Experiences of Teenagers Spending the Night Hanging Out at Coffee

Shops: A Phenomenology Study

Ah Yusuf, Praba Diyan Rachmawati and Mulyana

Faculty of Nursing Universitas Airlangga, Kampus C Mulyorejo, Surabaya, Indonesia

Keywords: Teenagers Experience, Hanging Out, Coffee Shop.

Abstract: Adolescence is a phase of childhood development between the ages of 10 to 19 years. This phase is

triggered by biological, psychological, and social changes during that period. Hanging out is a familiar trend

for teenagers, during which they spend time with friends or peers to relieve stress from daily routine

satieties. There are various entertainment spots such as nightclubs, cafes, parks, and coffee shops. Giras, a

so-called coffee shop, became a favorite place for teenagers to hang out. The purpose of this study was to

explore the emotions of teenagers hanging out in this kind of coffee shop. This research was a

phenomenology study that invited seven participants, selected using inclusive criteria. The data were

collected through in-depth interviews and field notes. Five themes emerged in this study, including feelings,

lifestyles, reason for hanging outs, negative impact, and positive impact. Hanging out was found to be a

resource for happy, relaxed, and comfortable feelings. The impact that teens experience when hanging out is

more dominant and dangerous regarding negative impact.

1 BACKGROUND

Hanging out with friends has become a trend among

young people; it is a way to spend their leisure time.

Teenagers who have negative experiences in school

and within their family see this trend as a way to

relieve stress (Mahoney, 2004, Veenstra, 2010).

Giras or street-vendor coffee shops are one of the

favorite places for these teenagers. Eight out of ten

teenagers love to hang out at these places until late

at night (Nidyastari, 2008). Unfavorable behaviors

such as smoking, hanging out with the opposite

gender, wearing inappropriate outfits, and the use of

harsh words become normal. If this continues it will

lead to maladaptive behavior.

An interview in Kelurahan Kota Bangun Kutai

Kartanegara suggested that there are more than 40

Giras’s open 24 hours a day and most of their

visitors are teenagers. The local authority claims that

they have already warned the Giras owners to limit

their opening hours. However, many of the owners

refused to do so. Community leaders in the village

of Bangun Town also appealed to the teenagers not

to hang out at the shops late at night, but the

teenagers ignored the appeal. In 2016, the Kota

Bangun Kutai Kartanegara Police Station closed a

24-hour coffee shop that was raided for drug dealing

and prostitution.

Data from BNN 2012 shows that hanging out at

night can increase juvenile delinquency (BNN,

2012). The presence of the coffee shop has the

potential to become a place of introduction for

teenagers. The existence of a shift in the norms of

adolescent life affects psychosocial development of

Hanging out has become a feature of puberty that is

used by peers and has inherently become a joint

activity (Siennick and Osgood, 2012). Therefore,

researchers want to deepen their understanding of

teenagers’ experiences when hanging out in the

coffee shop at night.

2 METHODS

Qualitative research with a phenomenological

approach was conducted at the coffee shop of Kota

Bangun Village Kutai Kartanegara Regency. A total

of seven teenagers were selected using a purposive

sampling technique.

Data collection was carried out through in-depth

interviews with the aid of a recorder and field notes,

then verbatim validation, and transcripts given to the

Yusuf, A., Rachmawati, P. and Mulyana, .

Experiences of Teenagers Spending the Night Hanging Out at Coffee Shops: A Phenomenology Study.

DOI: 10.5220/0008324403090313

In Proceedings of the 9th International Nursing Conference (INC 2018), pages 309-313

ISBN: 978-989-758-336-0

309

participant. Data analysis was done by transcribing

the interviews, compiling and scanning materials,

then defining themes, keywords, categories, and sub-

themes.

3 RESULTS

Participants lived in Kota Bangun Village, Kutai

Kartanegara regency. Bangun City is a sub-district

located in the hinterland of Kutai Kartanegara

Regency, East Kalimantan. Bangun City is known

for its fish cracker production because some

residents utilize the Mahakam river as fishermen.

Bangun City also has many trees and rice fields, so

the air feels cool. Some roads are made of rock and

others are paved. The village of Bangun City has

many places to hang out and one of them is a coffee

shop. Some visitors of the coffee shops in Kota

Bangun are teenagers.

The seven participants included five men and

two women, with age range between 14 until 16

years, with the classification of early adolescent and

middle adolescent. The participants follow the Islam

and Catholic religions. All participants come from

the Kutai Tribe and are still studying at Junior High

School (SMP). The last education of the participant's

parents varies; there are four parents that only went

to elementary school, two parents who went to

junior high, and one parent who went to high school.

The occupations of the parents are also diverse: two

fishermen, four farmers, and one laborer. The length

of time hanging out varied between participant at

one to two years. Their schedule is also varied, every

night, three times a week and once a week.

The results of this study identified five themes.

teenagers’ feelings, teenagers’ lifestyles, the reason

for hanging out, negative impact, and positive

impact for teenagers, as seen in the following chart.

