Children and Youth Leisure Surveys chart the leisure time of children and young people living in Finland. The series began life as Youth Leisure Surveys, but the target population was later expanded to also include children aged 7 or older. From 2024 onwards, the target group has again been restricted to individuals aged 10-29.
The surveys primarily focus in life and activities occurring outside of school, work and other institutions, with particular emphasis on media use, hobbies and physical activity. In addition to repeated questions, there is a changing main theme on each collection round.
The survey studied the leisure time activities and physical activity of Finnish children and young people aged 10-29. In addition to leisure time activities, the main themes of this year's survey were summer activities and social media use.
First, respondents were asked how often they engage in various leisure activities, such as sports, arts, and cultural activities, spend time in different leisure settings, listen to music, and participate in associations. The survey also explored satisfaction with different areas of life, as well as experiences of stress and feelings of belonging.
Questions related to summer activities focused particularly on 15- to 29-year-olds and covered topics such as the length of summer holiday, activities done during the holiday, and wellbeing. The section on summer employment examined, for example, job seeking, work experiences, the duration of employment, and the reasons for not seeking summer jobs.
Next, the study examined how often respondents, for example, read, play games, follow the media, and use various social media platforms. In addition, respondents were asked about their experiences related to social media, such as social comparison and negative or harmful encounters. Respondents under the age of 18 were also asked about their guardians' supervision of social media use and restrictions on phone use. Finally, young people's views on restricting smartphone use in primary and lower secondary schools were explored.
Background variables include the respondent's age group, gender, mother tongue, region of residence, living arrangements, household composition, education, economic activity, and parents' highest level of education.
For the study, a stratified random sample of young people's address data was drawn from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency. The strata were based on legal gender (male, female), age group (10-14, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29), and mother tongue (Finnish, Swedish, other), resulting in a total of 24 strata (2 × 4 × 3). The aim was to reach at least 1,400 respondents, with the distribution of respondents across strata reflecting the population distribution as closely as possible. Groups that were expected to have lower response rates were oversampled. In total, 15,671 invitation letters were sent. The survey could be completed in Finnish, Swedish, or English. Individuals in strata where the target sample size had not been reached by 17 September 2024 were contacted with SMS reminders and reminder postcards. A total of 1,419 responses were received, and the target number of respondents was achieved in 15 out of the 24 strata.