Children Survey

The family, residential and school situation of children between the
ages of 8 to 10 years.

Children and their parents were interviewed.

Topics: 1. The children questionnaire: number, age and sex of siblings
in household; comparison of personal situation with that of siblings;
employment of parents; place of stay after school; pet possession or
desire for pet possession; feelings of loneliness; reference person;
characterization of residential surroundings; noise pollution;
satisfaction with housing situation and change recommendations for the
residence; personal room; comparison of personal residence with that of
friends; preferred type of residential building; residential area
suitable for children and improvement recommendations; characterization
of negative and positive sides of adults; feeling when together with
adults; evaluation of the situation of children in contrast to adults;
greatest problems; means of transport used and person accompanying on
the way to school; length of distance to school; interest in attending
school; ease of learning; satisfaction with school and improvement
recommendations; attending kindergarten before time in school; length
and reasons for longer absence from family; fear situations; types of
positive and negative sanctions by parents; good and bad sides of one´s
own family; general judgement on the style of upbringing of parents;
areas of personal decision-making responsibilities; general well-being
in one´s family; permission to bring friends home; adequate time to
play; favorite places to play; place to play during rain; type and
frequency of games with parents; boredom; pleasure at play and favorite
games; prohibited places of play; number of friends and desire for
further friends; feeling when together with friends; general comparison
of personal situation with that of friends; general contentment with
life; greatest fears and greatest desire; general feeling in answering
the questionnaire.

2. The parents questionnaire:

a. residential area: street noise
pollution of residence; adequate play possibilities for the child in
residence and outside; assessment of residential area as
child-friendly; school satisfaction and learning ability of the child.

b. school: satisfaction with school achievements; school fear of the
child; attribution of reasons for school achievements; average duration
of doing homework; desired school degree; duration and reasons for
separation of child from family.

c. leisure time: contact with other children; judgement on leisure
time budget of the child; contacts with other children; frequency and
type of play with the child; areas of common and sole decision-making
responsibility of the child.

d. help of child in household: type of helping hand by child in
household; basic attitude to help of children; person looking after
child for longer absence of mother. e. upbringing: type and frequency
of positive and negative sanctions; sanction authority; psychological
characterization of child and his actual as well as desirable behavior
(two-time judgement by means of the same scale); general assessment of
strictness of style of upbringing and characterization of style of
upbringing of spouse; greatest upbringing problem; reasons to have
children; general questions of upbringing; satisfaction in selected
areas of life; characterization of family life and general attitude to
children (scales); reasons for a renewed decision for the desire for
children; the person filling out the questionnaire.

Demography: age; sex; marital status; number of children; school
education; income; degree of urbanization.