A Social Report for Ireland Volume II - the NESC Website

42Peer RelationshipsChildren’s relationships with their friends comprise the fourth component ofthe relationships and care dimension of children’s well-being, measured by thepercentage of Irish children who report having 3 or more friends of the same gender(HBSC, 2006). Some 86.4 per cent of Irish children (aged 11, 13 and 15) reportedhaving 3 or more friends of the same gender. This is above the average of 79 percent for the 41 countries that responded to this HBSC question, see Figure 6.17.Overall, children in Ireland ranked 7th. Within Ireland, there were no differencesacross social class.Figure 6.17Percentage of Children who Report To Have Three or MoreFriends of the Same Gender, by Selected Countries, 2006%10090807060504030201005562647375 75GreecePolandRussiaItalyLuxembourgLatviaSource OMCYA, 2008a: 61, based on HBSC, 2006.78 78 79 79 79 8183 83 84 84 85 85 86 87 87 88 88 89 89PortugalFranceSpainHBSC avFinlandLithuaniaGermanyUSACanadaWalesCzech RepublicDenmarkIrelandNetherlandsScotlandSwedenEnglandNorwayHungaryIt has been estimated that adolescents spend a third of their waking time withtheir peers or friends (Brown and Klute, 2003). A new peer relationship indicatorfrom the HBSC Survey in 2006 focuses on 11, 13 and 15 year olds who spend four ormore evenings per week out with friends. The time which adolescents spend withfriends in the evenings has been strongly linked to adolescent risk behaviour, mostnotably substance abuse (Settertobulte and Matos, 2004; Del Carmen GranadoAlcon, Pedersen and Carrasco Gonzalez, 2002). However, Berndt notes that peercontact is important for the development of protective factors and has positiveas well as potentially negative outcomes (Berndt, 1999). Some 42 per cent of 11, 13and 15 year olds in Ireland spend four or more evenings out with friends, comparedto an average of 26 per cent of 11, 13 and 15 year olds of the countries included inthe survey. Boys are more likely to spend evenings with their friends than girls,see Figure 6.18.