VCI, in collaboration with four major universities, is partway through important research understanding adult attitudes towards children. The research is an extension of a 2016 survey which provided interesting and at times conflicting findings. For example, while 80 per cent of respondents were concerned about the health and happiness of future generations almost half said children had too many rights and some of the most common descriptors of children were 'spoilt', 'lazy' and 'selfish'.
Early findings of the 2022 research suggest things are changing. Respondents in 2022 appear to be less threatened by the concept of children’s rights and more capable of seeing the connection between inequality, access to opportunity and outcomes for children.
Respondents in 2022 appear to be less threatened by the concept of children’s rights and more capable of seeing the connection between inequality, access to opportunity and outcomes for children. Most respondents (65 per cent) in 2022 said it is more challenging to be a child today than it was when they were growing up and more than 80 per cent are concerned about the health and happiness of future generations with many respondents expressing significant concern about climate change and the impact this will have on their own children and future generations.
Most agreed governments should make decisions and policies in the interests of future generations but many noted a lack of government commitment to future generations particularly regarding climate change policy. Around 94 per cent of respondents in 2022 agreed child wellbeing is a collective, community responsibility but almost 50 per cent felt children were not prioritised enough by society.
The preliminary findings of the 2022 survey are encouraging but these are not the final results. Until we have more responses from specific demographic groups; men, people living outside of WA, older adults and people with lower levels of education we cannot meaningfully interpret the data.
We will continue to disseminate the survey until we achieve a similar demographic profile to the 2016 survey and are currently working on targeted recruitment. If you can assist VCI to disseminate the 2022 survey we’d be grateful for your support.
