News
November 2011 - Digital Family Kids & Youth
Launched last month, quoted in The Observer. 'Alarm over secret Facebook accounts that allow children to slip safety net'.
October 2011
Barbie Clarke interviewed about Digital Kids on BBC radio, Tuesday 4 October
Family Kids and Youth spoke last week at the Children’s Conference held at the British Library. The day (29 September) was to mark ‘Super Thursday’, the day booksellers rush out titles for Christmas. Organised by The Bookseller, the Children’s Conference looked at the digital landscape for children and considered how this is impacting on print media. Barbie Clarke spoke about Family Kids Research on children and digital.
September 2011 – Market Research Society Kids and Youth Conference – 16 November, London
Barbie Clarke and Catriona Ferris from Unilever will present aspects of a global study into the lives of children in emerging markets at the conference in November. Barbie and Catriona will describe how children’s lives in new and fast growing economies are different from that of their Western counterparts. Details of the conference can be found here.
September 2011 – ESOMAR Congress, Amsterdam
Barbie Clarke is to speak with Catriona Ferris, Unilever Global Insight Manager, at the ESOMAR Congress, Amsterdam, on Monday 19 September. Their paper looks at the way in which families, children and parenting are having to adapt to a new middle class that is springing up in emerging economies. Their presentation, ‘All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family’ (Mahatma Gandhi): Emerging markets, emerging cultures, emerging families will be published in the ESOMAR conference papers. This is the ESOMAR Congress programme.
August 2011 – Book published
Dr Barbie Clarke is co-author of a book shortly to be published, ‘The Supportive School: Wellbeing and the Young Adolescent’. Written with colleagues from the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education, ‘The Supportive School’ tackles some important contemporary issues relating to the influence of school on children’s wellbeing. There is a widespread perception across the developed world that the social and emotional wellbeing of young people has been in decline in recent years and that various problem behaviours are on the rise. Because children spend so much of their time in educational institutions, schools are assumed to be part of the problem. But how precisely do schools affect young adolescents’ wellbeing? This book aims to answer that question.
July 2011 – ‘Mind the Gap: meeting the needs of 10-14 year olds’ – Barbie Clarke and David Squire, Founder of DESQ, speak at the Children’s Media Conference
With pressure mounting in the playground, but also increasingly from social networks and gaming spaces, children are faced with making difficult decisions about themselves, who they think they are and who they want to be. In the midst of an always-on, multiplatform world, forming an identity as an early adolescent is opening up. So what is adolescence and what’s going on in their minds as well as their bodies? Why is forming an identity so important at this age and how can media producers better engage with 10-14s? Barbie Clarke and David Squire founder of DESQ present at the conference and have written a paper.
June 2011 – Family Kids and Youth work with CREDOS to contribute to Reg Bailey’s review on the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood
Credos is advertising's independently-governed think tank. It commissioned Family Kids and Youth to conduct a thorough study of parental concerns in the UK today. As a precursor to the project a wide ranging review of academic literature on child development and advertising was conducted. This was followed by a series of focus groups with parents to explore their concerns about children’s wellbeing, as well as focus groups with children to explore their understanding of the commercial world. Finally, the results were validated using a nationally representative quantitative survey of parents’ views. The results are summarised here.
Reg Bailey’s Review: Letting Children be Children - Report of an Independent Review of the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood can be found here.
May 2011 – Dr Barbie Clarke to take part in the panel discussion ‘Facebook Stole My Childhood’ at the Children’s Media Conference
Barbie has been asked to join a panel of experts at the Children’s Media Conference in July. The session is for those who want to increase their audience by attracting kids using social networks, but to do so in a safe and responsible way. The panel of experts include Henry Becket, Writer / Director; James Charlton, The Advertising Association; Ian Douthwaite, CEO, Dubit and Tamara Littleton, CEO, eModeration. The Chair is Jo Twist, Commissioning Editor for Education , Channel 4. The panel will discuss best practice, effectiveness, and the legal implications of using social networks as a marketing conduit, while maintaining social responsibility. It will also examine the impact on children who have grown up as digital natives, what is being done to help kids browsing in a highly commercial arena, and how brands can benefit by taking an ethical approach to social media. Details are here.