Theme 1: Teenagers’ Feelings

A feeling is a state in an individual, because of

what he or she has experienced or perceived

(Chaplin, 1972). Feelings experienced by individuals

(teenagers) as pleasure or displeasure may vary at

different levels (Walgito, 2002).

Based on the interviews, the participants

experienced happy, relaxed, and comfortable

feelings. Three participants expressed happiness, and

two participants expressed comfort while hanging

out in a coffee shop at night.

"... hanging out with friends, I’m happy, better than

in the home ..." (R4)

"... how can I explain it? The burden I felt in the

house is like gone ..." (R2)

"... nothing special, talk with friends ..." (R3)

"... nothing special, relaxed, I am an ignorant

person, so I do not really care about others’ lives ..."

(R4)

Theme 2: Teenagers’ Lifestyle

Lifestyle describes how a person lives and how

big their moral values are in society and the

surrounding environment (Chaney, 2009). During

the interviews, participants stated that the coffee

shop was not only used as a place to hang out, gather

with friends, and drink coffee, but was used as a

place to make money. They do negative things to get

money, even sell themselves. Teenagers do that with

the excuse of making money so they can follow their

lifestyles. Here are the transcripts of the participants:

"... I am looking for a lot of money too here ..." (R4)

"... you know, there are lot of adults here, you also

know how society and economy demands, that also

made me do that thing ..." (R4)

"... economic demands, my parents do not work, I

make my own money. I also want to follow my

friends’ lifestyle ... "(R5)

"... my friends are wicked, I have three girlfriends

that are really naughty; they usually sell themselves

with a man that has a lot of money..." (R5)

Demands to follow such lifestyles make

teenagers do anything to get what they want.

Financial reasons are stated, such as the participant's

parent who is not working, while the participant

wants to follow the trend like his peers. It was clear

while conducting this research that teenagers realize

that it is a bad thing, but they do not care about the

impact or any negative perceptions of the

surrounding community. Teenagers are only

concerned with things that meet their needs and

lifestyles.

Theme 3: Reasons for Hanging Out

The results of the research indicate that teenagers

spend the night hanging out at the coffee shop to try

something new or when they are invited by friends.

One of the most important aspects of adolescent

growth is the development of their social life.

Problems occur in adolescents’ social development

because teenagers cannot yet carry out the task

INC 2018 - The 9th International Nursing Conference: Nurses at The Forefront Transforming Care, Science and Research

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relating to their social development. Teenagers must

fulfill their duties such as assignments at school, but

on the other hand, the task is so difficult that they

need to interact with their peers, classmates, and

family in a social environment (Santrock, 2007).

Peers are a very influential factor in adolescence,

as teens spend most of their time with them. During

adolescence, relationships with peers increase

dramatically and while the relationship with their

parents also decreases dramatically, even though a

family is one of the important social contexts for

individual development, adolescent development is

also strongly influenced by what happens in other

social contexts. Factors that influence the

development include imitation, suggestion, and

sympathy. The imitation factor is the impulse to

imitate others, for example, in terms of behavior or

how to dress. Suggestion is a factor that influences

psychological whether they can be accepted without

criticism (from themselves or from others. The

sympathy factor is the feeling of being attracted to

others (Santrock, 2007).

Theme 4: Negative Effects

Teenagers stated that hanging out in the coffee shop

made them tired, and they were often sleepy and

lacking focus during lessons. They also often sleep

when the lessons begin. Teenagers say that they

were often reprimanded by the teacher for sleeping

in the classroom; they received punishment, but it

did not deter them. For teens, hanging out becomes a

compulsory and routine activity, regardless of the

impact.

In this study the negative impacts that teenagers

experience when hanging out in a coffee shop are

the impact on schooling, trying drugs, and drinking,

as described in the following transcripts:

"... I still come to school: I get up, shower quickly

then go to school, but I am so sleepy at school ..."

(R1)

"... sometimes I feel sleepy, so when the lesson

begins I am searching for a chance to take a nap..."

(R2)

"... sleepy, if the teacher is not strict I can sleep

during the class ..." (R3)

"... so sleepy, not really pay attention to the teacher,

I just want to sleep..." (R4)

"... for example, drug transactions. I am still a kid,

so they do not offer the drugs to me ..." (R1)

"... sometimes there are friends who invite me to

drink alcoholic beverages ..." (R2)

"... the boys mostly drunk or took drugs ..." (R4)

"... mostly to have some entertainment, get a woman

also place for hanging out and take alcoholic

beverages..." (R4)

Theme 5: Positive Effects

The research found that the positive impact that

teenagers experienced when hanging out at night

was their social relationships. Social relationships

are mutual relationships between individuals that

influence each other based on their awareness.

Individual social relationships develop because of

the urge of curiosity regarding everything around it.

Social relationships are defined as the way

individuals react to people around them and how the

relationship affects them (Pendidikan, 2014).

Factors that affect social relationships are

communicating with others to achieve their desire,

building a family, and the desire to survive in life,

especially when facing a problem. Positive effects

that teenagers experience are social relationships

such as getting together, chatting, making new

friends, and sharing experiences.

