For this project, Islington Play Association wanted to understand further about play habits, from the perspective of 3 groups: 1) children aged 6-16, 2) parents of children aged 6-16 and 3) adults (general population). They wanted to see differences in the way children play/hang out now, compared to parents and adults thinking back to their childhood.
Islington Play commissioned OnePoll to run these 3 separate surveys, ensuring exclusion of sample between the adults and parents. 1,000 people in the UK were polled in each online survey, with data splits provided based on gender, age range, and region.
In the children survey, over half (53%) reported playing/hanging out in the street/area near home at least a few times a week. 53% felt as though they played/hung out in the street/area near home as much as they wanted. 36% however, stated they would like to play/hang out more. Top things that stopped them playing/hanging out more often were: parents/carers fears (27%), lack of friends nearby (26%) and stranger danger (26%).
In the adults’ survey, 62% stated they regularly played out in their street/area close to home when they were children. 61% also stated that thinking back, children mostly played outside rather than indoors. Thinking about today’s children, 37% stated they don’t think it is safe for children to play outside without an adult. 58% reported that they believe they had more time to play and hang out freely compared to today’s children.
For parents, top things that they think stop children from playing/hanging out more often outside their home are: stranger danger (33%), danger from traffic (28%), intimidation by other children/young people (27%). 55% only feel confident in letting their kids play out if others are too. 38% worry about their children making too much noise outside considering the neighbours, with 33% worrying about their children hanging out in groups outside. In order for children to play/hang out outside more often, 27% think the streets need to be more friendly and another 27% think there needs to be more community spirit. 42% believe a top benefit of children doing this more often is that it helps families to get to know each other.
Results and an executive summary were produced for the client for all three projects.