The Kids Are Alright

Let's face it, as grownups, it's our job to worry. And for those of us attempting to raise children at the close of this century, there's no shortage of anxieties to gnaw at the nerves and churn the gut. How, we wonder, can our children flourish and stay on course with only a few hours a day of parental devotion? How can kids focus on schoolwork when tempted by a luscious smorgasbord of multimedia junk? Hmm, would Ritalin help? Is Austin Powers too racy for a nine-year-old? How about tube tops and platform shoes? Looming larger is a more ominous concern: Will my child's life end in a burst of gunfire and a pool of blood on the cafeteria's cold linoleum floor?

Surely American kids have never faced a more corrupting, corrosive and threatening environment. Or have they? Given the recent headlines and hand wringing, it is something of a shock to discover that according to a major new kids' survey, children don't see the world that way at all. For them, the mid-century mantra of youth still applies: What, me worry?

From mid-May through June 1, just a few weeks after the Littleton, Colo., shootings, New York-based pollsters Penn, Schoen & Berland Assoc. sat down with 1,172 kids, ages 6 to 14, in 25 U.S. cities. The poll was conducted for Nickelodeon, the children's TV channel, and TIME. Kids from a sample weighted to match U.S. demographics were interviewed one-on-one and without their parents in a venue where most feel at ease: a shopping mall. Pollsters also interviewed 397 parents.

What emerges loud and clear from the study is that kids are very happy to be kids, and they don't view the world as the nasty place their parents perceive it to be. Nine out of 10 say they feel safe in their schools and neighborhoods. While parents list crime, violence and guns as the worst aspects of being a child today, such concerns are way down the list for kids. Their gripes are the timeless laments of childhood: "getting bossed around," homework, chores.

Are kids in a hurry to grow up, as parents presume? No way, say 8 out of 10 of the 6- to 11-year-olds who answered this question. "Because then I'll have to manage my own money and make my own dinner," explained one boy to a pollster. Despite a precocious fondness for R-rated movies (which half the 9- to 11-year-olds and 81% of 12- to 14-year-olds say they've seen), kids are not even eager to become teenagers. Younger kids have more fun, insist 64% of 6- to 11-year-olds. Even in this era of extracurricular overload, most kids (72%) said they have enough time to "just hang around" and do what they please.

As for the much lamented decline of family values, the anarchic influence of such shows as South Park, the collapse of parental authority and discipline--well, has anyone mentioned this to kids? Asked whom they admire most, 79% say it's good old Mom and Dad; an additional 19% name their grandparents. Athletes, musicians and movie stars don't even come close.