29% of students aged 10 – 12, who participated in a survey on the attitudes of children in Reykjavík toward poverty, say that they know someone who is “poor” reports Morgunbladid.
Gudny Björk Eydal, assistant professor of social counseling at the University of Iceland, introduced the primary results of research by Cynthia Lisa Jeans, a master’s student at the university last week. Cynthia will publish the entire results in her master’s thesis.
Other results include that 2.6% of children in the survey said there was not enough food to eat at their homes; 1% felt poor and 4% said their families worried about money.
In her lecture Gudny said it had surprised both her and Cynthia how the children defined poverty – they did not only take into account basic needs. 66% said they believed poverty was not having a family; 16% said that poverty was not owning a car, computers or a t.v. About 68% of the children believed that they owned enough of everything; 54% believed that they did not own what their friends owned; 44% said that they wanted to own what their friends owned and 24% said that there were a lot of things that they wanted but could not afford.
The results are based on the answers from 260 children between the ages of 10 to 12 in three elementary schools in Reykjavík. The reply rate was 75%.
