18th June 1999

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With the first round of this major new survey now complete, researchers from the two universities are giving first sight of the results at an 'Open Day' on 18th June at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, where their first published findings will also be released. Noel Thompson will present the event. Young people from the Northern Ireland Youth Forum have already been using the survey results, and their findings will form a central display representing the attitudes of young people to religion, politics and other social issues.

The Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey was launched in 1998 to provide a regular supply of information about social attitudes in Northern Ireland. It is unique in that all results are made publicly and freely available over the Internet. Everyone interested in social attitudes in Northern Ireland - journalists, campaigners, school children and academics - are encouraged to see it as a background resource to their own work. Almost 2,000 adults are interviewed each year as well as about 500 twelve to seventeen year olds on the Young Life and Times Survey that runs alongside the adult version.

The Life and Times Research Update issue number 1 is now available.
Men and Women in Northern Ireland: Challenging the Stereotypes

Results reveal that:

Men's attitudes towards traditional gender roles have become more liberal within the last five years.
About a half of all the men interviewed feel that it is acceptable for a man to stay at home and look after the children while the woman goes out to work.
Only just over half of women but nearly two thirds of men think that sexual relations between two adults of the same sex is 'always wrong'.
In 1991 77% of young single women thought that sex outside marriage was 'always wrong', now only 54% would say this.
About a quarter of the people surveyed have very little or no confidence in churches and religious organisations.
In 1991 over two thirds of women had no doubts about the existence of God, now only 56% have such a firm conviction.
The survey is being carried out jointly by a team from Social Policy at the University of Ulster and the Centre for Social Research at the Queen's University of Belfast. The researchers include Gillian Robinson, Lizanne Dowds, Ann Marie Gray and Deirdre Heenan.

The 1998 survey round was funded by a variety of sponsors, including the Central Community Relations Unit, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, the Save the Children Fund, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the University of Ulster and the Department of Health and Social Services.

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk