Report on the Young 2002

Policymakers have always devoted a lot of attention to the way in which young people spend their leisure time. More recently, they have increasingly pointed out that activities in the areas of sport, ICT or politics have a positive influence on young people's development. But how do children and young people actually spend their leisure time? Do they take part in leisure activities that can be regarded as 'educational'? And how often do they undertake activities that are generally not under the control of parents and other adults, such as 'going out'? It is also by no means certain that there is a correlation between participation in leisure activities and young people's development. Part I of the Report on the Young 2002 addresses these questions.

Part 2 of the report is concerned with programmes for at-risk groups. A large number of programmes have been set up in recent years to encourage the development of young people in disadvantaged situations. An important question here is how effective policy aimed at such at-risk groups is. Does it reach the intended groups, and what do the various programmes achieve?

The Report on the Young is part of the National Youth Monitor (Landelijke Jeugdmonitor), which is compiled jointly by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the Netherlands Institute for Social Research/SCP.