Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Young Life and Times Survey (YLT) originally began as a companion survey to the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey (NILT) series. It surveyed young people aged 12-17 living in the households of adults interviewed for NILT, and YLT ran alongside it from 1998-2000. Following an evaluation in 2001, the YLT series recommenced in 2003 (see SN 4826) using a completely different methodology and independent of the adult NILT. This new YLT survey uses Child Benefit records as a sampling frame.The aims of the YLT series are to: monitor public attitudes towards social policy and political issues in Northern Ireland; provide a time series on attitudes to key social policy areas; facilitate academic social policy analysis; provide a freely available resource on public attitudes for the wider community of users in Northern Ireland; give a voice to young people. An open access time-series teaching dataset has been created from the 2003-2012 YLTs - see SN 7548.The Kids’ Life and Times (KLT) survey of P7 children (10-11 year olds) is also part of the same suite of surveys as YLT and NILT.Further information about the YLT, including publications, may be found on the Access Research Knowledge (ARK) YLT webpages.

In 2023 all 16-year-olds who celebrated their 16th birthday in January, February or March 2023 were invited to take part. YLT 2023 was a split survey. YLT is part of a suite of surveys, which includes the Kids’ Life and Times (KLT) survey of P7 children (10-11 year-olds), and Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) survey of adults (18 years +). 

Main Topics:

In 2023 the following topics were included in the survey: Background; Good Relations (including minority ethnic groups) - funded by the Executive Office (TEO); Refugees and Asylum Seekers funded by the Executive Office (TEO); Gender-based Violence funded by the Executive Office (TEO); Safety and Attitudes to Paramilitaries funded by the Department of Justice (DoJ); Cost of Living funded by National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC); Sport and Physical Activity funded by Sport NI; Mental Health funded by Mental Health Champion Northern Ireland; Personal Relationships funded by Queen’s University Belfast (QUB); Age of Criminal Responsibility funded by QUB

Simple random sample

Online survey