Children’s radio show interviews CLS researcher about childhood aspirations study

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Well, CLS researcher, Dr Sam Parsons was asked to think back to her childhood aspirations when she appeared on a children’s social science radio programme this weekend (2 November).

As part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, this week’s Fun Kids Live Science Weekly podcast focussed on social science, inviting Dr Parsons on the show to speak about our longitudinal studies, and her own research looking at young people’s hopes and dreams.

Dr Parsons explained that when she was a child she wanted to be a football commentator, like the BBC’s Barry Davies. She then discussed findings from her own research with the Millennium Cohort Study , which show that boys and girls of this generation tend to aspire to jobs that are traditionally dominated by their own gender, and that teenage girls set their sights on lower paying jobs than boys.

The Fun Kids Live Science Weekly podcast reaches over 30,000 children and parents each month. Listen to the social science special by playing the show in the media player above, or by accessing the podcast on the Fun Kids Live website.

The ESRC Festival of Social Science 2019 runs from 2-9 November 2019, with over 450 events being held across the UK. Find out more about events taking place near by accessing the ESRC website.