Results from my ‘Living in Lockdown’ research

I’ve been working hard on the findings this week. A big thank you to all the children and young people who filled in my questionnaire! 30% of you were 6 and under, 40% aged 7-11 and 30% were aged 12+. 20% of you are living in a city, 10% in a town, 30% in a suburb and 40% in the country. 40% female and 60% male. 10% of you don’t have a garden.

I asked you what makes you happy. 9 out of 10 (89%) of you said your family, nearly 6 in 10 (56%) said friends and just under half (45%) said music. One-third (33%) said your pets and video games made you happy. Interestingly, only 11% said social media!

Then I asked you what worries you, and over half, 56% said ‘school work’! And one-third (33%) said ‘a story in the news’, ‘worry about family members’, ‘tests and exams’ and ‘arguments with other people’.  However, nearly 8 in 10 of you (78%) say you are feeling happier since lockdown. The reason for your increased happiness in because you are ‘spending more time with family’. The 1 in 5 (22%) of you who are less happy say it’s because you miss family members and friends.

I also asked you what you are doing in your spare time, and what technology you use. All of you have, or have access to, a mobile phone. 6 in 10 (63%) have a laptop or tablet, half (50%) a smart TV, over a third (38%) a games console and a quarter (25%) a desktop P.C. But what are you using these for?

Use of Technology

And 50% of you are using YouTube and WhatsApp, 38% are using TikTok, Houseparty and Facetime and 25% of you are using Instagram, iMessage, Skye and Zoom to communicate with friends and family.

In terms of gaming, this is what you are playing:

I asked you what you like best about lockdown, and this is what some of you told me – as you see many of you talk about family, and being outside:And I also asked you what is the worst thing about lockdown, and for many of you it was a feeling of entrapment and feeling a little lost:I asked you ‘do you miss school?’. None of you said ‘no’! 71% said ‘a bit’ and 10% said ‘yes’!

Finally, I asked you what advice you would give other young people in lockdown.Thank you again for your help. It looks like you love being with your family, but you are missing friends and other family members, and even being at school! This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and Heads Together have put this together on Instagram – many of the organisations mentioned help children, young people and families, in case anyone you know could do with some support.

Next week FK&Y is running the third wave of its ‘Wellbeing and the Internet Research’ interviewing 1,000 7-16 year olds across the UK plus online focus groups.

Love Digby X