In middle years, most children leave School-Age Educare to participate in other organized leisure activities or to stay at home in the afternoons. It is a period in life characterized by identity formation and often a desire for increased independence and responsibility. In todays societal development, children between the ages of ten and twelve are also at risk of being recruited into criminal activities. In order for society to be able to support and promote these children, more knowledge is needed about how children aged ten to twelve feel and what is important and meaningful to them.
Children and staff in youth clubs or leisure center
In this research project, we address children and staff in some form of open leisure activities. Such activities have different names in different municipalities, such as youth club or leisure center. Common to the organizations participating in the study is that they offer leisure activities for children in middle school and teenagers. Other organized leisure activities for children in addition to School-Age Educare are almost completely unexplored in a Swedish context. Therefore, the study provides unique opportunities to contribute with knowledge about both ten- to twelve-year-olds' leisure time, as well as the leisure activities that are specifically aimed at this age group.
Meaningful leisure time
The project is an interview study in which 58 children participate in group interviews and 20 staff are interviewed from a total of eleven settings in four different municipalities. The interviews with the children focus on what children do in their leisure time (inside and outside the organized leisure activities) and what they think is available and what is missing to do in their neighborhood. The interviews with the staff are about their views on the specific age group's needs and wishes in their leisure time, about what the staff wants to offer with their activities, and what meaningful leisure time is.
