Children: Spare Time and Cultural Activities, 1978

The survey was initiated and financed by Arbejdsgruppen om Børn og Kultur (The Working Group on Children and Culture), which was appointed by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and the former Committee on Children's Films under the Danish Film Institute. The first steps towards this collaboration were made in June 1977, and the data collection took place between November 1977 and June 1978. # The purpose of the survey was to examine spare time activities of children in various parts of the country, how children utilize the existing possibilities, which activities they are most interested in, and what is decisive of the efforts of the municipalities as regards children and their spare time activities. # In addition to giving a description of the actual conditions the purpose of the survey was to point out which factors are decisive for the spare time opportunities of children and which children are able to use the existing possibilities. # The survey consists of two parts: # #1. A national representative questionnaire survey of the spare # time activities of the 9 to 12-year-olds (the material # which is filed at the DDA and which is described in this # study description). #2. An analysis of the available spare time activities in five # selected municipalities (including direct observation, the # collecting of statistical material, qualitative interviews # with children and adults, and an analysis of compositions # written by some of the children who take part in the survey). # #The questionnaire survey comprises children between 9 and 12, i.e. children in the 3rd to the 6th forms, and it deals with this group of children's use of the available spare time activities, with special emphasis on cultural activities such as sports, films, theatre-going, museum visits, music, radio habits, TV habits, and reading habits. Furthermore, a number of spare time activities which form part of an extended concept of culture are included in the survey. # Even though primary school is a very important intermediary as regards culture it was necessary, in order to limit the survey, to 'exclude' primary school influence as far as possible. Likewise, the attitudes of and influence from the parents and the family are not included directly in the survey. # Children are often not taken very seriously within sociological research, and their reliability as respondents and the quality of the information they can give are often questioned. There are special problems to take into consideration in connection with sociological surveys of children and young people. From similar surveys the primary investigators have experienced that problems occur; however, these problems are not so great that they cannot be solved by, among other things, a very thorough preparatory work with the methods which the investigators want to use. # There are obstacles to overcome, e.g. the generation gap. To which an extent do researchers and children understand each other as regards emotions, attitudes and language? How large a degree of confidence is it possible to achieve? Is it possible to arouse the children's interest in the project? Can the researchers make the children understand what the project is about? How close is it possible to get to each child? There are ethical considerations to take - not least in the interview situation. # In 1979 the age group between 9 and 12 consisted of approx. 330,000 children. It was decided to include approx. 1000 of these children. The reason for choosing this age group is that it is representative of a larger group of children beacuse there is a wider spread as regards development of this group than the 4 years it covers in age. At the same time this group is in general more active. The 9 to 12-year-olds are not yet influenced by the puberty, and they have the skills necessary for expressing themselves orally as well as in writing as regards their behaviour, interests, and attitudes. # 15 municipalities were selected in collaboration with the Danish National Institute of Social Research. These municipalities were selected according to geographical distribution, one in each county as well as one municipality in the capital, and degree of urbanization, i.e. number of inhabitants in urban areas. # In each municipality a school district and a school were then selected. In connection with the selection of a school it was taken into account that the composition of the sample of children had to be as representative of the age group as possible. The final sample is equally distributed on the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th forms. # The selected children have completed a questionnaire with questions about sex, age, social group, and place of residence, as well as general questions about their spare time activities and interests. There are only a few attitudinal questions, the reason for this being that such questions are difficult to answer in a questionnaire. # The questionnaire is constructed in such a way that as many questions as possible may be completed by marking it with a cross. There are only a few open questions, viz. in cases where it was not possible in advance to make closed questions or in cases where closed questions would not yield sufficient information. # The questionnaire contains a number of questions where the children had to state how often they do one particular thing. It is often difficult for children, and also for adults, to answer this type of questions as it is difficult to remember how often this or that takes place. In connection with the construction of the reply categories the primary investigators have tried to reduce this source of error as far as possible. # The completion of the questionnaires took place at the schools in the classes and under the supervision of one of the primary investigators in November 1977. Two consecutive periods were used in each class, and in most cases the form master was present and could be of assistance. All the pupils in the selected classes participated. # The completion of the questionnaires did not give rise to any problems. Most of the children thought that it was great fun to take part, and noone refused to participate; however, a few pupils were not allowed by their parents to take part. Apart from the open questions, which were difficult to answer - especially for the youngest children, the children's ability to complete the questionnaire was generally good, and so was the willingness to answer the questions. Even though the questionnaire contains a large number of questions none of the children gave up. # The anonymity of the children has been ensured in that they did not write their name on the questionnaire, and they cannot be identified in other ways