More religious integration needed says teenagers

A new survey has found that the majority of 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland want to see more religious integration within local schools and neighbourhoods.

The report, 'Us and Them' by the Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive (ARK), presents statistics on the views of 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland on community relations.

The key points to emerge from the survey were:

• Religious and national identity are both seen as being important
• Although many respondents said they do not feel favourable about the other religious community, very few feel overtly negative
• The main influence on attitudes to community relations was the respondents' family
• Nine out of ten respondents go to segregated schools and two-thirds (66%) live in segregated areas.
• A small majority of respondents (52%) experienced cross-community contact outside school
• Few respondents (15%) feel that relations between Catholics and Protestants will get worse in five years’ time, and 36% believe they will get better.

Commenting on the findings, Dirk Schubotz, one of the authors of the report, said: "The 2003 Young Life and Times survey provides an interesting snapshot of young people's attitudes to community relations issues in Northern Ireland.

"In addition, within a rapidly changing social and political environment, it also provides a baseline against which attitudes can be compared in the future. As one respondent said: 'The young people of today are the generation of tomorrow, so their opinions and lives should be taken more seriously'".

The 'Us and Them' report was written by Paula Devine and Dirk Schubotz of the Institute of Governance at Queen's University, as part of the joint ARK project between Queen's University Belfast and University of Ulster.

(MB)