifices that parents make for children... the money to buy a new pair of trainers has to be earned by parents who sometimes don’t enjoy their job. Spending time doing what the children want is often at odds to what the parents would ideally like to do with their leisure time.

On Google you will find any amount of articles about being respectful to your parents but alas, most of them are written by parents so you have to take them with a pinch of salt! Having said that, there is a really nice write-up at We Have Kids that provides some thoughtful suggestions on how kids can show love and respect.

Mutual Respect (Mums and Dads Take Note!)

This surveys section of our website is officially reserved for children but we know that parents and teachers sometimes stray here! With that in mind, let’s remember that it’s difficult to command respect from children unless we reciprocate. The Positive Parenting website offers 5 excellent suggestions for Showing Respect for Your Child.

Do Children Grow More Disrespectful as they Grow Older?

As children grow up and develop ideas and strategies of their own, it might be expected that they will take less notice of parents. Our survey suggests that this does happen but to a very limited extent.

60 percent of our 8 to 11 year old group said that parents were the greatest influencers and this had dropped just a little to 55% of the 15 to 17 year old group.

COMPLETE LISTING OF CHILDREN'S SURVEYS

Do Friend’s Opinions Count?

We were a little surprised to find that three times more children rate their parents views as superior to those of their friends.

It seems that between the ages of 12 to 14, children are most likely to be influenced by friends - but by the time they reach the 15 to 17 age bracket then friend’s opinions are being given less weight.

CLICK TO SEE THE MOST POPULAR SCHOOL SUBJECTS

Respect for Teachers?

It is really sad to see that students have greater respect for the opinions of their friends than they have for the opinions of their teachers. This is consistently the case for all the age groups in our survey. Why this should be so is beyond the scope of this survey but we hope to explore the situation in greater depth in future surveys.

There is an enlightened look at where do teachers get the most respect on the BBC Business website. The research for this shows that China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Russia and Indonesia lead the way in terms of respect for the teaching profession whereas the UK are somewhere around the middle of the 35 countries that were scrutinized.

Opinions That are Most Valued by Children

Parents Opinions Most Valued (By Age)

Friends Opinions Most Valued (By Age)

Teachers Opinions Most Valued (By Age)