Giving children independence
Crime and safety
Independent youngsters and sheltered teens.
Our survey finds that moving to secondary school is a big moment for children being given independence, with parents seeing the move to secondary school as the time to give their children greater freedom to go out by themselves.
Surprisingly, one in eight parents of a four or five-year-old tell us they would allow them to be at home alone.
Meanwhile, one in five teenagers not allowed to be home alone, and nearly one in four are not allowed to go to the local park by themselves.
Children’ s independence
Which, if any, of the following do you allow your child to do?
|
Parents of 10-year-olds |
Parents of 11-year-olds |
All parents |
Play in a friend’ s garden |
64 % |
77 % |
62 % |
Go to the nearest park with friends |
33 % |
68 % |
53 % |
Be at home on their own |
24 % |
58 % |
52 % |
Stay overnight at a friend’ s house |
44 % |
60 % |
49 % |
Go shopping by themselves |
9 % |
39 % |
37 % |
Go into the nearest town with friends |
7 % |
31 % |
36 % |
Travel on public transport on their own |
3 % |
33 % |
35 % |
None of these |
18 % |
9 % |
17 % |
Sample: 5,866 parents in England( 3,391), Scotland( 1,309), Wales( 865) and Northern Ireland( 301), who have at least one child aged 4 to 18 in school. Base: All UK parents, weighted
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