AUSTRALIAN MATHS STATISTICS COMPETITION PROJECTGroup Members: Angel, Annabel & Monique

Title: Fears of teenagers

Our aim was to see what teenage fears students have. This information is useful to us as teachers or parents might be able to talk to their children about their fears and how adults can help. It is relevant to us as we are teenagers, it can help us to relate to people and seek understanding in anything we are going through.

SOURCESThe overall average of girls who said yes to the question would you tell someone was:84/108 x 100%= 77.7 %

Overall average of girls who said no was:24/108 x 100% = 22.2%

1 2 3 405

1015202530354045

People who say noPeople who say yes

Ages 12, 13, 14 and 15

How

many s

ay y

es a

nd

no

People aged… 12 (91.6%)-13 (82.98%)-14 (72.7%)-15 (62.5%)who said yes.

People aged…-12 (8.3%)-13 (17.02%)-14 (27.2%)-15 (37.5%)who said no.

THE 1ST, 2ND, 7TH AND 8TH FEARS OF TEENAGERS(12-13)

Type of fears

1st Preference

2nd Preference

7th Preference

8th Preference

Arachnids 0 0 2 1Height 0 1 1 3Closed in spaces 1 0 2 0Insects 0 0 2 1Disease 1 5 0 0Being attacked 7 1 0 1Being away from social networking 0 0 3 4Drowning 1 3 0 0

Type of fears

1st Preference

2nd Preference

7th Preference

8th Preference

Arachnids 5 5 0 0Height 0 1 1 1Closed in spaces 0 0 0 0Insects 1 1 1 1Disease 4 1 0 0Being attacked 0 2 1 1Being away from social networking

0 0 5 3Drowning 0 0 2 4

Type of fears

1st Preference

2nd Preference

7th Preference

8th Preference

Arachnids 9 6 3 3Height 5 4 6 16Closed in spaces 1 3 10 0Insects 4 3 7 6Disease 4 3 3 0Being attacked 16 11 0 5Being away from social networking 2 2 18 15Drowning 6 15 0 2

12 y

ears

old

13 y

ears

old

Type of fears

1st Preference

2nd Preference

7th Preference

8th Preference

Arachnids8 7 2 3

Height 5 7 3 4Closed in spaces 3 7 6 5Insects 6 12 7 4Disease 11 9 7 5Being attacked 9 3 2 1Being away from social networking

1 0 12 17Drowning

4 2 10 8

1st Part2nd Part

THE 1ST, 2ND, 7TH AND 8TH FEARS OF TEENAGERS(14-15)

Type of fears

1st Preference

2nd Preference

7th Preference 8th Preference

Arachnids 9 2 4 6 Height 7 3 4 1Closed in spaces 3 1 5 1Insects 7 8 5 1Disease 6 7 3 1Being attacked 13 5 1 1Being away from social networking 4 1 5 13Drowning 6 3 4 4

Type of fears

1st Preference

2nd Preference

7th Preference8th Preference

Arachnids 22 5 0 2 Height 5 4 8 4Closed in spaces 3 6 1 1Insects 3 9 0 2Disease 13 2 1 1Being attacked 2 2 2 1Being away from social networking 2 3 8 4Drowning 3 0 7 15

14 y

ears

old

15 y

ears

old

Type of fears

1st Preference

2nd Preference

7th Preference 8th Preference

Arachnids 1 2 3 0 Height 1 1 1 0Closed in spaces 0 1 3 2Insects 1 1 5 3Disease 4 5 2 1Being attacked 7 4 2 0Being away from social networking 0 0 1 11Drowning 4 4 1 1

Type of fears

1st Preference

2nd Preference

7th Preference 8th Preference

Arachnids 4 5 0 0 Height 0 2 3 0Closed in spaces 2 1 3 1Insects 2 5 2 1Disease 3 3 1 0Being attacked 7 0 0 1Being away from social networking 0 2 7 1Drowning 0 0 2 14

1st Part2nd Part

INTRODUCTION AND PROCESS To find out the worst fears of teenage girls aged 12 to 15, from

Grades 8 to 10, we composed a survey and dispersed it throughout the classes. The girls then completed it anonymously and returned it to the three of us who had collated, created and prepared the survey. This information was then collected to discover the worst and least scary fears of these girls. This was carried out in Stuartholme, a school for girls.

In the survey the fears included were arachnids, heights, closed in spaces, insects, disease, being attacked or kidnapped, being away from social networking or drowning in the first section which was not related to school. The fears in the second section that were related to school were achieving bad results, bullying, getting in trouble, getting pressured to get good results, too much stress, body imaging, being unpopular and racism.

As we got the results, we went through all of them and collected the main data and change it into percentages. The data was grouped into age groups; they all have different ideas for different questions. For the fears that people had over come 79% of people had overcome their fear of the dark.

INTERPRETING THE RESULTS: Results 1st section 1st fear: When the results were collected it was evident

that the worst fear out of the first section not related to school was being attacked or kidnapped. In the result table in the first section out of the 108 girls 40 had put this as their worst fear. This was 37.04% of the girls.

2nd fear: Out of the fears in that were included the second worst fear was drowning; there were 25 people who chose drowning as the 2nd worst fear which represents 25 girls out of 108, equalling 23.15%.

7th fear: The seventh scariest fear that was being away from social networking. 27 out of 106 girls chose being away from social networking as their seventh preference. This is 25.47% of the amount of girls chose this as their seventh preference.

8th fear: The least scary fear was also being away from social networking. This was evident as 43 girls out of the 106 chose this as their preference. This is 43.57% of the amount of girls.

Overall: The results were quite obvious as there was not much competition or disagreement between the results the worst fear was being attacked or kidnapped, the second being drowned, the seventh being away from social networking and the eighth was also being away from social networking.

PROBLEMS THAT OCCURRED WITH THE ANSWERING OF THE SURVEY

Some of the problems we had while collecting the data was that some people didn’t want to fill out the survey and either wrote rude or sarcastic remarks such as the one above from a girl aged 14. We found that girls aged 14 were the most difficult. 5 girls did not fill it out correctly and so we did not count them

On the left hand side, This student wrote I don’t care about school. She also didn’t fill out the survey properly ad wrote abusive language on the side.On the right hand side of the answer sheet, we see someone who did not take the survey seriously.

PROBLEMS AND IMPROVEMENTS One of the problems with this survey was that the students did not take this

survey seriously and did not complete it correctly. This had a large impact on the results as they were able to be counted for completing it, but the results were not conclusive or correct as they did not complete it. Some examples of not completing the survey correctly are: not filling in the correct numbers by doubling up on the numbers, for example having more than one ‘8’ when they were supposed to have one to eight in the survey. They also did not take the second part of the survey seriously by remarking on things quite immaturely and making statements that were inaccurate or inappropriate. This had a negative effect on the collation of the results and made it difficult for the three of us to collect this data and make it appropriate.

Another problem of this survey was the 2nd and 3rd question. “out of this fears rate one to eight, on the side, from your worst fear to the least fear scary” and “out of these fear to do with school, list from one to eight on the side, the most relevant to you to the least relevant to you”. These 2 questions above were showing us that we need to list one-eight at the side of the fears, but some of the students didn’t really understand what they need to do about of these two questions. For example: they thought they need to tell us their worst fear, one was the worst and eight was the least worst. Possibly next time a clarification or rewording of the questions is required.