In this research, teenagers said hanging out is a

way for them to socialize, make new friends and

new experiences, but, on the other hand hanging out

can have negative effects such as staying up late and

wasting time. Teenagers are more concerned about

their social relationships than the negative effects

they will experience.

4 DISCUSSION

The joys that teenagers feel include stress relief, the

feeling of freedom, making new friends, and sharing

experiences. Teenagers think hanging out at the

coffee shop until late at night is one way to be free

from home and school assignments. Teenagers also

feel bored and surfeited with monotonous routines

such as going to school, doing homework, and an

early bedtime. Teenagers want to find other

activities that are more fun. Teenagers express

happiness outside the home because they feel

uncomfortable and stressed while at home because

their parents are not cooperative with their children.

They are less concerned and do not want to know

about their children's activities. This relates to poor

communication, which happens because parents

have less time for their children so the children,

moreover teenagers, spend more time outside the

house with their peers (Sharif, 2011).

Factors affecting lifestyles are comprised of

internal and external factors (Nugraheni, 2003).

Experiences of Teenagers Spending the Night Hanging Out at Coffee Shops: A Phenomenology Study

311

Internal factors include attitude, experience,

observation, personality, self-conception,

motivation, and perception. External factors include

reference groups, family, social class, and culture.

Teenagers need good guidance from their families

and from the environment. Teenagers that are

experiencing puberty will continue to seek their

identities until they discover their true self. Their

true self becomes linked to a certain individual

behavior. Teenagers searching for their self-identity

can be guided by families and the environment,

whether in school, or outside school. Family

guidance is done by notifying the limits of norms

that apply to a religion or society. Guidance in

school can be provided through lessons about

morals, norms, and puberty. Outside school,

environments can also affect a teenager’s behavior

because of their good environment (Potter, 2005).

The role of teenagers’ peers is mainly related to

attitude, speech, interests, appearance, and behavior.

Failure to develop relationships with peers and lack

of parental support will lead to identity doubts, an

inability to identify future careers, and a lack of

confidence (Yusuf Ah, 2015). There are system and

group norms that become an agreement in

friendship. The negative influence of social

interaction in friendship often leads to aberrant

behavior that is juvenile delinquency. Great curiosity

and wanting to gain recognition from peers can

influence a teenager's judgment and decisions about

his or her behavior. Although adolescents have

reached a complete stage of cognitive development

to determine their own actions, adolescent self-

determination can still be affected by peer pressure

(Santrock, 2007).

Peers play an important role, especially towards

attitude, speech, interests, appearance, and behavior.

If one of the group members tries negative

behaviors, such as cigarette smoking, alcohol

drinking, and drugs, then the others will copy. This

shows that peer influence in the development of

social relationships is very strong. Teenagers that

tend to mingle with peers who often drink and use

drugs will be very susceptible to follow their

lifestyle. Although it is not definite that teens will

follow their friends’ lifestyle, it is inevitable that

adolescence is still in an unstable state, both in

thought and within the principle of life.

When the research was conducted, an adolescent

stated that coffee shops were often used as a place

for drug transactions. Coffee shop owners knew this,

but the owner let the drug dealer sell the drugs to

visitors because it is a regular place for drug

transactions. This coffee shop was also used as a

place for teenagers to drink alcohol until they were

drunk. Teenagers say that they were often

reprimanded by the surrounding community because

of their bad behavior, but they did not care about

being admonished by the community.

The research found that maladaptive behavior

leads to risky behavior. Adolescence promotes a

rapid change in biological, psychological, and social

development. This requires a change in adolescent

behavior to adjust to their current condition. The

process of adjustment can take place without any

problems if the teenager can recognize themselves

and have sufficient social support. Both are

important to play a role in adolescent adjustment,

but some teenagers may experience problems. The

problems usually begin with risky behavior that can

lead to psychosocial problems, either personal or

social. In Indonesia some teenagers are known to be

involved in risky behaviors regarding mental health,

such as speeding up and causing accidents, violence,

brawling, bullying, violence in a relationship,

unplanned pregnancy, risky sexual behavior, being

exposed to sexually transmitted diseases such as

hepatitis and HIV-AIDS, smoking and alcohol abuse

at an early age, and the use of marijuana and other

addictive substances. Teenagers’ risky behavior

makes them often labelled as troubled teenagers and

they are treated negatively by their social

environment. The risky behavior is a form of

behavior that can harm the health and well-being of

teenagers and harm others.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Results of the research indicated that teenagers felt

happy, relaxed, comfortable, relieved their stress,

and enjoyed feeling free. It becomes a bad thing

because, during adolescence, there should be a sense

of happiness to gather with family members.

Meanwhile, the negative impact felt by teenagers is

relates to being tired, drowsiness, lack of focus,

drugs and drinking, and making money by selling

themselves. The positive impacts on teenagers were

improving social relationships, such as getting

together, meeting new friends and sharing

experiences with peers.

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