Children. Power.
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"For me it is so, the whole world may somehow determine about me." A ten-year-old said this as part of a large-scale survey of children on behalf of the Bertelsmann Foundation and thus - slightly exaggerated - a sense of life of many students in Germany described.
"A large proportion of young people do not feel taken seriously and are not adequately involved," according to researchers Sabine Andresen and Renate Möller. Around 3,500 students aged 8 to 14 were interviewed on various topics for their study in the 2017/18 school year:
- How do you experience adults?
- What worries do you do?
- How are they material?
- What is important to you?
Conclusion: "Children and adolescents see too few opportunities to participate in themselves," says a statement in the nearly 200-page study. Politicians should make greater use of the knowledge of young people in order to effectively combat child poverty, especially since money worries often go hand in hand with other needs. Frightening are the findings around the topic of security. Depending on the type of school, more or less children experienced marginalization, teasing and physical violence.
Special feature: A selected group of young people were asked to comment on the study's setting and the results: "Adults often give pejorative attention to children and adolescents," they write. "We've heard far too often, 'If we ask children now what they need for a good life, then they all want a cell phone'." According to the assessment of the young people - called the Youth Experts Team - this picture is clearly refuted by the study.
The results at a glance:
Trust, belonging, security and self-determination - according to the survey, these are the most important topics for children and young people in Germany. But there it hapert in some places, as student answers show.
CONCLUSION: "They do not take me seriously because I'm in puberty"
Only just under half of the surveyed students agree with the statement that they can decide in the school, very or fully too. In the 14-year-olds, there are only 34 percent, in the eight-year-olds, it is still every second. In addition, with age, students find less and less that their teachers take them seriously.
On the other hand, children and adolescents feel better about their parents. 60 percent say that they are allowed to take part in decisions in the family - 16 percent do not agree or only a little too.
That children with increasing age feel less and less in school and family to be taken fully, should not be dismissed with the reference to "rebellion in puberty," write Andresen and Möller. They cite statements by 14-year-olds: "They do not take me seriously because I'm in puberty." Even teenage adolescents have a right to be heard with their views.
The youth experts say: "In our experience children and adolescents are often involved in banal decisions and not in far-reaching areas.Why do students determine the color of the upper-level room or are they asked if the school time is reduced from 13 to 12 years? " The young people demand: Students should be asked where they want to participate and how.
MATERIAL: "You just have to explain openly that you do not have enough money"
In terms of material, the vast majority of children and adolescents in Germany are, according to their own assessment, well cared for. You can also distinguish between basic needs and luxury goods: Owning a cell phone is self-evident for older children today, says the study. According to the eight-year-old almost 60 percent have no cell phone. But: Half of them also say they do not want or need a cell phone.
"The results often refute expressed concerns that young people formulate exaggerated demands in the sense of a 'wish concert'," write the researchers. However, about one in ten students does not take a vacation with the family, 16 percent do not have their own room. An eight-year-old describes how important he finds such a retreat:
"If you do not have your own room and you do not have so much time alone, because then either the sister or the brother is in there and then you can not concentrate on your homework."
From the point of view of Andresen and Möller, these two goods - holidays outside the home and their own room - mark the consequences of their lack of experience. These are meaningful for educational opportunities. Here the "long-documented inequality of opportunity clearly shows".
In addition: Although students are well secured in the majority, about half worry about the financial situation of their family - and some of the money shortage is uncomfortable. " You just have to explain openly that you do not have enough money, which may be embarrassing," says a 14-year-old.
This is what the youth experts say: children and adolescents are not just a percentage of an adult. "Instead of Hartz IV we need our own basic security or participation money for children and adolescents and transparency about what children are entitled to."
This also applies from the point of view of the adolescents because the study shows that people who suffer from financial worries at home often have other problems. These children would be teased, marginalized and intentionally hewed more often. They would have fewer opportunities to do things with friends who cost money. In addition, they felt less secure than peers.
DARKENED AND LIMITED: "Nobody helped me"
Safety and trust are crucial topics for children and adolescents, the researchers say. Although most respondents feel safe at home, almost nine percent of the children and adolescents are not. At school, this is even true for a quarter of respondents.
Many children complain that they were teased, deliberately hounded or marginalized there in the past month. It is striking that, according to the researchers, the share of primary school children with these experiences is just under 30 percent - higher than in other types of schools.
The study cites how a ten-year-old experienced such attacks. He describes that he was "bullied, offended, insulted since second grade, no one helped me, and the teacher even yelled at me for freaking out." I got into trouble. "
In order to resist attacks, children and adolescents find it important to have people whom they can trust. Especially adolescents, according to the study, however, lack sufficient confidants at secondary schools.
This is what the youth experts say: The term "teasing" is wrongly chosen, too harmless. To stem bullying in the future, they demand: "Social life and learning in schools must be just as important as education, and there must be educated people who can respond in times of conflict."
TIME AND COMMITMENT: "If nobody cares about you, then it is completely stupid"
Children and teenagers want to have time for themselves - but also spend enough time with their parents. " That one can also rest from the parents," says an eight-year-old important. At the same time children formulate that they do not like to be alone at home involuntarily.
A child says: " If nobody cares about you, then it is completely stupid ." Another one finds important "that you have time with your family, that the family does not always have to work, or that you always have to stay home alone."
Most parents seem to be coping well with these childish needs. More than half of the students fully agree with the statement "My parents spend enough time with me". At the same time, however, some of the children may not even sign this sentence or just sign it a bit.
In the case of eight-year-olds, 7. 2 percent say that there is no one in the family to help them with problems, among the 14-year-olds it is 21, 1 percent. "The data confirmed that adolescents increasingly miss as they get older, that someone in the family cares about them," write Andresen and Petersen. That must be taken seriously.
The youth experts say: "On the one hand, it is gratifying that many children and adolescents answer that someone 'cares' for them, on the other hand, ten percent of the children and adolescents who find that it is not so, far too much . "
It also scared the difference in the responses of children with two caregivers compared to children with a caregiver. "For the education of a child, it takes a whole village," the young people quote an African proverb. For children and adolescents to have enough time, attention and care, there should urgently be more support for single parents.
However, the most important thing from the point of view of youth experts has to change overall, so that children in Germany can grow up better and have more say in the matter, is the attitude of adults.
"Everything depends on this attitude," the young people write. "Repeated experiences of powerlessness, not being asked and ignored, prevent children and young people from getting involved, and participation is not only a right of children and adolescents, but also good for the entire society."
