This event on 29 November 2023 celebrated 20 years of the Young Life and Times (YLT) survey of 16 year olds.  YLT has covered a wide range of questions concerning young people's lives and it has become one of the main tools to inform policy making on and for young people in Northern Ireland. 

Colm Walsh (Queen's University) discussed young men, violence and paramilitarism. 

This event on 29 November 2023 celebrated 20 years of the Young Life and Times (YLT) survey of 16 year olds.  YLT has covered a wide range of questions concerning young people's lives and it has become one of the main tools to inform policy making on and for young people in Northern Ireland.

Katy Hayward and Ben Rosher (Queen's University) explored YLT data on good relations and politics, alongside data from the Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) survey.  

This event on 29 November 2023 celebrated 20 years of the Young Life and Times (YLT) survey of 16 year olds.  YLT has covered a wide range of questions concerning young people's lives and it has become one of the main tools to inform policy making on and for young people in Northern Ireland.

The speakers included the Commissioner for Children and Young People, as well as expert researchers who we have worked with over the last 20 years. They considered what young people's lives in Northern Ireland are like 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement and reflected on the positive contributions young people make to life in Northern Ireland. 

An event was held on 5 September at Queen's University to mark the launch of results from the 2023 Young Life and Times (YLT) Survey) and Kids' Life and Times (KLT) Survey. 

Topics covered in the surveys include children’s and young people’s experiences of the cost-of-living crisis; mental health; sport and physical activity; good relations and gender-based violence.

For more information, visit the YLT website and KLT website

The Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) survey has been recording public attitudes to social and political issues since 1998. In its first year, participants were asked to identify their priorities for the newly-formed Northern Ireland Assembly. In this seminar, Katy Hayward and Ben Rosher (Queen’s University Belfast) used 25 years of data to assess how much progress has been made on these priorities and to identify key points of continuity and change in political attitudes, identities and expectations since then.

This seminar marked the launch of the findings of the 2022 Northern Ireland Life and Times survey as well as the launch of an ARK/Conflict Textiles exhibition in the McClay Library, Queen's University. The arpilleras reveal, via textile language, key issues on identity and society in Northern Ireland.

The cost-of-living crisis continues to have a significant impact on households, hitting those on low-incomes hardest. This event focused on the social and economic inequalities that currently exist, with a panel of four speakers.  The panel and attendees then considered solutions going forward.  The chair was Ciara Fitzpatrick (Ulster University), and the event was organised by Alexandra Chapman (ARK).

The event was dedicated to Professor Eileen Evason, who previously worked within the Ulster University Social Policy team for almost 30 years and was a lifelong campaigner for equality and women’s rights.

This webinar marked the public release of results from the 2022 Young Life and Times (YLT) survey. YLT is an annual survey which records the attitudes of young people aged 16 living in Northern Ireland to key issues affecting their lives.

In this event, Professor Dirk Schubotz (YLT Director) highlighted key findings from the 2022 survey, which included questions on good relations, education, politics, and gender-based violence.

In 2021, the ARK NILT survey asked the Northern Ireland (NI) population about their views on a range of issues relating to fairness with regard to incomes, taxes and social security, financial hardship and the cost of the living. It did so at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic had brought about both an economic and public health crisis impacting the everyday lives of many people. The fieldwork for the survey took place during the final quarter of 2021, just before an Omicron wave of COVID-19 infections.
 

2021 Northern Ireland Life and Times survey results.

In this new Research Update, Siobhan O'Neill (Northern Ireland's Mental Health Champion), Margaret McLafferty and Paula Devine explore public attitudes to mental health and suicide in Northern Ireland, based on data from the 2021 Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) survey. This Research Update was published to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week.