The Knowledge Exchange Seminar Series (KESS) is the first of its kind in the United Kingdom, formally partnering a legislative arm of government – the Northern Ireland Assembly – with academia. Aiming to encourage debate and improve understanding, KESS provides a forum to present and disseminate research findings in a straightforward format, making those findings easily accessible to decision-makers. Seminars are free to attend. To register email raise@niassembly.gov.uk

Agenda

1.30pm – Welcome

1.35pm – Assembly Committee Chair – Opening Remarks

1.45pm – Dr Stefanie Doebler (University of Liverpool), Dr Ruth McAreavey, Prof Sally Shortall and Dr Ian Shuttleworth (QUB) – Negativity toward immigrant out-groups among Northern Ireland’s Youth – are younger cohorts becoming more tolerant?

Negativity toward immigrants is a known problem in Northern Ireland. Media reports of racist hate crimes have been so frequent that Northern Ireland was famously dubbed the ‘race hate capital of Europe’. There exist several accounts on this, but the current knowledge-base has gaps regarding young people’s attitudes, and there is a lack of cohort comparisons. This paper examines cohort differences in, and predictors of negativity toward immigrant out-groups in Northern Ireland using data from the Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) and Young Life and Times (YLT) surveys 2004 to 2013. The main focus is on young people aged 16 and 18 to 24 years. Findings: Negativity toward immigrants has increased in recent years across all, but the youngest cohort. Segregation, sectarian attitudes and type of school are important predictors. Living in segregated areas and preference for a segregated neighbourhood are positively and social contacts and (religiously) mixed schooling negatively related to negativity toward immigrants. However, for the 16 year olds, not mixed schooling, but other school characteristics are statistically associated with lower levels of outgroup negativity.

2.05pm – Dr Gemma M. Carney and Dr Paula Devine (QUB) – Children’s attitudes towards old age: findings from the Kids Life and Times Survey 2015

Mindful of Northern Ireland’s history of religious and ethnic segregation, this paper investigates another, more prevalent form of segregation: age segregation. Public policy tends to divide people into age groups by virtue of the ‘natural’ association of childhood with schooling, middle age with work and old age with retirement. Leading scholars have argued that this age segregation can lead to absence of mutual understanding between generations, arguing that age segregation is a root cause of ageist social attitudes (Hagestad and Uhlenberg, 2006). This contention has not been tested, and as a result, little is known about what children think about ageing and older people. For these reasons, questions about ageing and older people were included in the 2014 Kids’ Life and Times (KLT) Survey, exploring the opinions of 10 and 11 years olds to ageing and ageism. We report the views of 4,757 10 and 11-year-old children, living in Northern Ireland. We present some timely and significant results which offer new research questions for policy-makers interested in how population ageing affects all age groups, particularly when societies are segregated along age lines.

2.25pm – Dr Dirk Schubotz, Dr Katrina Lloyd and Dr Martina McKnight (QUB) – A Question of Sport: Perspectives of Children and Young People

In 2015 ARK surveyed children and young people, who were at the end of their primary and post-primary education respectively, about their experiences of sport and physical activity. A module of questions on sport was included in the Kids Life and Times (KLT) survey of P7 children and the Young Life and Times (YLT) survey of 16-year olds. Approximately 5,200 10 and 11 year olds and 1,200 16-year olds responded. The survey included questions about the extent of regular physical activity and sport undertaken both inside and outside of school; about encouraging and prohibiting factors in relation to taking part in sport; self-assessed health; the role of sports idols; and enjoyment of sports. At this seminar we will present the key findings from this research. We will discuss how experience of, and access to, sport varies by gender, socio-economic background and rurality. We will also report on what type of physical activities children and young people most enjoy, and how the available infrastructure meets their needs.

2.45pm – Discussion

3.15pm – RaISe – Closing Remarks

3.20pm – Networking and Refreshments