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Parents' Survey

In Spring 2010 the Guernsey young people's survey was undertaken. The survey gauged the views of 1500 pupils in Years 6,8,10 &12 with 100 questions on various topics and aspects of life. The aim of the survey was to find out information about the views, attitudes and behaviours of young people.

One of the findings from the young people's survey was the key role that is played by parents in influencing the behaviour, views and attitudes of young people in Guernsey. This was exemplified by the responses to the questions 'Who do you most admire?' and 'When faced with a problem who are you most likely to turn to first?'. The key points are:

• "Who do you admire?". Just under 50% of the respondents answers were their parents. This was a much higher percentage than celebrities, sports players and footballers which combined only scored 15%.
• Parents were the first person that the students would turn to on a variety of issues such as; money, health, school and exams, crime, friend problems, drug and alcohol, family problems and STD's.

Having undertaken Young People's surveys for 20+ years it has been decided that a survey of parents should now be undertaken.

The survey is also a response to Priority 14 of the Children's and Young People's Plan 2011-2013 - 'Children will be supported to help them overcome social, educational, physical and economic inequalities.'

The particular action was - 'To develop a multi-agency on-line survey, similar to the young people's survey to gauge parents' views'

The survey was undertaken over the summer 2011 and 500+ responses have been gathered from parents across the community. The survey responses were announced on 4th November.

Some of the key findings were:

• 89% of respondents rated Guernsey very good or good as a place to grow up.
• Safety was, by far, considered the best thing about growing up in Guernsey.  'Opportunities' and 'community' were also greatly valued.
• Lack of activities was mentioned most often as the worst thing about growing up in Guernsey.
• Parents and carers ranked positively the local public services that they receive or that are available
• Parents and carers see childhood of today less positively than their own.  They see there are more pressures and believe children are less carefree.
• 80% of respondents consider that the general public has a poor or at best adequate view of young people.  74% say that the media portray young people adequately at best and often poorly.

Overall we believe that the results are positive and Dr David Regis  from the Schools Health Education Unit made the following comment about the findings:

'We were pleased to work on this ground-breaking survey with colleagues from Guernsey .The findings show both the great benefits of living in Guernsey but also some of the downsides for young people. There are some fascinating differences in perspective - comparing the views of parents and carers with those of young people, and comparing adults' views of being young now with their views of their own childhood. 

'We don't know if our adult respondents would have said the same things about being young if we'd asked them at the time, but the differences seem mostly negative.  The results show a great deal of genuine concern and sympathy for the challenges faced by young people, and also a willingness to listen to young people to work for a better future for all.'

The full report and the powerpoint presentation can be accessed using the weblink below.

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