Monday, October 11, 2010

A Post-Script To The Three Following Posts: The Netmums' Survey of Mums

I informed Netmums about the problems with their summary of the study I discuss in the following three posts. I also informed the BBC and Fox And Friends. There were many, many more sites that I should have informed.

I received a response from Netmums which states that the detailed results I was using in my posts below were not the most recent results (though it's hard to see how there could be more recent results, given that these are from September). They have removed all the detailed results from the net.

This means that only the summary (which I argue is full of errors) is now available for those who wish to study the questions. I have asked for links to those most recent results and will share them with you should I get them. I will also naturally provide corrections to all the posts below if they appear necessary.

Here is my copy of the full results of the Mums' survey, the one which appears not to be the most recent set of results:

In September over 2,500 of you completed our survey to help us find out whether or not we treat our sons and daughters the same or if we expect different things from boys and girls.

Here are the full results of the Mums' survey.

1. How many children do you have?

* One child - 31%
* Two children - 48.6%
* Three children - 14.6%
* Four children - 4.6%
* More than five children - 1.2%



2. What gender are your children?

* All girls - 23.2%
* All boys - 30.8%
* Both girls and boys - 46%



3. If you are planning on having more children, would you like:

* A girl - 21.4%
* A boy - 14.0%
* Don't mind - 64.6%



4. Before you had children, did you want:

* All girls - 8.2%
* All boys - 5.5%
* Both girls and boys - 41.7%
* I didn't mind - 44.6%



5. Thinking of your son's future, please rank the following in order of how important you consider them to be: (1 is most important and 6 is least important)

* 1 - That they are happy - 98% ranked this as most important

followed by, in order of importance

* 2 - That they have lots of friends
* 3 - That they have a successful career
* 4 - That they go to university
* 5 - That they are considered attractive
* 6 - That they are good at sport



6. Thinking of your daughter's future, please rank the following in order of how important you consider them to be: (1 is most important and 6 is least important)

* 1 - That they are happy - 97.9% considered this the most important.

followed by, in order of importance

* 2 - That they have lots of friends
* 3 - That they have a successful career
* 4 - That they are considered attractive
* 5 - That they go to university
* 6 - That they are good at sport



7. Do you think parents tend to treat girls and boys differently?

* Yes - 89.2%
* No - 10.8%



8. Do you think it is right to treat girls and boys differently?

* Yes - 49.4%
* No - 50.6%



9. If you have children of both genders, did you find it easier to bond with one of your children than the other(s)?

* Yes - 27.8%
* No - 72.2%



10. If yes, please specify whether you found it easiest to bond with your:

* Son - 54.9%
* Daughter - 45.1%


11. If you have children of both genders, which of the following statements to do you agree with?

* I am more critical of my son - 11.5% agreed
* I am more critical of my daughter - 21% agreed
* I let my son get away with more - 21.5% agreed
* I let my daughter get away with more - 17.8% agreed
* I love my son in a different way to my daughter - 25.9% agreed
* I argue with my partner about the way we parent each of our children - 32% agreed
* Boys tend to be naughtier than girls - 25.9% agreed
* Girls are more sensible than boys - 29.3% agreed
* My son is a mummy's boy - 47.2% agreed
* My daughter is a daddy's girl - 35.2% agreed
* My daughter gets more treats than my son - 8.4% agreed
* My son gets more treats then my daughter - 5.6% agreed



12. Of the following adjectives, which do you think best describes girls or boys?

Adjective Boys Girls
Funny 76.4% 23.6%
Cute 31.3% 68.7%
Cheeky 79.7% 20.3%
Caring 30% 70%
Naughty 72.2% 27.8%
Industrious 59% 41%
Playful 74.6% 25.4%
Thoughtful 29% 71%
Stroppy 16.1% 83.9%
Loving 58.1% 41.9%
Argumentative 28.4% 71.6%
Eager to please 46.1% 59.9%
Serious 50.5% 59.5%


I also saved the results for the dads' survey which also appear not to be the most recent results and thus have been removed from the net.
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ETA:  Check out this popularization.  The numbers in it suggest that the data set I have given above IS the one the survey used.