Background to the Research

• Article 31 of the UNCRC asserts that every child and young person under the age of 18 years has the right to engage in age-appropriate play and leisure activities. In NI, the vision of the Ten-Year Strategy for Children and Young People is one where all children and young people will thrive and look forward with confidence to the future. The Play and Leisure Policy and its Implementation Plan are mechanisms intended to help deliver on the aims of the Ten-Year Strategy.
  

Research Approach

• In 2010, OFMDFM part-funded the YLT survey in order to engage directly with part of its target audience on questions of leisure and play. This Research Update also incorporates some findings on attitudes to young people which are based on questions funded by NICCY.
  

Main Findings

• One of the main findings of the 2010 YLT survey with regard to play and leisure was the discrepancy between the desire of 16-year olds to use public spaces during their leisure time and the negative attitudes and experiences they face when doing so.
• Eight out of ten YLT respondents agreed that young people who have no space or time to play will not develop into healthy adults. In the same spirit, almost all respondents (97%) agreed that every child and young person should have easy access to public spaces for play and leisure, whilst 64% of respondents disagreed with the view that playing is just something for younger children.
• The ease with which young people can access public spaces for their leisure time pursuits is closely connected to their experiences about using such spaces. The YLT survey shows starkly the negativity 16-year olds experience from the adult population, whether being told to move on when standing on the street with their friends, being treated with suspicion or being generally negatively portrayed by the media.
• 85% of respondents said that they felt that young people are judged negatively just because they are young, whilst 79% felt that the media portrays young people mostly negatively. The perception of the predominantly negative media portrayal of young people was universal among respondents regardless of any background variables.
• Females and males did not differ in their perceptions about the negative judgment of young people; however, those who came from financially less well-off backgrounds were much more likely to feel that young people were negatively judged because of their young age than respondents who came from well-off or average backgrounds.
• With regard to having been treated with disrespect and suspicion, 82% of respondents overall said they had been treated with suspicion in shops; well-off respondents were much less likely to say this and males were more likely to have been excluded from shops than females.
• Young people were most likely to be told to move on by residents followed by the police and community representatives. Male respondents were much more likely than females to have been told to move on by the police, whilst not well-off respondents were more likely than well-off respondents to say that residents had told them and their friends to move on.
• Respondents were asked to assess the range of leisure time facilities available to them in their areas. Overall, 26% assessed the facilities available in their area as very good or good, 30% felt they were average, whilst 45% felt they were poor or very poor. Respondents from not well-off families were significantly more likely to assess their leisure time facilities as poor or very poor than well-off respondents. Those who live in rural areas were more likely to view their leisure facilities as poor than those living in urban areas. 51% of respondents with a longstanding illness or disability assessed their leisure time facilities as poor compared to 43% of those without such illness or disability.
• The greatest factors restricting respondents' participation in play and leisure were found to be lack of time, cost of using a facility and transport to and from this facility.
• The four activities that respondents on average most often undertook in their free time were listening to music, watching DVD/TV, spending time on the Internet/PC and getting together with friends.
• Nine out of ten respondents said they undertook physical activities at least several times a month, with three out of ten saying that they were involved in physical activities on a daily basis. The activities that respondents would undertake if there were no limits of any kind reflected this interest in physical activity. However, the overriding theme was that young people would choose unstructured activity, for example hanging out and socialising with their friends.
• 91% of YLT respondents felt that children and young people should have the right to be consulted about the design of spaces for play and leisure, whilst 78% disagreed that the design of these spaces should be left to adults only. However, only 2% of respondents had directly been asked about facilities and spaces they use to play by those who are responsible for the planning of these facilities. Parents and relatives were most likely to ask about play spaces, but still only just over half of respondents were asked their opinions by their relatives.
• Females were a little more likely than males to have been asked their opinion by teachers and youth workers. Parents and relatives of well-off respondents were more likely than those of not well-off and average well-off respondents to have asked about leisure and play spaces. Well-off respondents were also most likely to have been asked their opinion by religious leaders.
  

Conclusions

• The findings highlight that play is not just something for younger children. The voices of young people in this survey tell us loud and clear that affording young people adequate play and leisure opportunities through appropriate spaces and places is essential to their holistic development. " Young people may not label what they do in their free time as 'play'; however they have identified that they need the same time, space and freedom as their younger counterparts to engage in unstructured social activities to get together and hang out with their friends. The manner in which young people choose to express their right to engage in age-appropriate leisure time activities is sometimes different to that desired by many adults, or even poses a challenge to adult control of public spaces. The results highlight the increasing demonization and marginalisation of young people.
• In order to achieve a situation where public spaces have playfulness at their heart, it is key that young people participate in the design process from the outset. Young-people friendly communities are crucial for creating local neighbourhoods in which young people can feel connected and thrive.