The Filipino Youth

Here are some pointers in understanding the Filipino Youth:

1. The Filipino youth is friendly, hospitable and sensitive. These traits are sometimes carried to an extreme. Hospitality for instance, may include feeling insulted if a guest does not partake of the food or meals offerred to him. Friendliness and courtesy may extend to agreeing with the other person without real conviction. Oversensitivity to criticism and loss of face may lead to brooding, and later, violence. Aggressiveness is suppressed very strongly, but may be released explosively when the person becomes "full".

2. The Filipino youth likes group work and offers help freely to friends and neighbors needing help. Work for others is done cheerfully and without expectation of payment except for a free meal or merienda.

3. The Filipino youth has great respect for age and for parents. He hesitates to question authority. In certain matters, he may be right but he has to defer, at least temporarily, to an older person who may be wrong.

4. The Filipino youth are usually given what they ask for. Some become "spoiled".

5. The Filipino youth is closely attached to his family and his friends. He finds difficulty when he loses these emotional props. He needs to be part of a group or gang.

6. The Filipino youth are dependent on parents for a long time particularly in matters requiring decisions. At times he may not even be prepared to make decisions regarding the clothes he will wear to school. He does not know how to handle allowance money. To approach a teacher or professor, he needs to have somebody accompany him.

7. The Filipino youth is expected to live up to the family expectation. The parents may choose his course for him even if he is not sure that it is what he wants. The family's traditions and values may dictate that the student take a course unsuited to him. In the Philippines, there is a high value placed on prestigious careers such as medicine and law.

8. The Filipino youth exposed to urban culture tends to consider his parents and the older generation in general, as old fashioned. He resents their restrictions on matters of dating, taking trips, choice of clothes, allowance, and choice of friends and resent their invasion of his privacy. The females may resent being chaperoned and being restricted on the use of cosmetics.

9. The Filipino youth has a great fear of displeasing a figure of authority or offending a person he considers important.

10. The Filipino youth's culture is a "shame" culture rather than a "guilt" culture. Many of his actions are motivated by the desire to conform and to avoid shame or disgrace. His behavior is controlled by fear or censure. Regulation comes from the outside rather than inside.

To a Western observer, the Filipino teenager is like his average American counterpart. He dances the current dance steps and sings the current pop hits. Nevertheless, if one digs deeper he will find that the Filipino youth is still a product of his own Filipino environment and influences.