RECENTLY COMPLETED SURVEYS - UPCOMING DATA RELEASES
A number of surveys relating to sport and culture have been completed recently and the results will be released towards the end of this year and early in 2007.
Children's participation
The survey of Children's Participation in Selected Culture and Leisure Activities was conducted in April this year and was a repeat of a similar survey conducted in 2000 and 2003. The survey output will present information about the organised culture and leisure activities in which children aged 5–14 participate after school hours. These activities include music, drama, dancing, singing and playing a variety of sports. Information will also be presented regarding children's participation in non-organised leisure activities after school hours. These include bike riding, skateboarding, watching television and videos, playing computer games, other computer usage, arts and crafts activities, and reading for pleasure. In addition, the 2006 survey was the first to include questions about homework and about attendance at art galleries, libraries and live theatre. The results of the survey will be published in ABS catalogue number 4901.0 in mid-December.
Sports and cultural attendance
Attendance at sporting events and at selected cultural venues and events were surveyed as separate topics over 2005-06. The cultural attendance survey requested information regarding attendance at art galleries, museums, zoological parks and aquariums, botanic gardens, libraries, classical music concerts, popular music concerts, theatre performances, dance performances, musicals and operas, other performing arts, and cinemas. The results of this survey – and of the sports attendance survey – will be published in ABS catalogue numbers 4114.0 and 4174.0 respectively in late January 2007.
Participation in sport and physical activities
The survey on participation in sport and physical activities contains a number of new questions designed to assist in understanding patterns in participation. As well as the existing question on the frequency of participation (number of times participated) in each activity, an additional question was included asking for the months of participation. This will enable a more refined measure of the regularity of participation to be derived. For example, persons who participated 105 times or more during the twelve-month reference period, and who also participated in each month of the year, can be identified as regular participants.
The survey also included a module of questions on barriers to, and motives for, participation. When combined with information about the characteristics of participants and non-participants, the answers to these questions may be used to assist in the development of policies and programs that aim to increase participation by persons in defined target groups. Participation in sport and physical activities data will be published in ABS catalogue number 4177.0 in mid February 2007.
General Social Survey
This survey was conducted in early 2006. It contains many similar questions to the previous survey (conducted in 2002) but has been developed to include a wider range of indicators of social and community capital and wellbeing. Notable among these is a significantly enhanced module of questions about volunteering. The survey also includes questions about participation in sport, and about attendance at sporting and cultural venues and events. These are included as subsets of broader questions about social engagement and participation in other social activities.
For participation in sport, and attendance at sporting and cultural venues and events, the results of the General Social Survey will enable the identification of any relationships which exist with other social indicators such as feelings of safety, contact with family and friends, access to transport, and community support networks. The summary of results from this survey is expected to be released in late February 2007.
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