The Sacramento Bee -- sacbee.com -- Berkeley study finds youths more conservative than parents BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - Teenagers are more conservative on issues such as school prayer and abortion than their parents, according to a study released Tuesday.
Political science professors Merrill Shanks and Henry Brady of the University of California, Berkeley, found the generation gap was most pronounced on issues such as school prayer - on which 69 percent of teenagers surveyed said it should be allowed, compared to 59 percent of adults 27 to 59.
When it came to federal funding of faith-based charities, 59 percent of college-aged adults supported it along with 67 percent of younger teenagers. That compares to 40 percent of adults in the older age bracket.
On the issue of abortion, 44 percent of those 15 to 22 supported restrictions while 34 percent of adults over 26 shared that feeling.