Calls to teen line: representative concerns of adolescents

The concerns of teenagers calling a peer listening phone service have previously been documented (Boehm & Campbell, 1995; Boehm, Chessare, Valko, & Sager, 1991; Boehm, Schondel, Marlowe, & Rose, 1995). The purpose of the present study was to determine if those calls were representative of the concerns of teenagers in the area served. Calls to Teen Line from September 1933 to May 1994 were compared with responses to selected questions from the 1994 Chemical Abuse Reduced through Education and Services (C.A.R.E.S.) student survey, which was administered to a random sample of fifth- through twelfth-grade students. The most frequent calls to Teen Line pertained to peer relationships, sexuality, family problems, the need to have someone "just to talk to," self-esteem, and drugs and alcohol. Results of the survey indicated that students' biggest concerns, and the concerns for which they would call a hotline, involved family problems, peer relationships, self-esteem, and school problems. While there were some differences, it appears that the calls to Teen Line were representative. Teenagers were more concerned about relationship and esteem issues than about high-risk behaviors.