The Perspective of Estonian Children and Adults on Children’s Right to Participate in Society

The aim of this paper is to explore the perception of participation right of children in Estonian society from the perspective of adults and children by taking into consideration their sociodemographic background. The study draws on data from Estonia’s Second Children´s Rights and Parenting Survey (2018; a sample of 1,063 children at age 10-17, and 1,083 adults in the age range of 18-74). The study focused on children’s and adults’ attitudes, knowledge and experiences concerning children´s involvement in decision-making in matters related to children’s lives, as expressions of the right of participation. The findings demonstrate the generational and gender differences between children and adults in their perceptions. The study confirms the association between the awareness of children’s rights and support to children’s possibilities to participate in decision-making in different aspects of life. Furthermore, the analysis shows the importance of the children’s own experiences of involvement: children who have more experiences with having a say in issues related to their everyday matters tend to be supportive of the involvement of children.

Population Review

Volume 60, Number 2, 2021

Type: Article, pp. 1-22

The Perspective of Estonian Children and Adults on Children’s Right to Participate in Society

Author: Andra Reinomägi
Affiliation:  PhD candidate, Program on Sociology, Institute of Social Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tartu, Estonia
Corresponding author/address: University of Tartu, Estonia; e-mail:andra.reinomagi@ut.ee

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the perception of participation right of children in Estonian society from the perspective of adults and children by taking into consideration their sociodemographic background. The study draws on data from Estonia’s Second Children´s Rights and Parenting Survey (2018; a sample of 1,063 children at age 10-17, and 1,083 adults in the age range of 18-74). The study focused on children’s and adults’ attitudes, knowledge and experiences concerning children´s involvement in decision-making in matters related to children’s lives, as expressions of the right of participation. The findings demonstrate the generational and gender differences between children and adults in their perceptions. The study confirms the association between the awareness of children’s rights and support to children’s possibilities to participate in decision-making in different aspects of life. Furthermore, the analysis shows the importance of the children’s own experiences of involvement: children who have more experiences with having a say in issues related to their everyday matters tend to be supportive of the involvement of children.

Keywords

Estonia, participation right of children, children’s rights, involvement of children, children’s and adults’ perspectives

Acknowledgments: The author is grateful to the reviewers and the journal’s editors as well to her PhD supervisors Prof. Dagmar Kutsar and Prof. Kairi Kasearu for their helpful comments.

Note: The article is a part of research programme PRG700, “Vulnerability in childhood and vulnerable subjectivity: interdisciplinary comparative perspective.”

© 2021 Sociological Demography Press