Kerrisdale youth

• Main Author: Hare, Allan Cecil
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2012
• Subjects: Youth > British Columbia > Vancouver > Kerrisdale District
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/41423

This thesis embodies a report on a survey conducted in the Kerrisdale community of the City of Vancouver. The primary purpose of the survey was to determine the extent to which the young people living in "Kerrisdale" identified themselves with the institutions of this community. The present report covers a sample of two hundred adolescent boys (ages 14-18) selected on the basis of membership in church groups, boys' clubs and other community agencies and considered, in view of the way in which they were selected, to be representative of Kerrisdale youth. The sample has been proven to be representative of the community it purports to represent. It, at the same time, is similar to the samples obtained by other studies done elsewhere. The similarity of the Kerrisdale sample with the Maryland sample obtained by H. M. Bell is particularly significant. In the first part of the study, a survey of the literature on adolescents has been made to determine the techniques and procedures which had been used successfully by other workers in this area of research. Material for this study has been obtained from the use of three research techniques. These were: Written questionnaire, Personal interviews, and Observational techniques. The findings of this study and of earlier American studies appear in many essential respects to agree. However, the findings of this study and those of the Canadian Youth Commission tend to disagree. The general conclusion reached is that the Kerrisdale adolescents are emotionally well "integrated" with their homes. They are physically well "integrated" with the main institutions of the community, in the sense that they use them continuously, though there may be emotional maladjustment to these in some cases. Due to lack of measurable indices, it is not possible to generalize accurately about the spiritual "integration" of Kerrisdale adolescents with schools, churches, and the community generally. On the basis of information presented, certain general recommendations have been made which might lead to better spiritual "integration" existing between the adolescents and the various components of their environment. These include improving the teacher-student relationships; adding to the adolescent's desire to go to church; and in getting the members of the family to spend more time together to try to make it a better adjusted and more emotionally integrated unit. Will it be done? Can it be done? This is the challenge which faces not only the Kerrisdale community but other communities as well in the second half of the twentieth century. === Arts, Faculty of === Sociology, Department of === Graduate