The social worlds of nine-year-olds are “very gendered” as girls continue to be less likely to take part in sports than boys, the author of a new Economic and Social Research Institute report has said.
Prof Emer Smyth said gender differences have “really persisted over time” and that she would be “concerned” that the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in nine-year-olds spending less time taking part in sport and cultural activities and more time on digital devices.
Prof Smyth was speaking as the ESRI published a report on Monday, which examined the lives of nine-year-olds and how that has changed over the past 10 years in terms of their relationships with family and friends, pastimes and school experiences.
The report drew on data from the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study comparing nine-year-olds in 2007/8 and 2017/18.
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It found a decline in the number of children taking part in sports, dropping from 44 per cent to 34 per cent playing sport almost every day. A decrease was also noticed in participation in cultural activities, such as music or dance lessons, from 47 per cent to 44 per cent.
A significant increase was found in the proportion of nine-year-olds who have their own mobile phone, from 44 per cent to 54 per cent.
“The social worlds of nine-year-olds are very gendered and these gender differences have really persisted over time,” Prof Smyth said.
“In terms of relationships girls have closer and less conflictual relationships with their parents than boys, they described getting on better with them, but on the other hand, they have smaller friendship groups and they tend to see their friends less often than boys.
“In terms of out-of-school activities, they’re [girls] more likely to read, they’re more likely to engage in cultural activities like drama or music lessons, but they’re less likely to take part in sports, and they’re less likely to spend time on digital devices than boys.
“So there’s quite a gender difference there and we haven’t seen that this has changed over time or improved. In fact, we see that there’s a slight widening in gender differences in attitudes to maths, which would be concerning. Girls are more positive about school overall and about reading as a school subject, but boys are more positive about maths and that gap has gotten a bit wider over time.”
The report also found children’s lives are “strongly influenced” by the socio-economic situation of their families. More parent-child conflict is found and children tend to have smaller friendship groups where families are under financial strain.
Children from more advantaged families are more likely to be involved in sports and this social gap widens over time. Social background differences in reading for pleasure become more pronounced over time, with a decline in daily reading for all children except those with graduate parents.
Prof Smyth added that it was “hard to predict” whether there would be a further decline in children taking part in out-of-school activities and spending more time on digital devices.
“These surveys took place before the pandemic, we followed the younger age group [from 2017/18], those who are now 13, so we’re analysing that data at the moment,” she said.
“The pandemic brought a further disruption to the kind of regular structured activities like sports, but also cultural activities so without policy intervention, I would be concerned about the trends, but there are things that can be done, it’s not inevitable that things will get worse over the next 10 years.”
The Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the research should inform the primary school curriculum,
“The emphasis has to be on every child having access to and being involved in physical exercise. Through education policy and the antional sports policy which is very focused on whole of society participation in sport, that’s the most effective way to deal with inactivity,” he said.
“The technological age, and in particular the internet era and mobile phones has led to a different pattern of living for children and children who are young now are getting access to mobile phones and so forth, and it’s getting younger every generation, which potentially means less activity.”
The Taoiseach commended sporting organisations that were providing “tremendous” opportunities for participation, lauding in particular efforts to run more female teams which “gives us great potential for wider participation in physical exercise”. He said “we need to double down” on female participation in field sports.
