Socio-economic situation of families with children in the voivodeship of Kielce

Our analysts were involved at the end of 2014 in diagnosing the socio-economic situation of families with children in the voivodeship of Kielce. The study was conducted within the local authorities program „Support for Regional Centres of Social Policy in terms of establishing an Observatory of Social Integration” [„Wsparcie Regionalnych Ośrodków Polityki Społecznej w zakresie utworzenia Obserwatorium Integracji Społecznej”].

602 respondents participated in the study called „Socio-economic situation of families with children in the voivodeship of Kielce”. Those were adults, taking care of their children. Over a half of the respondents declared to have one child below 18 years of age. A slightly smaller group of respondents were those who had two children. The smallest participation was seen among parents of three, four, five and more children.

The families were asked i.a. about their economical situation, source of income, living conditions, social relations (neighbourhood, activities for local environment, participation in non-governmental organisations), health situation and preferred forms of recreation.

The analysis showed that the economical situation of families from the voivodeship of Kielce is rather positive. Slightly over 40% of respondents is rather satisfied with the economical family situation. Another 30% responded ambiguously saying „I'm neither satisfied nor dissatisfied”. The number of people with high level of dissatisfaction was very small. Families with one children tended to show more satisfaction with the economical situation. The disappointing economical situation was represented mostly by one-parent families. Almost all of the families examined keep in good touch with their neighbours. These relations, however, come down to conversations during accidental meetings. The respondents rather don't involve in local community issues.

The most noticeable problem among children living in the examined area was verbal aggressiveness (71,5%). In circa half of the cases (49,8%) the respondents' families do not bear costs of treatment or rehabilitation. For 21,5% of respondents the medical and rehabilitation costs do not exceed 50 PLN per month and 100 PLN for 14,2% of them.

Hence, the local authority policy should focus in the upcoming years on the living conditions of the families, especially those that are in difficult life situation or one-parent families, health care issues as well as social activism in the area of solving local community problems.

Any updates concerning the project can be found at the Marshal's Office of the voivodeship of Kielce website