CHILDREN in Northern Ireland worry more than those in the Republic about a wide range of issues, a joint North South survey has shown.
While both groups surveyed indicated that the greatest source of worry was failing tests and exams at school, 74 per cent of Northern respondents said they were concerned about it compared with 66 per cent of Southern respondents.
This disparity was shown in all 14 categories listed in the survey, which was commissioned by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) in the Republic and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in the North.
The work was undertaken by Irish Marketing Surveys and Ulster Marketing Surveys in interviews in their homes with 1,102 children, 701 in the Republic and 401 in Northern Ireland.
Overall, 69 per cent of children between 8 and 15 years identified school examinations as their biggest worry. The survey speculates that the North South disparity for this category might be due to the earlier streaming in the Northern education system.
Most children between 12 and 5 years said their parents were strict, 48 per cent describing them as "very strict" about doing homework, while two thirds believed they should be allowed to decide what school they attended. Asked about the situation in Northern Ireland, 59 per cent of all children said they were often or sometimes worried. Predictably, the figure was higher in the North, at 77 per cent, compared with 51 per cent in the Republic.
Some 38 per cent of all children worried about being bullied at school, 33 per cent about drugs, 30 per cent about parental unemployment, and 26 per cent about parental separation or divorce.
Although the vast majority, 82 per cent, believed that adults were prepared to explain issues to them, and answer questions, 48 per cent felt that adults did not listen to children properly, and 20 per cent, one in five, believed adults were "hurtful" to children.
Four per cent claimed that teachers slapped or smacked them, although corporal punishment is prohibited in schools, North and South.
However, the chief executive of the ISPCC, Mr Cian O Tighearnaigh, said at a press conference yesterday that, overall, the survey confirmed childhood was now a safer, more nurturing place than in previous generations.
It challenges the belief that earlier decades represented a golden age for children," he said, adding that adults would have painted a much starker picture of their childhood.
He said an ISPCC survey in 1992 survey revealed that 86 per cent of those in the 18 to 23 years category had been physically punished as children, which some times involved being hit by implements.
Mr O Tighearnaigh said children clearly favoured positive parenting based on good relationships with parents as against the strict punitive models in past generations.
However, the survey expressed concern about some aspects of family life, given that children claimed parents shouted at them (60 per cent), threatened to slap them without doing it (32 per cent), smacked them (20 per cent), did not talk to them (13 per cent) and denied them a hot meal (9 per cent).
Asked who they would talk to about sex, 69 per cent said their mother and 20 per cent their father. Most children of all ages would be more likely to discuss problems with their mother, followed by father and friends, but 27 per cent of children between 8 and 11 years indicated they had no one to talk to about their worries.
Most children identified kindness, keeping promises, taking time to talk to them and spending time with them as the best parental characteristics, putting them before money.