Participation of Children and Youths in Switzerland

Time and again, there is a political demand for the participation of children and youth and it is at the center of public and scientific interest in an increasing manner. Involving and integrating the younger generations is not only important in politics, but in all areas where lives are formed, e.g. in families and in school. In order to guarantee participation to the adolescents, substantiated information is needed whereas the points of view of the children and youths have to be taken into account appropriately.
     The project has a multi-methodical and multi-perspective design. In the quantitative part study, the focus is on current, representative results regarding the question how children and youth in Switzerland assess the possibilities of their participation in key areas of life (family, school, community). In comparison to an earlier study, it is intended to clarify to what extent there are changes and developments in this context in recent years. The aim of the qualitative part study is to reconstruct the perspectives of children and youths in regard to participation appropriately, in order to be able to clarify ambiguities, contradictions, and questions in this manner. In addition, the perspectives of other actors (parents, teachers, municipalities and local politics) are to be incorporated and correlated with each other as well as analyzed with the perspectives of the children comparatively.
     This research project, which was realized in cooperation with UNICEF Switzerland, aims at contributing current and reliable information regarding the participation of children and youths in Switzerland from the perspective of different actors and identifying starting points and possibilities of an appropriated participation of younger generations in designing their living conditions.

Project Team:

Prof. Dr. Peter Rieker

Dr. Holger Stroezel

lic. phil. Simone Brauchli

Dipl. Päd. Rebecca Mörgen

M.A. Anna Schnitzer

Dipl. Soz.Arb. (FH) Anna Suppa