What ideals do teenagers hold? How would teens describe the
ideal man or ideal woman? How are the ideals of Guatemalan adolescents like
or unlike those of their counterparts in other regions of the globe? These are
the questions addressed in a recently published book titled The Thoughts
of Youth: Adolescents’ ideal man and ideal woman in international perspective
by Judith L. Gibbons & Deborah A. Stiles, (Information Age Publishers).
Teenagers around the world are said to be rebellious, materialistic,
self-centered and negative. But, in fact, in this recent study of over 8,000
adolescents from 20 countries, young adolescents (ages 11 through 16) were optimistic
and idealistic in their descriptions of the ideal person. Kindness and honesty
were the most important qualities and wealth and popularity were of little importance.
Adolescents from Guatemala not only endorsed kindness and
honesty; they also thought that the ideal person should be intelligent, hard
working and committed to the family. In the picture above, a 12-year-old Guatemalan
boy was asked to draw the ideal man. Instead, he drew the entire family. “[The
ideal man] is happy alongside his family.” In Guatemala, many of the activities
of the ideal woman or the ideal man depicted were for the betterment of the
entire family. Women shown cooking were described as “cooking for their
families.” Men and women working in offices were hard working, “so
that their families might have a better life and their children a better future.”
While teenagers from individualistic, developed countries portrayed
the ideal person as fun and sexy, these values were de-emphasized by the Guatemalan
teens. In Guatemala there were almost no drawings of the ideal woman in skimpy
clothing and few drawings of the ideal man participating in sports. Instead
the ideal person was drawn working—both men and women in offices, men
sowing the fields and women cooking. Another Guatemalan teen who drew the ideal
man working at his desk wrote, “He is an intelligent man, honest and hardworking,
and he is working to improve his company.”
Of course, these differences were not universal. Some adolescents
from individualistic countries mentioned the family and some adolescents from
Guatemala strove for individual success. However, these findings show that not
only do teens hold idealistic and positive views of their future lives as adults,
but that their goals and values differ by culture. •
Note: Autographed copies of The Thoughts of
Youth: Adolescents’ ideal man and ideal woman in international perspective
are available in La Antigua, Guatemala at Hamlin & White.
