Authors

• Office of Ombudsman for Children

Keywords

childhood, children, emotional states, fear, preschool children

Abstract

The study surveyed Finnish six- and seven-year-olds' thoughts on safety. Safety is explored through five themes: things that promote safety, how safety is experienced in different environments, experiences of insecurity, the definition of safety and children's experiences of being interviewed.

First, the child's parent was asked for background information, followed by questions for the child. First, the child was asked about things that make him or her feel safe. The things that promote safety were divided into things, places and people. Next, the experience of safety in different environments was discussed. The child was asked about the experience of safety at preschool and outdoors. The child was also asked what makes or would make being outside safe. In relation to experiences of insecurity, the children's experiences of fear, things and places that cause fear and things that ease fear were explored. The definition of safety was explored by asking children directly what they thought safety meant. Finally, they were asked for their opinion on responding to the survey.

Background variables included the child's gender, region and major region of residence, number of parents/guardians and children in the household, parents' education level, financial situation of the household and the language used in the interview.