Authors

• Forssén, Katja (University of Turku. Department of Social Research)
• Tähtinen, Juhani (University of Turku. Department of Education)
• Broberg, Mari (University of Turku. Department of Education)
• Hakovirta, Mia (University of Turku. Department of Social Research)

Keywords

children, family influence, family life, household budgets, housing, job characteristics, one-parent families, parental role, stepchildren, unemployment, well-being (society), working conditions

Abstract

The data are part of the Academy of Finland research programme "Marginalisation, Inequality and Ethnic Relations in Finland (SYREENI)", and were collected for the subproject "Origins of Exclusion in Early Childhood". The survey explored the external opportunities and internal resources of Finnish families with children under school age.

Questions covered job characteristics, job contract, working hours, and work-life balance. These questions were asked from the respondents who were in employment. The unemployed respondents answered questions about their earlier job, income before unemployment, impact of children on job seeking, impact of unemployment on self and family, and what kind of work they were looking for. Those staying at home to look after children were asked about their previous income, plans for the future family- and workwise, reasons for staying at home, and importance of various factors for returning to work.

Other themes, targeted to all respondents, included household income and expenses, general financial circumstances of the family, division of domestic labour (housework and childcare), family life, child-parent relationship, parenting, leisure time activities and time use, children's physical and mental well-being and development, well-being and success at school, child day care, organised afternoon activities for school children, social networks and social support available to the family, use of and satisfaction with public services (health care, educational services, mental health services).

The survey also explored the importance of work and career, good income, family life, children, hobbies, children, friends, political or voluntary participation and so on to the respondents.

One-parent family and reconstituted family questionnaires contained extra questions targeted specifically to these family types. For instance, there were a number of statements relating to how the respondents perceive single-parenthood, or living in a reconstituted family (where two separate families have joined together), step-parenting, child - step-parent relations and relations between children from different families. Children's relationship with the other biological parent living elsewhere was surveyed for both family types.

Background variables included the respondent's year of birth, gender, marital status, household composition, household type, spouse's year of birth, number of persons in the household, age and gender of the children still at home, municipality size, major region (NUTS2), type of dwelling, housing tenure, dwelling size (square meters and number of rooms), satisfaction with the dwelling and local environment, R's and spouse's basic education, vocational education, occupation, occupational status, socio-economic group and economic activity.