The prolonged economic gloom has led to Irish children’s vocabulary featuring recession-related terminology and 90pc of children in the country now use economic terms in everyday speak.
Due to the extensive media coverage and general economic discussions at home, almost three in 10 (27pc) of parents say the word “recession” has entered their child’s vocabulary. “Unemployment” is the second most popular word, being used by every fifth child in Ireland (20pc) with respect to the country’s economy.
Other words commonly pronounced by Irish children include “credit crunch” (16pc), “redundancy” (15pc), “NAMA” (15pc), “mortgage” (13pc) and “interest rates” (10pc). The words less commonly used by Irish children would include “negative equity” (7pc), “overdrawn” (6pc), “recessionista” (1pc), “staycation” (1pc).
It appears that the bigger the families the greater impact the recession has on children’s use of economic-related words. Some 81pc of parents with two children and 94pc of parents with three or more children state this is the case.
Some 80pc of single-child families stated that their child didn’t pick up or use any of the recession-related vocabulary.
Mood among Irish consumers
This is at a time when related findings from an ongoing monthly tracker survey by iReach of economic sentiment has shown that the overall mood among Irish consumers dipped in March and has returned to pre-budget levels of last year.
At the start of 2010, iReach saw improvements in positive sentiment on the outlook for the Irish economy.
March has seen significant economic announcements, such as the costs of NAMA to Irish taxpayers and the concerns about significant funding to save Anglo Irish Bank which have had a dramatic effect on the economic sentiment of the Irish customer.
March has witnessed a significant ‘hit’ on positive sentiment amongst the Irish public towards the economy when compared to the overall sentiment we saw in February 2010:
· 46pc of Irish adults (up from 30pc a month ago) think the economy is getting worse – this represents a 53pc month-on-month increase in negative sentiment
· 30pc of Irish consumers (down from 41pc in February) felt the economic situation is bad but has stabilised
· 22pc of respondents (down from 26pc in February) agreed that while the economic situation is bad, it is showing clear signs of recovery.
By John Kennedy
Photo: Some 80pc of parents of only one child have said their child didn’t pick up or use recession-related vocabulary
