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What's the big deal? Taking a look at "in" issues for teens teens today.

Article Excerpt
In the first Teens Today column, presented in the September/October issue of Camping Magazine, a profile of today's teen campers was developed, including a demographic snapshot and top reasons why male and female teen campers choose to participate in camp. This column explores issues that teens say are most important to them.

Teen Issues

Understanding teenage behaviors and choices can be an important part of providing them with high-quality camp experiences. When teens participate in camp, either as campers or as junior staff, we can see their backpacks, clothes, iPods[R], flip-flops, and the usual assortment of teen "stuff." We can learn quite a bit about our teens from paying attention to these identity symbols--it's how they communicate who they are. But understanding the issues that are on teens' minds can be just as informative as the externally obvious. When teens in the spring 2007 Teen Research Unlimited, Inc. (TRU) teen study (see sidebar) were asked to rate the importance of a range of issues that impact teens, the top five most important issues were "Being Drug Free," "Eating Healthy," "Caring About the Environment," "Being a Virgin," and "Being Religious." (See Table 1)

When comparing teens who go to camp with teens who don't go to camp among these top five issues (See Table 2), a general statement can be made that teens who attend camp are more likely to say that they are interested in being drug free (75 percent versus 71 percent); eating healthy (75 percent versus 70 percent); caring for the environment (63 percent versus 61 percent); and being a virgin (69 percent versus...

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