April 2011- Dr Barbie Clarke has written a literature review that looks at child development and children’s understanding of advertising
Credos, the think tank of the advertising industry, commissioned Barbie and her team to carry out a literature review into the way in which children can understand advertising. The literature review looks in-depth at children’s development, considering child psychology, recent developments in neuroscience, sociological studies, and social competence. It continues by assessing children’s understanding of advertising. Findings can be found here.
March 2011 – Barbie speaks about child development at a conference on Play
Barbie spoke today about child development at the HAGS conference in Kolmarden, Sweden. HAGS is the largest manufacturer of outdoor play equipment in the world. Established in 1948 and well known for innovative and wonderfully imaginative play systems, HAGS creates play systems in a typically Scandinavian way with designs based on scientific observation of child development and using exciting shapes and space. Delegates from around the world attended the conference.
February 2011- Dr Barbie Clarke and Dr Agnes Nairn write a paper for the MRS Annual Conference in London
The paper ‘Researching Children, are we getting it right?’, written by Barbie and Agnes on the challenges of carrying out research with children, and ethical considerations, is to be subject of a debate with Catriona Ferris, Unilever, Agnes Nairn, Barbie Clarke and Corrine Moy, Global Director of Marketing Sciences, GfK NOP. In the paper Agnes and Barbie argue that children’s researchers need to be wary of ethics and clear about the sometimes blurred lines that exist especially in terms of informed consent and confidentiality. The paper can be found at the MRS conference papers.
January 2011 – Dr Barbie Clarke joins team at the University of Cambridge to carry out research into the effectiveness of counselling for children
Barbie has joined colleagues at the University of Cambridge, Dr Colleen McLaughlin and Dr Carol Holliday, to carry out a systematic literature review for the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) on counselling outcomes for children and young people. Barbie completed her PhD at Cambridge and retains her link with the university through research, and supervision of Masters students on the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Course at the Faculty of Education, Cambridge.
December 2010 – Family Kids and Youth asked by CREDOS to contribute to the Bailey Review
The Bailey Review has been launched by Government to address the ‘excessive commercialisation’ and ‘premature sexualisation’ of childhood. The Review is part of the Coalition Government’s pledge to ‘crack down on irresponsible advertising and marketing’. In response to the Review, Credos the advertising industry’s think tank, has commissioned Family Kids and Youth to conduct qualitative and quantitative research to explore parental concerns of childhood today. The intention of this work is not only to contribute to the Review, but also to further the understanding of the impact of advertising and marketing on children.
November 2010 – Children and Social Networking – findings presented at conference
Family Kids and Youth present findings from their Kids and Digital research at MRS Youth Conference, 25 November in London. Findings from research carried out with Marc Goodchild, Head of Interactive and On-demand, Children’s BBC, demonstrate the extent to which children are making friends on-line through social networks, even as young as seven years, and how little parents understand what it is they are doing online.
October 2010 – IKEA chooses Family Kids and Youth to produce The Play Report
The Play Report is the largest study ever carried out on play. Family Kids and Youth designed questionnaires for parents and children, analysed results and wrote a report on the findings from research carried out in 25 countries by panellists Research Now. A total of 10,000 interviews were carried out with parents and children. Findings highlighted the differences in attitude towards play and parenting in different cultures, and showed that many parents feel too stressed to play with their children. Results are available on www.facebook.com/playreport until June 2011.
September 2010 – Family Kids and Youth present at the ESOMAR Congress, Athens
The presentation is based on the paper ‘The Digital World of Children and Young Adolescents: children’s emotional engagement with digital media’. This paper is based on a study run by Family Kids and Youth with the support of The Carphone Warehouse and the BBC. The study examines the way in which children are using digital technology, and considers in particular the way that it is used to communicate emotionally. The paper shows that while children and early adolescents have adopted digital media with enthusiasm, concern is expressed about its harmful effects, but little research exists on the way it might affect their wellbeing.