Madrid (EFE) , two years later it has fallen to thirteenth position.
Thus, gender inequalities, male chauvinism and male violence worry 75.1% of children and adolescents quite or a lot, a percentage that has fallen from 89.1% two years ago, indicates the Opinion Barometer of the Childhood and Adolescence of Unicef Spain and the University of Seville.
These issues worry girls more than boys: machismo is the fifth concern for them, while they place it in tenth place.
Due to the notable drop that gender inequalities, machismo and sexist violence already experienced in the previous edition of the report, on this occasion a section dedicated to gender roles has been incorporated, as explained by the author of the study and professor from the University of Seville, Francisco José Rivera.
As a result, one in five Spanish adolescents, 20.9% of them, consider that the work of caring for children should be done “only or mainly by women”, while close to that figure, 19.6% , believes that “only or especially men” should be policemen.
Attitudes more typical of a gender
The idea that there are attitudes more typical of one gender than of another is also maintained: adolescents think that “being dominant” and “acting like a leader” is more typical of men, compared to more frequent behaviors in women such as “expressing open affection” and “wanting to look good,” according to the study.
This decrease can be justified, among other reasons, “not because interest in itself has been lost, but because there are new concerns,” argued one of the children who participated in the study, Gorka (13 years old, Bilbao), in the presentation of the barometer at the Unicef Spain headquarters in Madrid.
For Lucía (15 years old, Leganés) it is very “worrying” that this type of “so sexist stereotypes” are maintained in the younger generations, from which the “future political leaders” will emerge, and that perhaps there is “educational work that It’s not doing well.”
“There is much to do. Until we can aspire to have the same rights, the same job aspirations, we will not be able to talk about equality », he added.
The effects of the pandemic, first concern
The most important issues for children and adolescents, among a list of 32 options, are the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the first concern of 14.6% of those surveyed; the war in Ukraine (12.8%), the economy (12.7%) and climate change, the environment and pollution (7.8%).
In the presentation of the report, the executive director of Unicef Spain, José María Vera, has defended that the opinions of children and adolescents be “heard and taken into account”, whose concerns “help guide” the work of the organization “towards their real needs and problems.
Precisely, trust in politicians and parties has decreased among young people, compared to scientific and educational centers and NGOs, the institutions that obtain the best evaluation, although their interest in collaborating with organizations or acting on issues that affect them decreases.
Only one in ten adolescents considers that the political and economic situation in Spain is good or very good, and their perception is more positive at the municipal level than at the state level.
Faced with the negative assessment of politicians, voted with 4.4 out of 10, the most weighted professions are those of doctor (8.6), police officer (7.6), architect and athlete (both with 7.4). .
Finally, the barometer also collects the levels of well-being and satisfaction among Spanish children and adolescents, who, in general, “assess their life positively and have a high subjective well-being”. However, the percentages fall as the purchasing level does and 8.5% of the most disadvantaged children feel “always sad”.
In addition, the girls express that they feel more lonely and sad than the boys, to which Clara (17 years old, Guadalajara) finds an explanation in the “unreal images” disseminated on social networks, which encourage them to compare themselves in a world in which they have been taught to “compete and not cooperate.”
This is the third time that a team from the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Seville has carried out this research for Unicef. On this occasion, it collected the opinions of 9,505 children and adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 from 208 Spanish educational centers between December 2021 and May 2022.
