ad info

 
CNN.comTranscripts
 
Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback  

 

  Search
 
 

 

TOP STORIES

Bush signs order opening 'faith-based' charity office for business

Rescues continue 4 days after devastating India earthquake

DaimlerChrysler employees join rapidly swelling ranks of laid-off U.S. workers

Disney's GO.com is a goner

(MORE)

MARKETS
4:30pm ET, 4/16
144.70
8257.60
3.71
1394.72
10.90
879.91
 


WORLD

U.S.

POLITICS

LAW

TECHNOLOGY

ENTERTAINMENT

 
TRAVEL

ARTS & STYLE



(MORE HEADLINES)
 
CNN Websites
Networks image


Morning News

Linda Sax Discusses UCLA Survey of 300,000 College Freshmen

Aired January 23, 2001 - 10:41 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We turn our attention now to a new study looking at young people's views on everything from drugs to politics. More than 300,000 first-year students from 700 schools responded to the survey.

And for a closer look at what some of those freshmen had to say, we're joined by Linda Sax. She is part of the team that conducted the study, now in it's 34th year, joining us from our L.A. bureau this morning.

Linda, good morning. Thanks for joining us.

LINDA SAX, DIRECTOR, UCLA FRESHMAN SURVEY: Good morning.

First, let's look at drugs and smoking. From looking at your study, it appears a big influence is who these kids are hanging out with.

SAX: Yes, what we're finding these days is that the number of students who are -- who seem to be casual drinkers has declined. We have fewer students saying that they drink frequently or occasionally in their last year of high school. But the thing to remember is that these students are talking about their last year of high school, and we do know that levels of beer drinking do increase once they're in college.

KAGAN: And what else are you are finding that's standing out at you?

SAX: Well, from the perspective of smoking, we actually have seen a pretty steady increase in smoking...

KAGAN: Really.

SAX: ... throughout the '90s. But in the last two years, we have seen a decline in the number of students who are reporting that they frequently smoke cigarettes.

KAGAN: And then when you look at these studies and when you ask these questions, are you asking them why? Like, if you smoke, why do you smoke? Don't you think it's dangerous? Or if you're not smoking, are you asking about the attitudes associated with that?

SAX: We're actually not. The only attitude that we have related to drugs, in a sense, is a question about the legalization of marijuana, which actually, in recent years, has increased so that there's more support for the legalization of marijuana.

KAGAN: And are these just freshmen you're talking to at UC -- this is not just UCLA.

SAX: Right. These are -- this is a national sample of college freshmen.

KAGAN: And then what were you finding on politics?

SAX: With respect to politics, we have for years noted a declining student interest in politics. We have lower students than ever who say that they keep up to date with political affairs or that they discuss politics. But what was interesting this year is that normally in a presidential election year, we find an increased interest in politics. But this year, actually, we continued the downward trend.

KAGAN: Of people not being interested in it, kind of feeling disenfranchised?

SAX: It seems that way. I mean, we don't ask that on the survey to know exactly why they are not discussing politics, but we've talked to students outside of the survey process and they tell us that they feel there's not much they can do to have an influence on the political structure; that there's -- that the political issues are not necessarily relevant to their own lives. So it's -- and then also they feel that politics is quite negative and very cynical, and so they feel fairly disconnected from that.

KAGAN: And just real quickly, you're working on this team, you're looking over all this data. What one thing when you were looking at it -- what one thing, what number caught your attention the most?

SAX: Well, we've been talking about this political disengagement for years, so that's always been a key trend for us. But what we were looking at this year was with respect to computing. We found that there's a tremendous gender gap in computing self-confidence in the sense that men are twice as likely as women are to feel that they are above average or top 10 percent in their computer skills, and that this gender gap seems to play out in terms of the careers that students are willing to seek out.

KAGAN: And where does all this information go?

SAX: Well, the information that we collect goes -- we collect it as part of a -- information on incoming college students, that we can ultimately follow up these students and find out how they changed over time. But our participating colleges will receive the data and use it to understand their own freshmen and how their freshmen compare to freshmen at other colleges and universities around the country.

KAGAN: Interesting stuff. Linda Sax from Los Angeles, thank you so much. SAX: You're welcome.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

 Search   


Back to the top