Around 600 young people from Lower Austria (including around 100 young adults as a control group) took part in the Lower Austrian youth survey. The results paint a consistently positive picture.
90 percent of all young people surveyed have a very or rather positive view of their personal future. Among 20 to 23 year olds it is even more than 95 percent. Over 90 percent of those surveyed also rated the labor market of the future as very to rather positive. The togetherness of the generations was also found to be good. 70 percent of those under the age of 15 also stated that they wanted to get involved in their own community.
After hearing many “alarming” things regarding young people in recent months and years, State Councilor Christiane Teschl-Hofmeister was “calmed” when the study was presented on Monday. “We can’t rest, but I’m in a positive mood,” said the politician.
Internet as the most popular leisure activity
You shouldn’t rest on your laurels when it comes to media usage skills, for example. In the study, the Internet took first place in leisure activities – specifically, it came first for 100 percent of those under 15 and 97 percent of those between 20 and 23 years of age the school should be promoted, according to the state councillor.
“None of the respondents can imagine doing without the Internet or social media. Young people also get information regarding politics and health primarily via social media, followed by TV, radio and newspapers in politics, when it comes to health, TV only accounts for just over 40 percent, and school plays no role here at all,” said Manfred Zentner, from the Danube University Krems, who carried out the study on behalf of Jugend:Info.
gender differences
Significant gender-specific differences were found in some of the responses. Compared to young men, young women rated their private future more positively than their professional ones. When it came to leisure time behavior, there were hardly any differences in the answers. As before, the lack of social contacts was also stated as the greatest burden of the corona pandemic. It was striking that young women suffer less from the lack of offers than young men.
In addition, the generally most important topics apart from the corona crisis, which covered everything, were asked: Here, for example, environmental protection, the climate crisis and violence once morest women were mentioned.
