9 / 12
9
were neutral (48%). In general, the findings showed that they do not think this is a solu-
tion. Statement 6, said, "The age of marriage is one of the biggest factors of the gap size
between parents and children." The data shows that 39% of respondents did not have
an opinion. Meanwhile, more than half of the respondents agreed (58%), and almost
none of the respondents disagreed (3%).
Statement 7 and 8 were connected to questions 6 and 7 to ask about the reason
for their answers. Statement 7 was "Children often don't listen to their parents' advice."
More than half of the answers (64%) agreed. In contrast, 17% disagreed and 19% were
neutral. The most chosen reason (16 responses) for this statement was that children
think it is obligatory advice. Moreover, seven responses answered that children may love
their friends more. Surprisingly, I never expected that a big number of people think that children may love their friends more than
they love their parents. Statement 8 was "Parents adaption to changes is slower than their children." The majority responded
agree (74%), while 7% disagreed, and some of the respondents (19%) were neutral. Their reason was that parents think that
adapting to changes is wrong.
In question eight, it was interesting for me to know who would be most likely to succeed at closing the gap if they really
work hard. This question was a little bit different, so it depended on their answer. I put two choices (parents - their children), so if
they chose parents, this answer would lead them to another section to answer why. I found that 74.2% of the respondents
picked parents. When I asked about the reason with a checkbox question, 16 answered, "Because it's their job as parents to
help their children," another 12 answered, "Because they are more responsible and aware" and another 12 said, "Because they
can discuss and listen to their children." For the people who chose children, most of them (5) chose that children’s nature they
can adapt faster.
Conclusion
To conclude, I think it was interesting to know how people think about generation gap, and in question four I can know
this very well. I found the majority think it is between middle and big size. There were some impressive statistics, like question 8.
I never thought about who would be most likely to close this gap up, but it shows that large number of people believe that par-
ents can close it up. One of my compelling findings is to discover further suggestions for solutions from the respondents them-
selves. For instance, strong connection and social media use for parents may close this gap up. Finally, after analyzing the re-
sults, I can answer my research question with some findings, which are lack of connection, discussions and listening between
parents and children. Furthermore, children do not listen to parents' advice; they think it is obligatory. In addition, parents are
afraid of changing their attitudes or adapting to changes because they think that could be wrong. All of those were reasons why
there is a generation gap between parents and children in the Middle East based on my survey findings.
Furthermore, chil-
dren do not listen to
parents' advice; they
think it is obligatory.