Abstract

The Survey of Activities of Young People (SAYP) is a household-based survey that collects data on the activities of young people aged 7-17 years who live in South Africa. The survey covers involvement of children in market production activities, production for own final consumption, household chores as well as activities that children engaged in at school. Statistics South Africa collects SAYP information as part of the module of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) every four years. This information is gathered from respondents who are members of households living in dwellings that have been selected to take part in the QLFS and have children aged 7-17 years.

The first survey (SAYP 1999) was commissioned by the Department of Labour (DoL) in 1999, where Stats SA was responsible for data collection and processing, while the analysis and report writing was the responsibility of DoL with the aim of collecting and reporting on information on childrens economic activities, including working. The second survey (SAYP 2010) was conduted in the third quarter of 2010 and is intended to provide updated information on the economic activities of children in South Africa, including their demographic and socio-economic characteristics. However, differences in methodologies followed in the two surveys make comparisons difficult. Additonally, unlike SAYP 1999, SAYP 2010 includes analysis on child labour in South Africa. The specific objectives of the SAYP are to understand the extent of childrent's involvement in economic activities, provide information for the formulation of an informed policy to combat child labour within the country and to monitor the South African Child Programme of Action (CLPA) and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG'S).

Geographic coverage

The survey has national coverage

Analysis unit

Households and individuals

Universe

The SAYP covers children aged 7-17 years resident in a household. The survey excluded all people in prison, patients in hospitals, people residing in boarding houses and hotels, and boarding schools. Any single person households were screened out in all areas before the sample was drawn. Families living in hostels were treated as households.

Kind of data

Sample survey data

Sampling procedure

The Survey of Activities of Young People (SAYP) comprised two stages. The first stage involved identifying households with children aged 7–17 years during the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) data collection that took place in the third quarter of 2010 (Q3:2010). The second stage involved a follow-up interview with children in those households to establish what kind of activities they were involved in and several other aspects related to the activities they engaged in.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The SAYP collected data in two phases using one questionnaire.

The first phase questionnaire covered the following topics: Living conditions of the household, including the type of dwelling, fuels used for cooking, lighting and heating,water source for domestic use, land ownership,tenure and cultivation; demographic information on members of the household, both adults and children. Questions covered the age, gender and population group of each household member, their marital status, their relationships to each other, and their levels of education; migration details; household income; school attendance of children aged 5 -17 years; information on economic and non-economic activities of children aged 5-17 years in the 12 months prior to the survey

The second phase questionnaire was administered to the sampled sub-set of households in which at least one child was involved in some form of work in the year prior to the interview. It covered activities of children in much more detail than in phase one, and the work situation of related adults in the household. Both adults and children were asked to respond.