Published annually by the Children's Ombudsman's office, this year's Child Barometer asked six and seven year olds what security means to them.
Overall, the results of the survey were "very positive," according to the ombudsman. Around 74 percent of the young respondents said they think they have a safe place in their lives, while 92 percent said they have a safe person nearby.
"Even though defining security proved to be difficult for children, they nevertheless identified many factors that promote or reduce security in their own lives," the study's summary said.
The survey found that 81 percent of the children sometimes felt afraid, with the most common fear (29%) being darkness.
"The fact that feelings of insecurity in children were most often related to their immediate living environment, such as darkness, nature or amusement parks, can also be considered a positive result. Fears related to the built environment can often be removed easily by increasing lighting, for instance," the summary stated.
However, some results in this year's barometer may be a cause of concern, according to the ombudsman's report, as only 58 percent of the child respondents said they always felt safe when they attended preschool.
The report said that the situation cannot be considered "good enough, when the starting point should be that every child can feel safe at preschool all of the time."
Another point of concern in that area was that kids with parents who have lower education levels said they felt safe at preschool less often than their peers with more highly educated parents.
"This difference was statistically significant," the summary noted.
"Children’s socioeconomic background should not determine their experiences in preschool, if the equal right of children to learn and grow into their own potential regardless of their home background is considered as one of the most important tasks of education in Finland," the ombudsman's report stated.
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